(Paris) Tied up by several men and at gunpoint, PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and his partner were robbed at their Parisian home overnight from Thursday to Friday, an attack that raises the question of the safety of the club’s players.
It is around 3 a.m. when a team of four people, according to the first elements of the investigation reported by police sources, enters the apartment of the Italian international, on Avenue Montaigne, an upscale district of the 8th arrondissement of the capital.
At gunpoint, they kidnap the couple, assault them, steal “luxury watches, jewelry and leather goods” and flee.
The damage is estimated at this stage at 500,000 euros ($735,000), according to the police source. “He is being evaluated,” said a source familiar with the matter.
The police source mentions “a bladed weapon”, but the source familiar with the matter stresses that “this remains to be determined”.
Gianluigi Donnarumma, 24, was “slightly injured”, the source familiar with the matter continued, without giving details. His companion was not physically injured, the same source added.
In shock, both were taken to hospital.
According to the Actu17 site, which revealed the information, the alert was given by the staff of a nearby hotel where the couple took refuge after breaking their bonds.
An investigation for theft in an organized gang with a weapon, sequestration in an organized gang and aggravated violence has been entrusted to the brigade for the repression of banditry, indicated the Paris prosecutor’s office, requested by AFP.
Gianluigi Donnarumma is supposed to leave on Saturday for Japan, where the Parisian club are doing their pre-season tour. He was also due to take part in a friendly preparation match against Le Havre on Friday.
Asked by AFP, the player’s “media” agent declined to comment.
This new burglary adds to the long list of those suffered by players or ex-players of PSG at their homes in recent years, generally targeted when they were at the stadium, and raises the question of the responsibility for their security by the Parisian club.
Cameroonian striker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, who has since moved to Bayern Munich, was robbed twice in 2018, former Brazilian captain Thiago Silva also in 2018 and his compatriot Dani Alves in 2019.
2021 was a black year in this area, with four burglaries: that of the current captain Marquinhos, in the presence of his father, victim of violence, and his two sisters, those of the Argentinians Angel Di Maria and Mauro Icardi and the Spanish goalkeeper Sergio Rico.
At the time, PSG had decided to temporarily reinforce the security of the homes of its players, with agents posted in front of each residence 24 hours a day.
“The club has a moral responsibility, of support, towards the player, his environment, so that he can express himself as well as possible on the ground”, explained at the time to AFP Jean-Philippe d’Hallivillée, director of security of PSG between 2005 and 2017.
More recently, in November 2022, the home of French international defender Presnel Kimpembe, in Noisy-le-Roi, was targeted.
Two 21-year-old men were sentenced in March to ten and eight months in prison for the burglary.
Justice also passed in January for the burglary of the family of the Brazilian captain of PSG Marquinhos: two men were sentenced to seven years in prison and five years in prison, three of which were accompanied by probation by the Criminal Court of Versailles.
And in February, two men were sentenced to three and four years in prison by the Nanterre Criminal Court for the burglary of the home of Angel Di Maria.
