PSG star Layvin Kurzawa new victim of blackmail
After the infamous sextape allegations involving Mathieu Valbuena and Karim Benzema, it's now Paris Saint Germain defender Layvin Kurzawa who appears to have become ensnared in a blackmail plot.
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PSG defender Layvin Kurzawa was caught on a mobile phone criticizing his national coach Didier Deschamps this summer.
The video, filmed during a night out with his friends at a shisha bar, fell into the hands of blackmailers, judicial sources revealed on Monday.
The ex-Monaco defender was then contacted and told to pay €100,000 to stop the recording becoming public.
Instead of paying the money upfront, Kurzawa contacted the police who set up a meeting to nab the blackmailers.
But prior to the rendez-vous, Europe 1 radio station reports that police tapped the phone of the blackmailers and discovered they were in fact planning to rob Kurzawa and steal the money as he left his house.
Police arrested three suspects and have since detained two more people.
This latest blackmail plot, which comes after the infamous sextape allegations involving Mathieu Valbuena and Karim Benzema could compromise Kurzawa's chances of featuring for France in their World Cup qualifiers away to Bulgaria and at home to Belarus next month.
Kurzawa had emerged as first-choice for coach Didier Deschamps as left back for both PSG and the national side.
The worry is that could now change.
Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema, for instance, hasn't been seen in a blue shirt since he was accused of blackmailing fellow player Mathieu Valbuena. Neither of them have played for France since October 2015.
And Kurzawa's former PSG team-mate Serge Aurier, now with Tottenham Hotspur, was also censured by his club in February last year after footage emerged of him criticising his then-coach Laurent Blanc on the social media app Periscope. So Kurzawa may have reason to be concerned.
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