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Paul Pogba, a star of the French national football (soccer) squad who currently plays for Italian side Juventus, allegedly paid off a group of blackmailers, including his own brother, 100,000 euros ($100,100) in April, and claimed masked men armed with rifles threatened him in a Paris apartment the month prior.

The blackmailers, believed to be childhood friends of Pogba, are said to have demanded as much as 13 million euros. The case became public after Mathias Pogba began posting tweets regarding his brother, including allegations that Paul had used witchcraft to cast spells on fellow player Kylian Mbappé, Mariannereports.

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Unlike in many Western nations where belief in witchcraft is confined to the distant past, France has been a massive resurgence in acceptance of magic as real — a trend which shows some indications of being linked to mass migration.

A survey conducted by the firm Ifop for the Jean Jaurès Foundation in 2020 revealed among French residents under the age of 35, around 40 per cent seriously believe in witchcraft, compared to 25 per cent of people over 35.

Another survey conducted earlier this year by the firm Ifop found that belief in witchcraft had increased in the general population from 28 per cent to 32 per cent, with 38 per cent of women believing in witchcraft compared to 27 per cent of men.

Witchcraft has featured in several criminal cases in Europe in recent years, particularly among Nigerian mafia gangs who have been accused of using voodoo and other forms of witchcraft against victims of sex trafficking, including forcing women to eat raw chicken hearts.

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