How a French family feud and witch doctor plot could help the Socceroos in Qatar

Depending on how much you believe in the supernatural, Australia’s long World Cup exile was only ended in that famous penalty shootout win over Uruguay because satirist John Safran covered himself in chicken blood to overturn a curse on the team placed by a Mozambican witch doctor for unpaid services in 1969.

Now there’s another curse which could have big implications for the Socceroos at the World Cup - this time, very much in their favour.

A rift has opened up between Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappé which could have big implications for reigning world champions France in Qatar.Credit: Getty/Instagram

A rift appears to have opened up within the French national team between two of its biggest stars, Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappé, over allegations that the former paid a sorcerer to cast a spell on the latter to injure him - stunningly made by his own flesh and blood.

Pogba, who left Manchester United at the end of last season to return to Juventus, denies the claims and alleges they stem from a bizarre extortion plot which seems to have implicated his elder brother, Mathias, who has promised to expose the truth about the 29-year-old - who he says is a “so-called Muslim deep in witchcraft”, a “hypocrite” and a “traitor”.

France is in Group D with Australia, Denmark and Tunisia at the World Cup in Qatar later this year and, as reigning champions, are widely expected to top the group. But not only do World Cup winners historically struggle to back up four years later, Les Bleus also have an unfortunate history of self-implosion at major tournaments - and these strange hints of dressing-room disunity may yet grow into something much bigger over the coming weeks.

French newspaper L’Équipe is reporting that if concrete evidence of the witch doctor plot emerges, Mbappé will refuse to play with Pogba, and that manager Didier Deschamps may have to choose between the team’s biggest attacking threat and most important midfielder.

It all started over the weekend when Mathias, 32, who is also a professional footballer, posted videos on social media in four different languages in which he promised “great revelations” about Paul and his new agent, Rafaela Pimenta, who has been looking after his affairs since the passing of Mino Raiola, his former representative.

Mathias said, “the French, Italian and English public, my brother’s fans, and even more the French national team, the Juventus team, my brother’s teammates and his sponsors deserve to know certain things.”

“All this is likely to be explosive,” he claimed, without going into any further detail. The witch doctor claims were later made on a separate Twitter post, where Mathias told the Paris Saint-Germain superstar “my words are for your good, everything is true and proven.”

Pogba responded with a statement, signed by his lawyers, agent and mother, saying Mathias’ videos were “unfortunately no surprise” - because French authorities had already opened up an investigation into “attempted blackmail by an organised gang.”

Pogba has reportedly told investigators earlier this month that he had been threatened by “childhood friends and two hooded men armed with assault rifles” who were upset that he had not helped them financially, and are demanding to be paid $18.8 million (€13 million). On several occasions during his time in Manchester and Turin, where Juventus are based, Pogba says he had been leaned on by this gang of perpetrators, who Mathias is apparently involved with.

He is also said to have told police that his blackmailers wanted to discredit him by making claims that he had used a witch doctor to put a curse on Mbappé, which he denies.

The timing is awful for the French team, who open their World Cup campaign on November 22 against the Socceroos in Al Wakrah, Qatar. Where this saga goes from here is anyone’s guess - but for Australia’s sake, these alleged dark forces are at least on their side.