Man City keeper Donnarumma and pregnant girlfriend bound and beaten in 2023 home invasion

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FT Desk

Manchester City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and his pregnant girlfriend were bound and beaten as criminals robbed their Paris home in a 2023 home invasion, a court was told this week.

The Italian and now-wife Alessia Elefante were asleep in their flat in the affluent neighbourhood of Avenue Montaigne when the incident took place three years ago.

Donnarumma was playing for Paris Saint-Germain at the time and will not provide evidence at the court hearing due to his commitments with Man City, but he previously outlined what happened in a statement. He was woken up by a man telling him to be quiet, who then hit him in the face with a knuckle duster and then demanded to know where he kept his expensive watch collection.

He was being threatened with a knife throughout.

“I showed him the one on the dressing table, an Audemars Piguet,” the 27-year-old said, referring to a watch.

According to court documents, Elefante told investigators that the robbers woke her as well before assaulting her and demanding money and watches. She handed over €2,000 in cash, a Cartier watch and jewellery. The robbers also demanded the code to a safe, but Elefante said she did not know it and told them there was nothing inside.

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“They got angry thinking that I was lying,” she told investigators. “They pulled me by the hair and one of them hit me on the thighs. I said I was pregnant, but they continued.”

The court heard the four-man gang got away with cash, watches, luxury handbags and the keys to a Mercedes and a Lamborghini. They managed to get into the property by using a ladder to climb onto the roof in order to lower themselves onto a balcony, where they broke windows for access.

The Times reports that the man suspected to be behind the attack is Ilyas Kherbouch, a current inmate at Villepinte prison outside Paris. He is accused of planning the attack behind bars and is currently serving a seven-year sentence for a similar attack on Michelin-starred chef Simone Zanoni.

Kherbouch, who is known as Ganito, managed to escape from jail in March with the help of accomplices dressed as police officers. He was later recaptured after nearly two weeks on the run.

Two of the other defendants are Khyan Mamouni and Moktar Diop. The fourth member of the break-in gang committed suicide in Fresnes prison in 2024, having admitted guilt in the attack.

Two similar attacks happened to PSG players Marquinhos and Alexandre Letellier in 2021 and 2023.