Manchester City’s João Cancelo made the incident public on Thursday evening via Instagram and posted a photo of himself with a laceration over his right eye. “Unfortunately, today I was attacked by four cowards who hurt me and tried to hurt my family too,” wrote the 27-year-old Portuguese.
He tried to defend himself – and was then mistreated by the perpetrators. The club reacted with horror and announced that it would assist the police in investigating “this very serious matter”.
According to the circumstances, his family is doing fine, Cancelo continued. But the perpetrators apparently made lucrative prey. “They took all of my jewelry with them,” said the defender of the championship leaders from Manchester.
Cancelo isn’t the first Premier League star targeted by criminals. In the summer of 2019, Mesut Özil and Sead Kolasinac were ambushed by two armed men in London. Kolisinac fended off the attack with his bare hands, the perpetrators were later caught and sentenced to prison terms.
Just this month, Arsenal FC’s Brazilian Gabriel was threatened with a baseball bat by two thieves in the garage of his home. However, he was able to put her to flight and kept the hat of a perpetrator who was convicted by means of a DNA test. Previously, Reece James from Chelsea FC and the two Tottenham pros Jan Vertonghen and Dele Alli had also been targeted by criminals.
Source: Nachrichten
