Yesterday, the Times of London reported that a Premier League footballer in his 20s was threatened at gunpoint by an unnamed football agent while the player was walking on the streets of north London. The incident took place in early September and due to legal issues in the UK, neither the player’s name nor the name of the perpetrator was stated in the article.
The British media is not allowed to reveal names of those involved in ongoing criminal investigations. However, those laws don’t apply to media outlets in other countries. According to Tuttomercatoweb in Italy, which did its own investigation into the incident, the player at the center of the incident is allegedly Tottenham Hotspur fullback and Italian international footballer Destiny Udogie.
We should be very clear here — these are allegations and we are reporting on the same as published by an Italian media source. Carty Free is also part of SB Nation and Vox Media, which is based in the United States. Details, obviously, are extremely limited as to what happened — only that the player, allegedly Udogie, was with a friend in North London when he was threatened by a man in his early 30s. TMW says that the perpetrator is “the head of a major football agency” who represents a number of players based in the UK, and afterwards “was questioned on charges of extortion and driving without a license, as well as for a crime related to the possession of firearms.”
TMW went on to suggest that the incident might have been precipitated by Udogie’s tenure at Udinese, his former club, and a past decision on with which agency he wanted to sign to represent his career interests. It was suggested that the perpetrator may have been one of the agents whom Udogie turned down.
A statement by the Metropolitan Police, referenced by the Times above, says that there were no injuries reported; the player in question’s companion, who was with him at the time, was also threatened with blackmail by the same individual during the incident. The perpetrator was arrested and later released on bail; the investigation is ongoing.
That is, literally, all that is being reported, and so that is all that we think we may (or may not!) know. There’s clearly a lot of speculation happening by TMW, and obviously we won’t be getting any confirmation one way or the other until the investigation is completed in the UK. A source in the Times says that the player, allegedly Udogie, was “shaken up” by what happened but has been receiving support from his club and teammates.
Scary stuff.