Gianluigi Donnarumma home invasion allegations came before a French court as the Manchester City goalkeeper described how he and his pregnant partner were attacked, restrained and threatened with a knife during a violent burglary at their Paris residence in 2023.
Donnarumma, now 27, gave investigators a formal witness statement about the attack at the couple’s former apartment on Avenue Montaigne. More than £430,000 worth of property was reportedly stolen, including luxury watches, cash, handbags and vehicles.
According to the case presented to the court, the attackers entered the property while the couple were asleep. They allegedly used a ladder to reach the roof before dropping onto a balcony and breaking through the apartment’s glass windows.
Donnarumma said he woke to find one of the intruders standing over him. He was punched in the face and threatened with a knife as the attackers demanded his luxury watches. The goalkeeper eventually gave them the combination to a safe, but it contained no valuables.
His partner, Alessia Elefante, was pregnant when the attack took place. Her testimony described a similarly violent encounter. She told investigators that the intruders dragged her by her hair and hit her while demanding money and the codes needed to access the safe.
“They got angry thinking that I was lying. They pulled me by the hair and one of them hit me on the thighs. I said I was pregnant but they continued,” Elefante said in her testimony.
The intruders eventually left with a collection of high-value belongings, including watches, handbags and cash, as well as keys to a Mercedes and a Lamborghini.
The prosecution alleges that Ilyas Kherbouch and Khyan Mamouni helped organise the robbery while serving time in prison. Both men deny taking part in the operation.
The case has already resulted in convictions for two suspects who were minors at the time of the offence. They received three- and four-year sentences in youth court. Another defendant, Moktar Diop, admitted participating in the robbery but denied using physical violence.
The court proceedings in Paris are continuing as prosecutors seek to establish the roles played by the various defendants in an attack that left one of football’s best-known goalkeepers and his partner facing a violent intrusion inside their own home.
Donnarumma later left Paris Saint-Germain for Manchester City in a transfer reported at £26 million, but the details of the 2023 attack remain at the centre of the ongoing criminal proceedings in France.
