New Delhi, Jan 7 Pierre Emerick Aubameyang has opened up on the traumatic experience he and his family went through when a few men broke into his house in August 2022.
At the time, the Gabonese striker was playing for FC Barcelona and his house in the town of Castelldefels was broken into while his entire family was at home. The robbers held his kids at gunpoint and stole jewellery, watches and a car.
"My eldest son came running and said to me, ‘Dad, some guys are in the house. I said, 'Just hide'. They came in from outside, where my wife was smoking with my cousin and her boyfriend. They took him (the cousin’s boyfriend) and came into the house. My wife was screaming. They had a gun.
"At the same time, my sister-in-law was there with our little one I said to her, too, ‘Just go. Try to hide somewhere’. This is when I saw the guys. There were four or five, I think.
"One had the gun and said to me, ‘Just go down’. I said, ‘No, no, no. Tell me what you want’. We talked and he said, ‘Sit down’. I said, ‘No’. This is when he started to punch me," said Aubameyang to The Athletic.
Auba revealed the robber broke his jaw and the incident left him and his family scarred. It was shortly after that he left the club and went back to England to play for Chelsea, after having already captained Arsenal in the league before his move to Catalonia.
"I was always thinking about this. I did so many nights like this: not sleeping at all, just thinking about that. You have some nightmares. I’m a guy who, if I’m not sleeping well, I’m not going to give (a football team) what you expect from me, I’m not going to be at my best… Every time the kids are alone, they are scared," he added.
Aubameyang, now playing for Al-Qadsiah FC, had one of his most stellar stints at Arsenal. He was named the skipper of the side after having led the team to the 2020 FA Cup title and scored 92 goals for the Gunners.
However, his falling out with Mikel Arteta, saw his relationship with the club and fans end on a sour note. The striker was left out of the squad a number of times due to disciplinary measures, and the final straw was when he was supposed to be at training but was pictured in Barcelona as a tactic to try and push the Gunners to sell him, which was also shown in Arsenal’s All or Nothing documentary. Auba spoke on how his contract extension with Gunners in 2021 was a mistake.
"If I’m being honest, at that time I wanted to go. For me, it was time to find a new challenge. I did my time. It was very nice, but I needed to change. It had been four years, I did great and maybe it was time to leave it like this, proper and clean, so people remember me as a good Arsenal player. I felt I needed to go because if I stayed, something would go wrong.
"He (Arteta) convinced me. He said, ‘I think you can leave a legacy’. I think it was the first time I heard this word in English. He said, ‘If you stay, you can be an icon, like the big names at Arsenal’. I started to change my vision. He and the fans convinced me to stay. But at first, I wanted to leave. This is where it got chaotic, because when you go against your heart, maybe this is where I made my mistake,” said Aubameyang.
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