Tiemoue Bakayoko was pulled over by police while driving in Italy
The incident was captured on camera. © Twitter @DrGianlucaFumo
Footage has emerged online which shows Tiemoue Bakayoko, the Chelsea footballer who spent last season on loan with AC Milan, being detained by Italian armed police in a case of mistaken identity.
The incident is understood to have taken place in the Porta Garibaldi region of Milan on July 3 after local police had set up a roadblock following reports of a gunfight between rival gangs in the area – with Bakayoko initially drawing the suspicions of the authorities.
Video footage shot by a person in a separate vehicle shows the 27-year-old midfielder being pushed against a police car by officers, with another police officer pointing a firearm at another unknown occupant of the car in which the Frenchman was traveling.
He is subsequently searched by officers before they apparently realized their error, with the video footage cutting off at the moment it seems that they explained their error to him.
Shocking footage of Milan’s Bakayoko in Milan’s downtown held at gunpoint by police cause taken for someone else.Check when one of cop goes telling to the colleague searching him that it’s not the suspect but a Milan player, and the cop saying “WHO?!?” pic.twitter.com/B0PTYiXnc5
— Tancredi Palmeri (@tancredipalmeri) July 18, 2022
The footage was noted by Italian football reporter Tancredi Palmeri, who said it shows the very moment that the police officer is told that the man they have detained isn’t a potential gang member, but rather a highly-paid player who spent last season in the colors of AC Milan.
“Check when one of cop goes telling to the colleague searching him that it’s not the suspect but a Milan player, and the cop saying ‘WHO?!?‘” he wrote on Twitter.
The Milanese police later addressed the issue in a statement shared to ANSA: “The check was triggered because Bakayoko and the other passenger corresponded perfectly, by chance, to the descriptions [of people wanted by the police], and of course it ended when it was realized that he [the police officer] had stopped a person who had nothing to do with it.”
AC Milan, meanwhile, also referenced the incident with a statement of their own.
“After a shootout in the area where the midfielder happened to be, the police started making checks,” the Serie A champions said.
“The player was stopped but as soon as the police verified that he had nothing to do with what happened, they apologized and let him go.”
The once-capped French international has been something of a disappointment since he inked a deal with Chelsea in 2017 after signing from Monaco in a big-money deal.
He made 43 appearances in his debut season under Antonio Conte but has since become a member of the club’s so-called ‘loan army’ and has spent the last four seasons away from Stamford Bridge playing for Milan, former club Monaco and Napoli, making a total of 217 first team appearances across those various loan spells.
Recent reports have indicated that Bakayoko may be on the verge of returning to France after being linked to a permanent four-year deal with Ligue 1 outfit Marseille.
Spanish club Valencia are also thought to be interested in his signature.
