Dutch youngster Tahith Chong has become the latest high profile football to be targeted by violent thugs
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Manchester United’s Dutch youngster Tahith Chong reportedly had a knife held to his throat by armed thugs as he was the victim of a violent home invasion in the latest such incident to strike high profile footballers in England.
Chong, who is presently on loan at Championship outfit Birmingham City, is understood to have been at his home in Sale in Greater Manchester when a masked gang gained entry at around 3am, according to The Sun, and held a knife to his throat while demanding that he hand over a range of valuables.
The player, who was sleeping at the time of the robbery, handed over a number of items including watches and jewellery in the incident which occurred more than two months ago but came to light this weekend.
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It was also reported that the masked thugs mocked Chong for the lack of security in his home, with the attack said to have left the 22-year-old ‘extremely shaken’.
When police arrived on the scene reports indicate that they told the player he may have been targeted by thieves who had been monitoring his social media profiles for signs of wealth.
Worryingly, the robbery was the fifth such incident involving players from either Manchester United or Manchester City since December, with local police becoming increasingly concerned about what appears to be a highly-organized criminal campaign in the area.
It is understood that several high profile footballers who live in and around Manchester have beefed up their security over fears that they too might be targeted, particularly given that thieves can tell when players will or won’t be home due to the Premier League football fixture list.
Earlier in March, Manchester United’s World Cup winning midfielder Paul Pogba detailed that his home had been broken into while his children were asleep and he was on duty for his club in a Champions League fixture with Atletico Madrid.
“Last night our family’s worst nightmare was realized when our home was broken into and burglarized while our babies were sleeping in their bedroom,” he wrote on social media.
“The burglars were in our home for less than five minutes but in that time they took from us something more valuable than anything we had in our home… our sense of safety and security.
“This occurred during the final minutes of last night’s match when they knew that we would not be home. My wife and I rushed home not knowing if our children were safe and unharmed.”
Pogba’s teammate Victor Lindelof was also a victim of a home invasion just days after the incident involving Chong, while similar incidents have also struck at the homes of United’s Jesse Lingard and Manchester City’s Portuguese defender Joao Cancelo.
