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By Emmanuel Adeleke
Barcelona striker, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and his wife, Alysha Behague, were both struck in the face during a violent robbery carried out by armed thieves in the early hours of Monday.
Police said that at least four masked men, armed with firearms and iron bars, climbed into Aubameyang’s garden at his home in Castelldefels around 1am on Monday.
Aubameyang and his wife were beaten and held for an hour until the thieves were able to open a safe, from where they took several jewels before fleeing in a white Audi.
A spokesman for the Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalan police, said: “This was clearly a professional job carried out by a very well-organised gang. They tied up and beat Aubameyang and his wife in front of their children. They spoke with Italian accents.”
It is the second time Aubameyang has been the victim of a robbery at his home since he arrived at Barcelona, but during the first one he was not at home.
The attack on Aubameyang took place a few days after his Barcelona team-mate, Robert Lewandowski, had a £59,000 wrist watch stolen while signing autographs before a training session.
Police, however, recovered the wrist watch.
Several high profile footballers in Spain have recently been robbed, but most of the robberies occur while the stars are not at home.