Moped mugger admits knife-point robbery on Arsenal stars Sead Kolasinac and Mesut Ozil – that led to mile-long chase through London before players fought them off
- Arsenal’s £350,000-a-week star Mesut Ozil star was targeted in north London
- Scooter-riding thugs armed with knives tried to box in his G-Wagon in July
- Gunners defender Sead Kolasinac leapt from the car to take on the attackers
- Ozil and Kolasinac then fled as two motorbikes chased them for over a mile
- They abandoned the car and found safety in a restaurant on Golders Green Road
A knife-wielding ‘ninja’ carjacker has today admitted trying to steal watches from Arsenal stars Sead Kolasinac and Mesut Ozil by chasing them for a mile on his moped with a robber friend.
Jordan Northover, 26, has pleaded guilty at Harrow Crown Court to attempting to rob the Premier League stars with Kolasinac running down the pavement trying to fight them.
Ashley Smith, 30, has already admitted his role in the attempted raid to steal the expensive items from the Arsenal footballers in Platts Lane, in Hampstead, north-west London, on July 25. They will be sentenced at a later date.
The footballers were chased for a mile by knife-wielding motorbike riders in an attempted daylight car-jacking in north London in July.
CCTV of the incident showed Arsenal’s £350,000-a-week Germany midfielder Ozil driving in his black Mercedes G class jeep. His Serbian teammate, nicknamed ‘The Tank’, jumped tried to punch the robbers, who wore helmets and wielded weapons.
The best friends then drove for a mile while being chased before taking refuge in a Turkish restaurant after abandoning Ozil’s £165,000 4×4 in the middle of the road.
Sead Kolasinac can be seen taking on one of the attackers who wears a helmet and was armed with a knife as he tried to rob him and Mesut Ozil
Mesut Ozil (dyed blonde hair) was pictured talking to officers outside Turkish restaurant Likya on Golders Green Road in north London after the attack this summer
Mesut Ozil (far right), his wife Amine Gulse (far left) with Sead Kolasinac and his bride Bella Kolasinac on their wedding day in June in Baden, Germany
Extraordinary footage of the attempted robbery revealed how Kolasinac was swinging punches at the attackers and fending them away from the car despite being threatened with a knife.
His fearless defence of his teammate is unsurprising because the pair have been friends since their teenage years, when Kolasinac looked up to the five-years-older Ozil when they were both at German side Schalke 04.
They became exceptionally close and last month they were pictured together at Kolasinac’s marriage to Bella, alongside Ozil’s wife Amine Gulse in Baden, Germany.
Indeed, both Bella and Amine wore wedding dresses by the same designer at their recent ceremonies.
The Ozils’ wedding in Instanbul took place in the same week and Turkey’s President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan was Ozil’s best man.
After the attack, Ozil’s rare luxury car, with distinctive gold trim, was left in the middle of the Golders Green Road with the driver’s door open as detectives investigated.
After police arrived they blocked off the road as other units looked for the motorcycle raiders.
The brazen attack took place near to the busy Golders Green Road and tube station in north London.
Ozil and Kolasinac had only returned to London the day before after a successful pre-season tour in America when they were robbed.
Fellow Gunners star Sead Kolasinac was seen warding off the attackers with his bare hands after leaping from the luxurious Mercedes
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks as best man to Ozil at his wedding to Amine Gulse by the Bosphorus in Istanbul last month
Last month Mr Ozil, who was not in court today, described what happened.
He said he and his wife had driven to Kolasinac’s house in north London when two men approached menacingly.
He told The Athletic: ‘We noticed that they had a weapon and something was going wrong. They obviously saw the big car and because Sead had just handed me something, they must have noticed he was wearing an expensive watch.’
‘They told him directly, “Give us your watch!”. Sead’s reaction was really, really brave because he attacked one of the attackers. The second one was in front of my car on his moped so I couldn’t drive.’
Ozil admitted he was scared for his wife’s safety and that of his team mate.
He said his car was blocked by a moped so he tried to edge it out of the way by driving forward and backwards. He then shouted at Kolasinac to jump into the car.
The World Cup winner said the attackers gave chase and he was forced to try and block them with his car.
Eventually they sought refuge in a Turkish restaurant and awaited the arrival of the police.
However, the incident had scared his wife who was fearful for their safety.
The police arrested the suspected attackers within a couple of hours of the incident. Northover and Smith will be sentenced at a later date.
HOW ROBBERS HAVE TARGETED VIPs IN LAWLESS LONDON
Ozil and Kolasinac are the latest high profile figures to be targeted by armed bikers in London.
In 2016, then West Ham forward Andy Carroll was chased by two motorcyclists, one pointing a gun at him, as he drove his Jeep Wrangler to the training ground.
They were after Carroll’s £22,000 watch but the terrified striker was able to make it to the West Ham car park as he spoke to police on the phone.
Last month Strictly star Pasha Kovalev was robbed by moped thieves while standing outside a theatre. The robbers reportedly rode on to the pavement and snatched his phone.
Pasha, 39, was unhurt but upset he lost the mobile, which had pics of his pregnant girlfriend, Countdown host Rachel Riley, 33.
Comedian Michael McIntyre was robbed by two hammer-wielding men on a moped outside his children’s school in Golders Green last year.
The men smashed his car windows with a hammer and snatched his watch before fleeing.
Former Chancellor George Osborne was targeted by a moped gang that robbed 103 phones in an 18-day reign of terror.
Politician-turned Evening Standard editor Mr Osborne said the raiders made a grab at his mobile as he left BBC headquarters in Portland Place, in May 2017.
Armed with a hammer and tyre-iron, the trio singled out pedestrians texting or making calls before mounting the pavement and snatching the handsets in central London.
A photographer managed to get detailed pictures of them during one of their raids outside the BBC headquarters.
Made in Chelsea’s Spencer Matthews was forced to hide in the vault of a London jewellery store during a smash-and-grab gang raid in May.
The thieves on mopeds smashed their way into The Hour House just minutes after the reality star went into buy a watch.
The only watch not taken in the raid was the one he had gone in to buy, he revealed on Instagram.
Simon Jordan, who used to own Crystal Palace saw his £127,000 watch taken at gunpoint as he sat in his Masarati in March 2016.
Formula One tycoon Bernie Ecclestone, now 88, was seriously injured after he was mugged of jewellery worth £200,000 in November 2010.
He needed hospital treatment after he was punched and kicked to the ground by the robbers, who had waited outside his Knightsbridge home in west London.
Moped muggers tried to steal the watch off the wrist of TV comedian Keith Lemon. The Celebrity Juice host, real name Leigh Francis, at first didn’t realise he was the victim of an attempted mugging.
The thieves made off without the watch, which was just a gold Casio costing around £40.
I’m A Celebrity winner Christopher Biggins had his phone snatched by a hooded cyclist as he waited for a taxi after leaving a posh restaurant in Covent Garden in April.
Susanna Reid revealed last year how she was mugged on the streets of London but chased after her attacker in a ‘dangerous’ bid to reclaim her possessions. She told her GMB co-host Piers Morgan the incident was ‘a long time ago’.
Model Carly Zucker, who is married to ex-England footballer Joe Cole, was carjacked by eight thugs on motorbikes outside their home in the Chelsea area of London in 2010. She was hauled from her Audi A4 before the thugs sped off in the vehicle.
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