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A carjacker has admitted that he tried to rob Sead Kolasinac and Mesut Ozil of their watches by chasing them down with a moped- a small type of motorcycle.
Jordan Northover, 26, has pleaded guilty at Harrow Crown Court and Ashley Smith, 30, also admitted his role in attempting to rob the Premier League stars.
The footballers alongside Ozil’s wife were chased for a mile by knife-wielding motorbike riders in an attempted daylight car-jacking in north London in July.
Ozil, a £350,000-a-week midfielder, was ambushed by the robbers as he drove his black Mercedes G-Class through leafy Childs Hill at around 5 pm on Thursday, he reportedly took refuge in a Turkish restaurant. They surrounded his vehicle but Ozil’s Arsenal teammate and childhood friend, Sead ‘The Tank’ Kolasinac, came out of the vehicle and challenged them.
An eye witness had confirmed seeing the robbers chase the players. He said; “They had roof tiles in their hands and were all blacked up, ninja-style. I think the intention was to smash the tiles through the wagon window.
“They were proper masked up, nasty types with no plates on the mopeds.”
CCTV footage captured from the scene shows Kolasinac throwing punches at the attackers and standing his ground against them despite being threatened with a knife. The attackers’ motorbike pulls away as the footage cuts.
That didn’t mark the end of the drama as the footballers were chased by the robbers in a ninja-style with a moped before Ozil and Kolasinac took refuge in a restaurant leaving their car in the middle of the road.
Ozil describing what happened to The Athletic, he and his wife had gone to Kolasinac’s house in north London when two men approached menacingly.
Related: Under-Fire Ozil Issues Arsenal Vow
He said: ‘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.’
He admitted being scared for his wife’s safety and that of his teammate and applauded his friend’s bravery at confronting the attackers.
The suspects were arrested a couple of hours after the incident.
