What a defender!
Unflinching Arsenal star fights off moped knifemen
THIS is the moment an Arsenal footballer fearlessly fought off knifewielding moped muggers who tried to steal his £200,000 watch.
Sead Kolasinac, 26, was ambushed by the pair of masked men after his teammate Mesut Ozil parked outside Kolasinac’s home in a £165,000 gold-trimmed Mercedes G-wagon.
In extraordinary CCTV footage released by police yesterday, Kolasinac fought back, swinging punches as Jordan Northover, 26, jabbed at him with a long blade, coming within an inch of slashing his face and neck.
The burly Bosnian defender, nicknamed The Tank, refused to hand over his watch and managed to chase off Northover and the moped driver, Ashley Smith, 30. As the robbers panicked, Ozil screamed to his teammate to ‘jump in’, sparking a mile-long high-speed chase as the moped muggers pursued the footballers through north London.
Ozil abandoned his vehicle in the middle of the road and ran inside a Turkish restaurant to call police. Yesterday Northover admitted trying to steal luxury watches from the Premier League footballers. Smith had already admitted his role in the botched raid, pleading guilty to attempted robbery and possession of cannabis at an earlier hearing. Harrow Crown Court heard that the pair had been cruising around Hampstead, north-west London, on July 25 looking for rich victims to rob when they came across Ozil’s vehicle. Susan Meek, defending, said the muggers now fear for their lives. Yesterday Smith appeared via video link with a towel wrapped around his head after almost losing an eye when he was beaten up in Pentonville prison. Both defendants will be sentenced at a later date.