Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has opened up about the traumatic robbery that resulted in him suffering a broken jaw. The ex-Arsenal forward, now 35, was targeted by thieves during the August 2022 transfer period, amidst rumours of a move to Chelsea.

has revealed the harrowing incident continues to haunt both him and his family. In an interview with , Aubameyang explained how he, wife Alysha and their young children, Curtys and Pierre, reacted once intruders broke into their Spanish home.

“My eldest son came running and said to me, ‘Dad, some guys are in the house’,” says Aubameyang. “I said, ‘Just hide’.

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“They came in from outside, where my wife was smoking with my cousin and her boyfriend. They took him (the cousin’s boyfriend) and came into the house. My wife was screaming. They had a gun.”`

In an act of defence, Aubameyang armed himself with a "big bottle" ready to challenge the intruders. “At the same time, my sister-in-law was there with our little one,” he continues. “I said to her, too, ‘Just go. Try to hide somewhere’. This is when I saw the guys. There were four or five, I think.

“One had the gun and said to me, ‘Just go down’. I said, ‘No, no, no. Tell me what you want’. We talked and he said, ‘Sit down’. I said, ‘No’. This is when he started to punch me.”

Aubameyang's jaw was broken by the man, who punched the striker multiple times while wearing gloves containing metal, reports . “I wanted to fight but one guy went down and took my kids and sister-in-law,” he says. “At that point, I couldn’t do anything. If you do something wrong, something can happen to them. We went through the house and I gave them what they wanted, so we could be OK.”

The family remain traumatised by the event, with Aubameyang revealing the impact on his youngest child who struggled to sleep for a year following the incident, and his own mental health struggles. "I was always thinking about this," he admitted.

"I did so many nights like this: not sleeping at all, just thinking about that s***. You have some nightmares. I'm a guy who, if I'm not sleeping well, I'm not going to give [a football team] what you expect from me, I'm not going to be at my best... Every time the kids are alone, they are scared.

“I still have that house, but haven’t gone back since. I think I’ll start to rent it because my kids don’t want to go to Barcelona. Their school organised a trip there — they said, ‘No chance I go’.

“I made a mistake not talking to anyone. If I had someone to talk to, a therapist or psychologist, maybe it could have helped. But I didn’t want to do anything. To tell you the truth, I was lost.”

A few days after the attack, Aubameyang sealed a move to Chelsea. The striker remained in west London for only one year, however, and scored three goals in 21 appearances for the Blues before moving to Marseille.