Kidnapped, Beaten, Thrown from a Moving Car: Fabrice Fiorèse's Nightmare in 2012

Fabrice Fiorèse nearly died on September 28, 2012 outside his home in Savoie, kidnapped by three armed men wielding shotguns as he returned home after completing a cash real estate transaction. The former attacking midfielder, who played for Lyon (1996-1997), PSG (2002-2004) and Marseille (2004-2007), recounts this traumatic episode on the Riolo Club podcast.

“They beat me on the ground, I felt like an animal. They shot and ejected me from my car. They took me, they put me in the back,” recalls the Chambéry native, who had retired three years earlier. Thrown into the back of a vehicle traveling at 60 or 70 km/h, he quickly realizes he must act alone to survive.

“I told myself it was simple: either you manage to get out of the car, or you’ll never see your family again and you’re going to die. I had the clarity to smash the rear window with my boots and eject myself,” he remembers. He manages to jump out before the kidnappers reach the highway, then lands on the asphalt. Injured and ignored by motorists, he has to lie across the road in front of a van to be taken to the hospital, then to the police station.

Fiorèse escapes with “some physical damage,” including a severed finger — a relatively minor outcome given his attackers’ attempt to cut his carotid artery. The investigation later reveals that the mastermind behind the kidnapping is Ghislain Anselmini, his former teammate and friend at Lyon. “He was someone who was in trouble, who was lost,” he says of the man who betrayed him.

At trial in 2016, Anselmini is sentenced to five years in prison; two of the direct attackers each receive ten years. Now 56 years old, the former Lyon defender currently coaches SC Toulon in National 1.