Chelsea midfielder Tiémoué Bakayoko, who played for AC Milan on loan last season, was stopped at a checkpoint by Milan police and subjected to an aggressive physical search. The officer searching Bakayoko was told by his colleague that the man he is searching is actually an AC Milan footballer, after which he let him go. Bakayoko spent the 2021-22 season on loan at AC Milan from Chelsea, he also spent the 2018-19 season on loan in the fashion capital of Italy.
According to the website, calciomercato.com, the incident took place in the Porta Garibaldi area of Milan on July 3, however, the incident went viral on Monday, July 18, after a video of the incident was shared on Reddit.
Bakayoko was stopped at a checkpoint set up in the wake of a shooting in the area, and the video shows a policeman searching him aggressively. Bakayoko on his part remained calm during the search and appeared to be cooperating fully.
Shocking footage of Milan’s Bakayoko in Milan’s downtown held at gunpoint by police cause taken for someone else.
— Tancredi Palmeri (@tancredipalmeri) July 18, 2022
Check when one of cop goes telling to the colleague searching him that it’s not the suspect but a Milan player, and the cop saying “WHO?!?”
pic.twitter.com/B0PTYiXnc5
After a while, one of the colleagues of the policeman searching Bakayoko walks up to him and tells him that the person he is searching is not the suspect from the shooting, but footballer Tiémoué Bakayoko who plays for Milan, the officer mouths “who”, before letting Bakayoko go in absolute embarrassment.
Meanwhile, Milan Police issued a statement after the video of the search went viral on social media stating that the search was vital under the circumstances.
“It should be noted that the search occurred in an operational context that justified the adoption of the highest security measures,” the statement read. “Also as a function of self-protection, and was carried out in a manner absolutely consistent with the type of alarm in progress”, the statement went on to add.
However, the police statement didn’t clarify why Bakayoko was let go the moment the police officer realised he is frisking a Milan footballer.
Tiémoué Bakayoko, who is still a Chelsea player, is set to move to his native France this summer as Marseille is set to complete his signing. If this is his last experience in Milan, he is unlikely to remember Milan very fondly.
