Deniz Gül's house in Vila Nova de Gaia was burgled Sunday morning, hours before FC Porto's season opener against Alverca. Nobody was home at the time; the Turkish forward, who lives alone, was already with the squad at their pre-match hotel. Suspects took watches and jewelry worth around €250,000, according to CNN Portugal, which first reported the break-in. Record reports investigators found no sign of forced entry, so police are still working out exactly when the burglary happened and how the suspects got in. The club told Correio da Manhã that Gül was "calm" and would continue with the team as normal. FC Porto went on to beat Alverca 2-0.
The second incident in three months
It's the second time in three months that an FC Porto player's home has been targeted. On the night of May 8, Jan Bednarek returned home with his wife and daughter to find an intruder waiting inside; the intruder threatened them with a knife before fleeing with jewelry and watches worth around €150,000. Nobody was hurt. Portuguese outlets differ on how many intruders were involved, reporting either three or five, so we're not specifying a number. According to O Jogo, police had identified suspects within days, and authorities told the outlet they don't believe Bednarek was deliberately targeted for being a well-known player, citing a similar burglary recently reported in the same neighborhood.
A wider pattern across Europe
Both incidents come amid a broader pattern documented elsewhere in Europe: organized burglary groups that scout athletes' homes through their social media activity, then break in once it's clear players are away, often during a live match. In 2024, Spanish police and Europol said they had dismantled a gang responsible for at least eight burglaries of wealthy homes around Madrid since 2022, including those of Real Madrid's Rodrygo and Rayo Vallecano's Radamel Falcao; police said the group studied footballers' social media posts to map out home layouts, valuables, and when residents would be away. In England, Jack Grealish's Manchester City home was burgled in December 2023 during a televised match against Everton, with jewelry and watches worth roughly £1 million taken, according to the BBC. This summer, Barcelona's Lamine Yamal had his home in Esplugues de Llobregat targeted in an attempted break-in, the second such attempt at the property, amid other burglary reports in the same residential complex the same night.