PARIS – Retired French professional footballer Samir Nasri, who previously played for Premier League side Manchester City and the French men’s national team, is at the center of a high-stakes French tax dispute, where his legal team is pushing back against claims he owes millions in unpaid back taxes – with the delivery platform Deliveroo’s meal orders at the heart of the disagreement.
French tax authorities argue that the 38-year-old former midfielder qualifies as a tax resident of France, not the United Arab Emirates where he says he has established his permanent home with his family. According to court documents, officials estimate Nasri could owe more than €5.5 million (equal to roughly $6.3 million) in unpaid income and wealth taxes covering the period from 2018 through 2025.
Earlier this year in March, a Paris court granted authorities permission to temporarily seize a portion of Nasri’s assets as a guarantee for any potential future tax repayment. The court’s ruling supporting this action cited Deliveroo food delivery orders sent to one of Nasri’s Paris addresses and airline travel records as key evidence to back up the tax residency claim. Court documents further allege that between 2021 and 2023, Nasri spent 487 days total in France, compared to just 226 days in the UAE, and that he placed 212 separate Deliveroo orders to his Paris address in 2022 alone.
Nasri’s lead legal counsel, Jean-Noël Sanchez, is aggressively appealing the asset seizure ruling and has publicly rejected the tax authority’s entire case. In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Sanchez stressed that the alleged €5.5 million debt is entirely “imaginary,” and warned that the core question of whether Nasri actually owes any back taxes could take years to resolve through the French legal system.
Sanchez emphasized that Nasri is a law-abiding French citizen who already properly files tax returns and pays all required taxes on revenue he earns from activity within France. He further explained that Nasri currently resides full-time in Dubai with his partner and their son, who is enrolled in school in the UAE, meaning he does not maintain primary residency in France. The lawyer also pushed back specifically against the use of Deliveroo data to prove residency, noting that authorities have not confirmed that Nasri personally placed any of the 212 orders in question.
“Did his mother place orders, his sister, his brother, his friends?” Sanchez asked. “The administration might today believe that it’s on solid ground in saying that he lives in France but it will have to prove that. And that is not going to be proven by the 212 Deliveroos.”
Sanchez also argued that Nasri is being unfairly targeted as part of a broader crackdown on French citizens who have relocated to the UAE, adding that he is particularly frustrated by the case because the fundamental legal principle of presumption of innocence is being violated in his client’s treatment.
Nasri, a retired attacking midfielder, had a decorated club career that also included stints with Marseille, Arsenal, and several other European clubs, and earned 41 caps for the French men’s national team during his playing days.