Samir Nasri once dictated games from midfield. Now his movements are being tracked in a very different arena — by French tax authorities counting Deliveroo orders and days spent on home soil.
The former Marseille, Arsenal and Manchester City playmaker is at the center of a sprawling tax dispute in France, where officials say he may owe more than 5.5 million euros in back wealth and income taxes for the years 2018 to 2025, according to court documents.
Nasri, 38, has seen some of his assets temporarily seized after a Paris court in March approved measures targeting several bank accounts and placing a provisional mortgage on one of his Paris properties. The move is designed to secure funds in case the alleged arrears are ultimately confirmed.
His camp is furious.
“Imaginary” tax bill and a fight over residency
Nasri’s lawyer, Jean-Noël Sanchez, has launched an appeal against the seizure order and insists the case is far from settled. He argues it could take years before courts rule definitively on whether the former France international owes anything like the sum being floated.
The 5.5 million-euro figure? Sanchez dismisses it as “imaginary.”
From his perspective, the entire case hinges on what he sees as an aggressive push by French authorities against high-profile figures who have moved to the United Arab Emirates.
“France has decided for Mr. Nasri — and others, for that matter — to attack all those who live in the United Arab Emirates,” Sanchez said in a phone interview. He describes his client as “a perfect French citizen” who declares his income and pays tax on money earned in France.
For Nasri, the key line of defense is simple: he lives in Dubai, not Paris.
Sanchez says the retired midfielder is based in the UAE with his partner and their son, who goes to school there. “He doesn’t live in France,” the lawyer insists, adding that the principle of presumption of innocence is being “attacked” in the way the case has been handled so far.
Deliveroo, flight bookings and a trail of days in France
French authorities see it differently. To them, Nasri’s lifestyle tells another story.
In the March ruling authorizing temporary seizures, the Paris court cited Deliveroo orders and airline reservations as part of the evidence suggesting Nasri should be treated as fiscally resident in France rather than the UAE.
The documents claim Nasri spent 487 days in France between 2021 and 2023, compared with 226 days in the Emirates over the same period. On top of that, he is alleged to have used Deliveroo 212 times in 2022 to send meals to one of his Paris addresses.
To tax inspectors, those figures paint a picture: a man whose real life, and therefore his tax home, remains in France.
Sanchez is not having it.
He questions both the interpretation and the weight of such details, arguing that the authorities have not even established that Nasri personally placed the food orders.
“Did his mother place orders, his sister, his brother, his friends?” he asked, dismissing the idea that takeaway deliveries could prove fiscal residency. “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.”
A long legal game ahead
For now, Nasri’s case sits at the intersection of football fame, modern tax residency battles and the growing scrutiny on athletes relocating to low-tax jurisdictions such as the UAE.
The legal fight has only just kicked off. Assets are frozen, positions are entrenched, and both sides know this will not be settled quickly.
On the pitch, Nasri built a career on vision and timing. In the courts, the clock will run slower — and the final verdict on where he truly “lives,” at least in the eyes of the French taxman, could shape how other stars approach their own moves abroad.
