Samir Nasri once dictated games from midfield. Now, French tax authorities say his Deliveroo history is doing the talking.
The former Manchester City, Arsenal and Marseille playmaker is accused of owing more than 5.5 million euros in back wealth and income taxes to France for the years 2018 to 2025, according to court documents. In March, a Paris court authorized the temporary seizure of some of his assets, including bank accounts and a provisional mortgage on one of his Paris properties, to secure any potential payment.
Nasri, 38, is fighting back.
His lawyer, Jean-Noël Sanchez, insists the case rests on flimsy assumptions and an inflated bill. He has appealed the seizure ruling and says the broader dispute over whether Nasri is actually fiscally resident in France — and whether he owes anything like 5.5 million euros — could drag on for years.
He calls that headline figure “imaginary.”
For French authorities, the crux of the matter is where Nasri really lives. On paper, the retired France international says he is based in the United Arab Emirates, in Dubai, with his partner and their son, who attends school there. On that basis, he argues, his tax obligations to France are limited to income earned within French borders — obligations his lawyer insists he respects.
“He is a perfect French citizen,” Sanchez said in a phone interview, stressing that Nasri files returns and pays what is due on his French revenues.
The tax administration sees a different picture when it tracks his movements and daily life.
Court documents say Nasri spent 487 days in France between 2021 and 2023, compared with 226 days in the UAE. On top of that, investigators highlight airline reservations and a trail of Deliveroo orders tied to one of his Paris addresses.
The detail is striking. According to the case file, there were 212 Deliveroo orders in 2022 alone sent to that Paris property. For the tax office, those orders help paint Nasri as a de facto French resident, regardless of his declared base in Dubai.
For his lawyer, it is a reach.
Sanchez argues that the authorities have not shown that Nasri himself placed those orders or even ate those meals. The address, he points out, does not prove the person.
“Did his mother place orders, his sister, his brother, his friends?” he asked, pushing back at the idea that food deliveries can anchor a multi-million-euro tax claim.
The tension runs deeper than one player’s file. Sanchez says Nasri has become a symbol of what he describes as a broader French push against high-profile individuals who have settled in the UAE.
“The problem is that France has decided for Mr. Nasri — and others, for that matter — to attack all those who live in the United Arab Emirates,” he said, casting the case as part of a wider campaign.
What angers him most, he says, is the presumption underlying the proceedings.
“He doesn’t live in France,” Sanchez insisted. “I am an angry lawyer because the principle of presumption of innocence is being attacked.”
For now, the March ruling stands: some of Nasri’s accounts are frozen, and one of his Paris properties is under a provisional mortgage. The state has moved first, securing its position while the legal battle plays out.
The administration, Sanchez concedes, may feel it is on solid ground. It has travel records, addresses, delivery logs. It has days counted, flights tracked, meals tallied.
But, he warns, that will not be enough when the case is tested in full.
“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.”
For a player once judged on his vision and timing, the decisive calls now belong to judges and tax inspectors. The next move is an appeal. The final verdict on where Samir Nasri truly “lives” — at least in the eyes of the French tax code — could reshape not only his finances, but the playbook for any star who chooses Dubai over Paris.
