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Security chiefs are probing if the east London gang of soccer starlets – one of whom claims to have trained with Arsenal – were involved in making the horrific execution videos which shocked the world.

Spooks believe they may lead authorities straight to black-robed killer 'John' who is wanted for the murders of at least five hostages.

Last night the dad of a possible sixth victim – Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa – was overwhelmed with grief after another video appearing to show an image of his son's beheaded corpse appeared online.

Last week Jihadi John gave the Japanese government 72 hours to pay a £130million ransom or vowed he would kill military company operator Yukawa, 42, and fellow countryman Kenji Goto.

Over the weekend journalist Goto, 47, appeared on film holding a picture of his executed pal - and warned he too will be killed unless Iraqi terrorist Sajida al Rishawi is released.

And as the world reeled from the latest terror vid, Brit spooks were desperately probing the football gang feared to have become involved in the brutality.

The five jihadists from Leyton and Walthamstow are Portuguese immigrants who converted to Islam and were radicalised in London before deciding to wage holy war abroad.

They are all said to be talented footballers with one having reportedly starred in Portuguese side Sporting Lisbon's youth team.

In July 2014 — 39 days before American hostage James Foley, 40, became the first hostage executed—one of the group's ringleaders posted a Twitter message suggesting he had advance knowledge of the journalist's fate.

Nero Saraiva, 28, tweeted: "Message to America, the Islamic State is making a new movie. Thank u for the actors.”

IS revealed Foley's beheading in a YouTube film called A Message To America.

Saraiva'a mob came separately to London but - according to Expresso newspaper in Lisbon - some shared a flat in Leyton.

They were passionate about football, having shown promise as youngsters, and regularly met to watch televised matches at a Portuguese-run cafe in east London.

Fabio Pocas, 22, moved to the UK three years ago in a bid to become a professional footballer.

He was previously at Sporting Lisbon's youth academy which nurtured footballing superstars Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Figo.

In London Pocas played for amateur league side UK Football Finder which he helped to become divisional champions.

His online player profile states: "Fernando Torres (the Spanish international and former Chelsea striker) is his hero and he plays like him too. A frightening prospect for any defence."

UK Football Finder director Ewemade Orobator said Pocas had the chance of a trial with a professional club but 'disappeared'.

He later surfaced in Syria where posted images of himself wielding guns and raising the IS flag on social networking sites.

Now using the name Abdurahman Al Andalus, Pocas lives in a town called Manbij with a teen jihadi bride from Holland.

Mr Orobator said: "I hope he's still alive. If he'd got a trial he wouldn't be there now. It's unbelievable."

Celso Rodrigues da Costa, 28, who with his brother Edgar, 31, is suspected of being a member of the same jihadi cell, is understood have trained with Arsenal but failed to secure a deal with the club.

In April 2014 he appeared in an IS propaganda video cradling an AK-47 on the banks of the Euphrates in Syria, berating western society and branding school teachers 'drug dealers and paedophiles'.

An accompanying message on Twitter hailed da Costa as 'an ex-football player (Arsenal of London) who left everything for jihad'.

His brother, who studied management and accounting in Portugal before moving to London, is said to be leading the group of foreign fighters in the Syrian province of Aleppo.

Saraiva was the first member of the cell to travel to Syria in 2012 after moving out of a one-bedroom council flat in Walthamstow and abandoning a five-year-old son in the UK.

He was linked to an alleged terror plot in east Africa involving al-Shabaab, the Somali affiliate of al-Qaida.

On Twitter he has promoted Abu Hamza, the radical cleric from Finsbury Park mosque recently jailed for life in America for terrorism.

The fifth member of the cell was known only as 'Sandro'.

The 36-year-old former Catholic is thought to be the last of the friends to head to Syria and was reportedly the first killed, dying in a coalition airstrike in October.