Interview before doping allegations
Pogba’s new beginning ends in the worst “nightmare”
September 12, 2023, 5:07 p.m
Paul Pogba can never consistently reach his potential and he is often criticized for this. This season he actually wanted to know it again at Juventus Turin. But then come the doping allegations. This is particularly tragic because he only announced the restart shortly beforehand.
Suddenly Paul Pogba was back in the headlines – in the most unpleasant context. “Positive doping test,” it said in big letters. “What a blow,” wrote the Italian press. And: “Career in danger”. In recent years it has become quite quiet around the former 105 million euro man, the 2018 world champion. Now Pogba has probably reached the lowest point of his career.
The “Gazzetta dello Sport” reported on a “nightmare” for Pogba; on Monday the news of the positive doping test for the French midfield star from Juventus Turin made the rounds. The 30-year-old was found to have high testosterone levels, the Italian anti-doping agency confirmed to the AFP news agency.
Pogba himself did not comment and sent his manager forward. Rafaela Pimenta explained that she is waiting for the result of the counter-analyses. One thing is certain: “Paul Pogba never wanted to ignore the rules,” she said in a statement, according to Italian media.
“Football is beautiful but cruel”
For Pogba, who is a global player with 60 million followers on Instagram, the decline continues. It is all the more tragic that he recently spoke out in a remarkable interview with Al Jazeera spoke up. The conversation was published on Sunday, a day before the allegations were made public. There he not only spoke about the social unrest that had been triggered by a police officer’s fatal shot at a 17-year-old.
Pogba also spoke about the pressure that comes with the billion-dollar football business. “Football is very beautiful, but it’s cruel. People can forget you. You can do something great – the next day you’re nobody,” he said. The exceptional Pogba has always been a huge promise in French football. Someone who had enormous talent, but was never able to use it consistently – and left many disappointed.
At Euro 2021, Pogba stood out from a poor French team that was eliminated in the round of 16. There was a glimpse of what made him so important for Didier Deschamps’ team. Finally, thanks to the technically skilled footballer, they won the World Cup title in Russia in 2018. Pogba set the course with the goal to make it 3-1 in the 4-2 final against Croatia. Two years earlier he had moved from Turin to Manchester United for a then record fee of over 100 million – but he ultimately did not live up to his great hopes in England.
Blackmailed by his own brother
Pogba wanted to start again in Turin after his return in 2022, but the first year of his contract, which is valid until 2026, was difficult. Due to knee surgery and constant injuries, Juve’s number 10 only made ten appearances. The injury misery meant that he missed the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
And there was little peace off the pitch either. Members of his family and old friends tried to extort tens of millions of dollars from Pogba. His older brother announced “explosive” revelations in the summer of 2022 if he did not pay up. The police investigated, and brother Mathias Pogba was in prison for a while for his blackmail attempt.
Time has taken a toll on Paul Pogba. “Money changes people,” he told Al Jazeera. “It can destroy a family. It can start a war.” Sometimes he thought: “I don’t want to have any more money. I just don’t want to play anymore. I just want to be with normal people so that they love me for me – not for the fame, not for the money,” explained Pogba. “Sometimes it’s hard.”
That’s why he announced a new beginning in the interview to save his career. The media criticized him for many things, from his salary to his looks. “I want them to eat their own words. I want to show them that I’m not weak. They can talk bad about me. But I will never give up,” he said. But that won’t happen in the near future. If the doping allegations are true, Pogba faces a ban of up to four years.