Pogba’s doping ban loss for game, says Allegri
ROME — Juventus coach Max Allegri said on Saturday that Paul Pogba’s ban for doping violations means soccer has lost an “extraordinary” talent.
Pogba was banned for four years by Italy’s antidoping tribunal on Thursday after testing positive for testosterone in the early weeks of this season, putting his playing career under threat.
“It’s very sad both on a human level and for football, as we are losing an extraordinary player,” Allegri told reporters ahead of Juve’s Serie A match at Napoli on Sunday.
“I was lucky enough to work with him, coach him, and it’s very difficult to find players like him ... He’s a fantastic guy.”
Allegri added that he had sent Pogba, who will appeal the ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), a message of support but would not talk any further about an ongoing case.
France midfielder Pogba, a World Cup winner in 2018, barely featured for Juve since returning from Manchester United in 2022 due to a spate of injuries and the doping ban.
Pogba’s representatives said the testosterone came from a food supplement prescribed by a doctor he consulted in the United States.
If confirmed by CAS, the ban would mean that Pogba will only be able to return to playing in the 202728 season, by which time he will be 34.
His positive doping test came as he was trying to put behind him a difficult first season back at Juve, in which he made just 10 appearances, while also missing France’s unsuccessful defense of the World Cup in Qatar due to injury.
He made two substitute appearances for Juventus at the start of this campaign before being suspended following his initial adverse sample which was confirmed as positive in early October.
Meanwhile, an investigation is ongoing in France into an extortion attempt against him in March 2022, in which Pogba’s older brother Mathias is one of the suspects along with childhood friends of the family.
Two intruders allegedly broke into Pogba’s home in the Paris suburbs and held him against his will, demanding 13 million euros ($14 million).
CAS appeal
Pogba will be the latest case going to appeal at CAS, to challenge his ban imposed on Thursday by an Italian sports tribunal for a positive test for DHEA, a steroid precursor.
On Friday, the court in Lausanne, Switzerland, published a detailed ruling in the doping case of an international soccer player that helps show the narrow path to a reduced ban.
A four-year ban was imposed by UEFA on Bulgaria winger Georgi Yomov, who tested positive for an anabolic steroid at a Europa Conference League game in July 2022 when aged 25.
Yomov’s argument was to blame his brother, who was said to have crushed steroid pills into smoothies made in a blender they both used at their parents’ home. With no proof to back the theory, and other inconsistencies in evidence noted by the CAS judges, the appeal failed.
The three judges were split 2-1 and noted a four-year ban for Yomov “may be said to be harsh”, the 33-page court ruling said.
“That said, the majority of the panel is bound to apply the rules, of which the player was aware, as they are set out,” the CAS judges said. “There is no scope to act otherwise.”
Pogba turns 31 on March 15 and his appeal to CAS could take at least several months to be heard and longer to reach a verdict.