World at his feet but Paul went wrong
THE words Paul Pogba once spoke now seem prophetic.
“Sometimes, I don’t want to have money any more,” he said, “I just don’t want to play any more.
“I want to be with normal people, so they will love me for me, not for the fame, not for the money. Sometimes it’s tough.”
Pogba, once the world’s most expensive footballer, said this just 24 hours before testing positive for drug use.
Fast forward six months and it seems Pogba’s wishes are about to come true.
The Italian authorities have hit the World Cup winner with a four-year ban from football for doping.
It means Pogba, who turns 31 this month, will be in his mid-thirties before being able to play again.
Be careful what you wish for, because this is a fall from grace to rank right up there with the most infamous in sport, let alone football.
The Frenchman was a maverick.
He won countless trophies in his first spell with Juventus, while conquering the world with France at Russia 2018. In between, he had returned to Manchester United in a deal costing £100m, breaking the world transfer record.
United bosses could barely contain themselves. But Pogba’s relationship with football was complicated.
He had no defined role at United. The truth was that at the time, he was too good for them.
He fell out with Jose Mourinho, suffered more injuries than had haircuts and questions surfaced about the company he kept.
But the so-called ‘Poster Boy’ was in decline, and turning into an ‘Imposter Boy’ instead.
Pogba allowed the distractions to distract him – and was sold back to Juve in 2022.
After his first exit from Old Trafford, then United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said: “I don’t think he showed us any respect at all.”
Now has shown that same lack of “respect” to himself, his club, family and the entire game.
What should have been a stellar career has collapsed, and whoever’s fault this is, there is something truly tragic in it.