Paul Pogba, possibly the French footballer with the most media attention between the appearance of Zinédine Zidane and that of Kylian Mbappé, could have abruptly ended his career yesterday when the Italian Anti-Doping Prosecutor’s Office imposed a four-year sanction on him for a positive test for testosterone due to the Dhea hormone detected on Last August 20 in a match between Juventus, his team, against Udinese. Everything indicates that the sanction will put an end to the career of a footballer who turns 31 on March 15. However, the player, through a statement, maintains his innocence and has indicated his intention to appeal to the TAD.
Pogba’s entire career has passed between his current club, Juventus, and Manchester United, but he has been a player who was once aspired to by all the greats on the European scene, including FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. In the whites it was a constant request from Zinédine Zidane that Florentino Pérez did not attend to due to the high cost of the transfer. At Barça Ariedo Braida, when he was director of the scouting area (2015), blocked the player, but he never arrived.
A midfielder with a powerful stride that allowed him enormous physical display from area to area, not without technique and good mid-distance finishing, Pogba has won everything in his clubs, but his greatest moment of glory was the 2018 World Cup in Russia. , in which he scored one of the goals in France’s 4-2 victory over Croatia in the final.
A meniscus injury including surgery prevented him from being included in Didier Deschamps’ list for the next World Cup, Qatar 2022.
Pogba’s career has been marked by irregularity. After standing out at Le Havre he was signed the following year, in 2011, by Manchester United, but a season later he left for Juventus amid serious accusations of disloyalty on the part of Alex Ferguson. After four seasons in Turin, the Red Devils would recover him in the summer of 2016, paying 120 million euros, the third most expensive transfer in history at that time. With the late and controversial representative Mino Raiola acting as mediator.
At Old Trafford Pogba would play the following six seasons, returning to Turin again in June 2022. He had been there for two seasons, in which he has practically not played at all: twelve games and just over 200 minutes in total, with 54 games lost. between his injury and the positive. All with the circumstance of being the player with the second highest salary in Serie A, with eight million euros net per season plus bonuses for objectives. The footballer who earns the most in football is Osimhen in Naples, with ten million.
The paradox is that the French midfielder did not play any minute of the Friuli match for which he has been sanctioned and that he was going to leave in 52 minutes distributed over two games what he has played this season, against Bologna and Empoli in the second and third day.
Since then, Pogba was provisionally suspended. The player requested a counteranalysis in September, which in October confirmed his positive result. Yesterday the sanction was announced and hours later the player released a statement through social networks to once again express his innocence: “I have been informed of the decision of the National Anti-Doping Court and I believe that the verdict is wrong. I am sad, shocked and heartbroken because everything I built in my career as a professional player has been taken away from me. “When I am free of legal restrictions the whole story will be clear, but I have never knowingly or deliberately taken any supplement that violates anti-doping rules.”
And the player adds: “As a professional athlete, I would never do anything to improve my performance through the use of prohibited substances and I have never disrespected or deceived other athletes and fans of any of the teams I played with or against. I played. As a consequence of the announced decision, I will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.”
The player has a contract with Juventus until 2026. It remains to be seen if the club terminates it. According to the Italian press, Pogba would have rejected an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office that would have reduced his sanction by half.