“I had a difficult year, so I have this rage, this desire to play football and enjoy it until the end of my career. It’s as if I were 18 years old again,” said Paul Pogba, in an interview broadcast this Monday by the Qatari channel Al Jazeera. A year marked by injuries and this extortion affair in which one of his brothers, Mathias, is involved. “Football is cruel, people can forget about you the day after. They’re waiting for you around the corner: “He’s over, his career is over.” Many think that I’m finished, that I’m dead, that Pogba no longer exists, that I’m no longer one of the best, that I’m not even a good player anymore, that I’m still injured… added the 30-year-old world champion, assuring not to be “weak”.
He will once again have the opportunity to show his strength of character with this new test: as reported by several Italian sources, traces of synthetic testosterone were discovered after an anti-doping test carried out after Udinese-Juventus (0-3), on August 20, during the first day of the Italian championship. A match in which the former Torcy, Le Havre and Manchester United midfielder, replacing at kick-off, did not come into play with the Turin club. The Italian Anti-Doping Agency (Nado) has decided to provisionally suspend Pogba for “violation of articles 2.1 and 2.2 for the presence of the following prohibited substances: testosterone metabolites”.
Victim of several physical problems in recent years, the French international (91 caps, 11 goals) is coming out of an almost blank season (10 matches) in 2022-23, for his return to Piedmont after six years with the Red Devils. After the match against Udine, Pogba played 24 minutes against Bologna (1-1) and 28 against Empoli (2-0), getting injured again. “The examinations carried out showed a slight muscular overload in the right thigh,” said Juve, ruling out the hypothesis of a tear. But that’s the last of Pogba’s problems from now on…
Shortly after 8 p.m., Juventus published a brief press release to acknowledge the news, with the club adding that it “reserves the right to evaluate the next procedural steps”. One thing is certain: if the B sample also turns out to be positive and Pogba is not able to demonstrate that the product found in his urine was inadvertently ingested, the native of Lagny-sur-Marne risks four years. suspension. Which would clearly jeopardize the end of a career which is turning into a nightmare for one of the captains of France, world champion in 2018, from whom Juve would have liked to part ways this summer in the transfer window according to multiple sources, a year after repatriating him from Manchester without transfer compensation. His salary weighs heavily in Juventus’ accounts. Especially for a player who is more often in the infirmary than on the pitch… Not to mention the extra-sporting issues which are ruining the lives of Pogba and his family, with this dark affair of attempted extortion by an organized gang.
Alas, the Frenchman, under contract until 2026 in Piedmont, where he enjoys the highest salary in the squad, did not find a buyer. In any case not in the conditions expected by the club with 36 Italian championship titles… “I believe in him and in his ability to find his best level, but it won’t happen by snapping his fingers,” Didier Deschamps said recently. , thus explaining the non-selection of Paul Pogba for the September rally and the matches against Ireland last Thursday (2-0), at the Parc des Princes, and Germany this Tuesday in Dortmund in a friendly (9 p.m.). Forced to leave him aside for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, “DD” has not called him since last March. Starting against Ivory Coast (2-1) on March 24, Pogba came on against South Africa (5-0) four days later, delivering a decisive pass along the way. Time will tell if this is his last offering in the blue jersey…
“There were times when I found myself alone and I said to myself: ‘I don’t want to have money anymore, I don’t want to play anymore, I just want to be with normal people, who love me for who I am , not for fame or money”. Sometimes it’s hard,” Paul Pogba told Al Jazeera again, referring to this annus horribilis he has just experienced. And added: “Allah helped me, I realized that this was my life, that I had to take it like this and that it was only going to make me stronger.” It remains to be seen how Paul Pogba will experience this new ordeal.
