The chaotic end of a great career with the scent of unfinished business for Paul Pogba

Tested for testosterone in September 2023, during a match against Udinese at the very start of the season, during which ironically, the former Manchester United player had not even entered the field, Paul Pogba officially received the penalty. of a heavy sporting sentence this Thursday, February 29, 2024: the Italian National Anti-Doping Tribunal decided to sanction the French international by suspending him for four years for having violated articles 2.1 and 2.2 of the Codice Sportivo Antidoping di NADO Italia (CSA). This fairly substantial sentence potentially marks the end of his career at the high European level for the native of Lagny-sur-Marne, even if he will appeal this sanction. In addition to several serious physical problems, Pogba has suffered from certain extra-sporting affairs in recent years which have put a brake on his rise, thus leaving a bitter taste for an indisputably talented midfielder with an obviously wonderful career. But the story seems unfinished…

This retrospective of the last seasons does not aim to call into question the qualities, the prize list or the level of Paul Pogba, because the mark that the (only) 30-year-old midfielder will leave in French football is so obvious that it would be offend him by recalling the leader he had become between 2012 and 2016 during his first stint at Juventus, his very good first campaigns as boss of the axis of Manchester United or his incredible epic in Russia with the Blues when he was one of the main architects of the second star on the French rooster in 2018. However, the French midfielder did not know how to finish the end of his career as he should with this sad symbol of the return completely failed at Juventus. It was in Turin that La Pioche Paulo experienced its most magnificent hours and its darkest passages.

A long list of injuries

Before the 2018 World Cup, won by the Blues, Paul Pogba had already experienced two serious injuries at the start of his career, an ischial injury in 2015 which caused him to miss 13 matches over a period of a month and a half with the Juventus and then a ruptured thigh muscle in 2017 which sidelined the midfielder for two months, thus missing 16 matches with Manchester United. But Pogba’s career really changed in August 2019 when his ankle problems, particularly his malleolus, became chronic. He missed the first three months of competitions and relapsed several times, leaving the Red Devils and the selection without the leader of their midfielder for more than 50 matches during this financial year. This is the start of a physical tragedy for Paul Pogba: knee, ankle, back, groin… The Frenchman has experienced countless problems in recent years.

During the 2020/2021 season, Paul Pogba was once again away from the pitch for quite a long time, first contracting Covid-19 then being the victim of a relapse to his ischium and malleolus. During this campaign he missed around twenty meetings with Manchester United and France. Then the following season, over the 2021/2022 period, the medical ordeal continued for the native of Lagny-sur-Marne with a new calf and ischio injury. He made his big return to the Old Lady during the following summer transfer window and the descent into hell was even more violent. Injured in the left knee in July and operated on in September, Pogba has not played a single minute with the Bianconeri in 2022 and will relapse in training. He returns to the pitch in the Europa League against Sevilla FC then will be lined up as a starter against Cremonese in Serie A but the midfielder re-injures his left thigh during the match.

A legal affair with his brother

In August 2022, a police investigation was officially opened after Paul Pogba claimed to be the victim of a large multi-million euro blackmail plot, involving his brother Mathias and a supposed marabout. This affair, which occurred less than three months before the World Cup in Qatar, which Paul Pogba missed due to a new injury, took on the character of a family conflict worthy of Agatha Christie’s greatest novels. Mathias Pogba published a video on his Instagram account in which he promises to “great revelations” on Paul and the Juventus player’s agent, Rafaela Pimenta. In the video, Mathias states that “the whole world, as well as my brother’s supporters, and even more so the French team and Juventus, my brother’s teammates and his sponsors deserve to know certain things”and that all this risked “to be explosive”. A very complex case which forced the mother of the two men to speak on several shows, including Seven to Eight.

A statement was then released the following Sunday and signed by Paul Pogba’s lawyers, his mother Yeo Moriba and agent Pimenta, claiming that the videos published by Mathias “were unfortunately not a surprise” : “They add to the threats and attempts at extortion from an organized gang against Paul Pogba. The competent bodies in Italy and France were informed a month ago.” can we read in this missive. The radio France Info also reported that Paul Pogba told investigators that he had been threatened by “childhood friends and two hooded men armed with assault rifles”demanding 13 million euros from him for “various services rendered”, he said, adding that one of his relatives had withdrawn 200,000 euros with the French player’s credit card. On September 2, 2022, the public prosecutor clarified: “At the end of the first investigations, the Paris public prosecutor’s office today opened a judicial investigation against commission of a crime or misdemeanor and participation in a criminal association with a view to committing a crime”.

Sanctioned for doping

After a first season truncated by extra-sporting setbacks and injuries, Paul Pogba’s return to Juventus continues to be a bitter failure. While the 2018 world champion is already no longer unanimous within the squad of the Old Lady, the new controversy concerning his supposed positive test for testosterone against Udinese, during the entry into the Serie A Bianconeri, was fatal to the native of Lagny-sur-Marne. As a reminder, during the 1990s, the reputation of Italian football was severely damaged due to suspicions of doping, particularly with EPO, which made headlines. Juventus Turin in 1996, where Gianlucia Vialli, Alessandro Del Piero and Didier Deschamps played in particular, was particularly singled out. A doctor and a pharmacist ended up being convicted by the Italian courts in 2004. And since the case of the death of Davide Astori, Italy wants to set an example even more by being intractable on these subjects. This controversy concerning Paul Pogba is also reminiscent of that experienced by José Luis Palomino in 2022, the latest doping affair which shook transalpine football. Testing positive for nandrolone during an anti-doping test on July 26, 2022, the Argentine defender ended up being cleared by the Italian National Anti-Doping Tribunal.

The product in question was taken in the United States during an off-season. Paul Pogba accepted, on the advice of a doctor friend, the taking of this supplement containing testosterone: a misstep also admitted by the footballer to Juventus doctors, despite the warning on the packaging containing the presence of substances which could have resulted in a positive control. However, there remains a flaw which would lead to a reduction in sentence in the event of confirmation by counter-analysis: testosterone is a false myth, its intake does not improve sporting performance even if its presence in an athlete’s anti-doping controls is strongly punished. After trying to assess a possible formal defect, which could have changed the fate of the case, Pogba’s entourage, who turned to an English law firm, changed their defense strategy: ignorance of hiring cannot completely exonerate the French. And this is how Paul Pogba’s story with Juventus ends… Sadly, harshly, coldly after 190 matches, 34 goals and 41 assists delivered, crowned with 4 Scudetto, 2 Coppa and 2 Supercoppa.