Tag: Pogba

A Paris court convicted a brother of French international footballer Paul Pogba and five others of attempting to extort the World Cup winner, French media reported.

Mathias Pogba received a three-year sentence, with two of them suspended, after being found guilty of organised extortion and attempted extortion, the daily L’Equipe said.

He will not serve time behind bars but must wear an electronic bracelet for a year, it said.

The other five defendants, some of them childhood friends, were handed sentences ranging from three to eight years.

Paul Pogba, who played for English club Manchester United and Italy’s Juventus, said he had been the target of extortion in March 2022 and that he had handed over 100,000 euros ($104,000) to those who had threatened him.

Mbeko Tabula, a lawyer for Mathias Pogba, was quoted by RMC Sport as saying his client was in shock and would appeal.

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“From the start he has maintained his innocence,” he said. “He says he was manipulated, coerced and pressured, that he would never have acted negatively towards his brother.”

Mathias Pogba, 34, played football for Guinea and lower division clubs in Europe.

Reuters has contacted Paul Pogba’s representatives for comment.

Paul Pogba, who won the World Cup with France in 2018, is banned from playing until March after testing positive for the banned substance DHEA, which boosts testosterone levels.

Now 31, he hopes to revive his career after Juventus announced last month that he and the club had mutually agreed to terminate his contract. He last played for France in 2022 and knee surgery prevented him playing at the World Cup in Qatar.

Paul Pogba’s return to the limelight has blindsided Juventus as the France midfielder has whipped up an unwanted publicity storm just as the Serie A giants were preparing to send him packing.

Juve continue their bid for a first league title in five years against in-form Lazio tonight having already moved on from Pogba, who is counting the days until his doping ban ends in March.

With a new manager and a whole cast of new players, including three big money midfielders, Pogba has become an expensive spare wheel Juve were hoping to quietly unload.

But the 31-year-old has been bullish since the Court of Arbitration for Sport slashed to 18 months his initial four-year ban for testing positive for testosterone.

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He told Gazzetta Dello Sport during a round of interviews – apparently not authorised by Juve – on Wednesday that he wants to stay in Turin even at the cost of cutting his weighty salary.

Since being provisionally suspended in September last year Pogba has been stuck on a minimum wage of just over 2,000 euros ($2,166) a month but his contract is reportedly worth eight million euros a year, plus a potential further two million euros in bonuses.

Those numbers are simply no longer sustainable for Juve, who posted losses of nearly 200 million euros for last season and spent the summer shedding bulk while revamping the team for Thiago Motta.

In the immediate aftermath of CAS’s ruling both Motta and sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli spoke about Pogba in the past tense, saying that he “was a great player” and further fuelling speculation that his contract will be terminated.

Clearly neither Motta nor Giuntoli expect to see Pogba back in a Juve shirt but will now have to continue to field questions about his future at the club where he made his name over a decade ago.

French international Paul Pogba said Monday he was hungry to return to football after his doping ban was last week reduced from four years to 18 months.

 “Football is the strawberry cake that was taken out of my mouth,” Pogba told L’Equipe television in an interview from the Parc des Princes Stadium in Paris.

Pogba, who is under contract with Italian giants Juventus until 2026, will be able to return to competitive football from March 11 next year, four days before his 32^nd  birthday.

Capped 91 times for France, Pogba tested positive for testosterone in August 2023 after a match between Juventus and Udinese in Italy.

He was provisionally suspended in September of the same year, and then banned for four years by the Italian National Anti-Doping Tribunal the following February.

Pogba’s representatives said the testosterone came from a food supplement prescribed by a doctor he consulted in the United States.

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At the beginning of October, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) reduced this sanction to 18 months.

 “The nightmare is over,” said Pogba, adding he was “really looking forward to coming back”.

Asked about a possible arrival in Ligue 1, Pogba, who has never played in the French league during his senior career, responded: “why not?”

A key figure when France won the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Pogba collected four Serie A titles in his first stint at Juventus but had a string of problems, on and off the pitch, after his 2022 return from Manchester United.

He was also the victim of an alleged organised extortion, for which six men, including his brother Mathias, were last month ordered to stand trial.

Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba has revealed that he isn’t ‘finished’ and he is still looking to make a comeback into the game.

The Bianconeri player was banned from the game for having tested positive for doping and it remains to be seen if he appeals against the ban, with Juve seemingly set to terminate his contract on the grounds of the positive test. It seemed likely that his career was over, but he has now publicly stated otherwise.

He was in the stands to watch Belgium’s Round of 16 game against France and he spoke about the tie. He told Sky Italia: “I am very happy to feel the love of the people, today I came to see the France match, I saw the fans, I felt a great love, this made me very happy because I have been away from the fields for a while, hearing people chant my name, it is nice.”

He was also asked about his future, the potential appeal and about the old interview that went viral which had him saying that ‘Pogba is finished’. He responded:

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 “If you haven’t seen an interview of mine where I say I’m retiring, it means it’s not like that, because I still feel like a footballer. I want to fight this, for me, injustice. An interview came out, I don’t know if you’ve seen it all, they put something that… I hadn’t finished speaking. Pogba is not finished, Pogba is here and until you see me say I’m finished, don’t worry. I have an incredible desire to come back , I feel like a child who wants to be a professional. I train, I do everything I can to get back on the pitch.”

Pogba’s future remains quite uncertain and it isn’t known whether he would play again and he spoke about his situation with Juve too, saying: “From the latest news I am still a Juve player, I have a contract but I have not had the opportunity to speak with the director and coach… there is silence. I think they are waiting for the outcome of the appeal but you have to ask them.”

Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba says he is “sad, shocked and heartbroken” after being banned from football for four years for a doping offence.

The France international, 30, was provisionally suspended in September after a drugs test found elevated levels of testosterone in his system.

“Everything I have built in my professional career has been taken away from me,” he said in a statement.

The former Manchester United player added he would appeal.

Pogba was randomly tested after Juventus’ first match of the season on 20 August.

The positive test was confirmed by Italy’s national anti-doping tribunal in a second sample in October, and the anti-doping prosecutor’s office requested a four-year suspension.

Juventus told the BBC they received notification from the anti-doping tribunal on Thursday morning.

Pogba said he believed the verdict was “incorrect” and he would “never knowingly or deliberately” dope.

“When I am free of legal restrictions, the full story will become clear,” he said.

“As a professional athlete I would never do anything to enhance my performance by using banned substances and have never disrespected or cheated fellow athletes and supporters of any of the teams I have played for, or against.”

The ruling means Pogba will be unable to play until 2027, when he will be 34, with the ban backdated to the date of the failed test.

Speaking at the time of the initial suspension, Pogba’s agent, Rafaela Pimenta, said: “What is certain is that Paul Pogba never wanted to break a rule.”

Testosterone is a hormone that increases the endurance of athletes.

Nado said Pogba had violated rules when prohibited non-endogenous testosterone metabolites – substances not naturally produced by the body from testosterone – were found, and the results were “consistent with the exogenous [external] origin of the target compounds”.

According to information put into the public domain by the Football Leaks website, when Pogba re-signed for Manchester United in summer 2016, Pogba’s five-year contract was a basic £7.75m each year.

A loyalty bonus of £3.75m a year was also included. If United qualified for the Champions League, Pogba netted a further £1.85m.

In addition, Pogba had a £3m-a-year image rights deal. His agent Mino Raiola, who died in 2022, was paid £41m to help take Pogba back to United.

Juventus then re-signed Pogba on a four-year deal in July 2022 after he ran down his contract at Manchester United and left as a free agent.

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Pogba said that he experienced depression after falling out with his manager Jose Mourinho during the Portuguese manager’s time in charge at Old Trafford.

In Pogba’s first spell at Juventus from 2012-16, when he made 178 appearances across all competitions and won three league titles, scoring 34 goals, before re-joining United for a then-world record transfer fee of £89.3m.

The 2018 World Cup winner’s return to Turin has been beset by persistent injury problems, which also led to him missing the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Pogba has played a total of 51 minutes as a substitute this season in games against Bologna and Empoli.

Last season he played 108 minutes over six Serie A games, made three appearances and one assist in the Europa League, and managed 11 minutes in the Coppa Italia – a total of 162 minutes and no goals.