How Paul Pogba overcame the doubts to launch improbable Monaco comeback | OneFootball

The tears flowed as Paul Pogba signed his two-year deal at AS Monaco last week. "It is very rare to see me cry like that so I hope you enjoyed it," he joked at his presentation on Thursday. "It was a moment of joy," insisted the former Manchester United and Juventus midfielder. But the outpouring of emotion runs deeper; it is more complex, more nuanced.

It has been a turbulent three years for Pogba. "There were so many images that came into my mind. We know the doping story, my injury… everything came back to me during the signing and I just couldn't hold it back," he said. A doping ban, initially for four years but reduced to 18 months following a successful appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), coupled with injuries, have reduced the Frenchman to just over 200 minutes of football since the start of the 2022/23 season.

Off-the-pitch issues have contributed to his on-pitch absence. "It is all linked. If the mind is good, it will go well on the pitch," he said on Thursday. Mentally, however, it transpired that Pogba wasn't in a good place, and that manifested itself physically, so Pogba believes. In March 2022, while still at Manchester United, he was kidnapped by masked men as part of an extortion attempt that implicated brother Mathias.

Months later, he joined Juventus, but the extortion attempt followed him to Italy. Mathias Pogba phoned his brother, demanding a €13m payment and threatening to sully the player's image if the request was not met. It was not met. Mathias then claimed that his brother had used a witch doctor to put a curse on Kylian Mbappé ahead of PSG's Champions League Round of 16 tie against Manchester United back in 2019. "Paul never asked me to cast a spell on Mbappé," insisted the marabout. Although the player acknowledged speaking with a marabout, he states that it was only for help regarding the injuries that scuppered the end of his time at Manchester United and then his first year back at Juventus.

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French midfielder Paul Pogba poses with his new jersey (AFP via Getty Images)

After his brother was sentenced to a three-year prison, two years of which were suspended, at the end of 2024, Paul Pogba said he wished to "turn the page". By signing for Monaco, he has closed one chapter, a painful one. "I live day by day, not thinking about what happened to me in the past, [I'm] just thinking about the present and what's in front of me," he said, adding that he "hopes and thinks" that his new-found mental fortitude will keep the injuries at bay. "It's all linked," he insists.

And Pogba, despite his light-hearted façade and his jokes about the dream of seeing his children "dab" when he scores a goal, he is a player, a man changed and remoulded by his recent experiences. He himself can recognise that. "It is still the same Paul Pogba, but perhaps a more determined one. You will see a determined Paul Pogba," he said.

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AS Monaco new signing Paul Pogba during the press conference (REUTERS)

There was a particular motivation for Pogba to make his return. "He wants his kids to see him play," Monaco's CEO Thiago Scuro tells us. His kids, and his wife, were a particular source of strength over the past months. "There were moments of doubt. [Thinking that] maybe it's over; it is difficult sometimes. My family, my wife in particular, pushed me. They said it would be alright… now I feel like a kid that has signed his first professional contract," added Pogba.

But there is another motivating factor to return and to do so at a club like Monaco, whose performance centre in La Turbie is just a stone's throw away from Didier Deshcamps' residence. "The France national team would be another dream, a bonus," said Pogba. Scuro added that the Frenchman has set his sights on participation in next summer's World Cup.

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Paul Pogba in action for Juventus in 2023 (AP)

"You can't play for France without playing for your club," recognises Pogba. And he isn't there yet. The midfielder says that playing against his formative club, Le Havre, on the first day of the Ligue 1 season in August is an "added motivation".

But it is only after Pogba, followed by many of the 40 journalists in attendance at his unveiling, departs the scene that a dose of realism enters. "I can guarantee that he won't be on the pitch against Le Havre. We are here to be realistic. We expect a three-month process," says Scuro, who talks about "increasing the load" in the coming weeks. Pogba was one of 12 first-team players absent from training on Thursday. Other new signings, Eric Dier and Ansu Fati, were only partially involved.

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Pogba during his time at Manchester United in 2019 (Getty Images)

The question of whether Pogba can still be the player that helped lead France to World Cup glory in 2018 is yet to be answered and won't be answered any time soon. But as a person, he now exudes a different energy. There is still the aura, the silence as he enters the room, the bravado, and the show, but there is a seriousness, too, a steely grit and an emotional vulnerability, either previously concealed or altogether absent.

Those characteristics coalesce well with the environment he has entered at Monaco. "I think I'm the oldest at the club! It's weird," jokes Pogba, who at 32 will be expected to be a leader in the dressing room. He deeply hopes that he can be a leader on the pitch, too.