Paul Pogba after the disqualification: “It’s over, I’m dead, they took everything away from me.” Then the clarification

“It’s over, I’m dead, Paul Pogba no longer exists.” This is how the French ace, 2018 world champion, now disqualified until 2027 for doping, talks about himself in the preview of a video interview on TikTok on the social network Hietip.sports who released it on their channels last week together with an emotional video with the Frenchman lifting the World Cup, and then in action with the shirts of Juventus and Manchester United.

While waiting for the rest of the video, the newspaper The Guardian Nigeria publishes other excerpts of the interview, which have not yet been disclosed, attributing these sentences to Pogba: «I don’t know who I am anymore. Football was my life, and my passion. But now I feel like I’ve lost myself.”

The Frenchman, 31 years old, at the end of the suspension for doping – he had tested positive for synthetic testosterone, or Dhea, after Udinese-Juventus on 20 August – will already be 34 years old: «Everything I have built in my professional career has been taken away from me ».

The “Octopus”, a French midfielder who grew up at Le Havre and was discovered by Sir Alex Ferguson when he was 17, grew up in Manchester United’s youth academy. In 2012, at just 19 years old, he joined Juventus on a free transfer and then followed the path in reverse four seasons later to the record sum of 105 million euros. On 11 July 2022 a jubilant crowd welcomes him for his second life in Turin, with a four-year contract worth 7.5 million, but a meniscus injury and problems first with the conservative therapy and then with the operation keep him out of almost everything the year. In total, since the summer of 2022 Pogba has only made 8 appearances for Juventus. Until positivity.

In the middle, difficult to forget, the story of “witchcraft” which also involved a brother, who blackmailed him and who kidnapped him and threatened him at home – he was also arrested – regarding the alleged curses and spells cast against Mbappé.

Technically, Pogba is still a Juventus footballer (at the minimum salary, i.e. around 2 thousand euros net per month). His contract with Juventus has not yet been terminated, given that the appeal against the disqualification is still pending before the Tas of Lausanne. It’s difficult to get discounts, but it’s a mandatory step before finding out what the next few years have in store for Pogba.