French footballer Paul Pogba banned for four years for doping

A high-profile doping incident seems to have ended the career of one of the most notable football players of the last decade. The French midfielder Paul Pogba, who played for Juventus, tested positive for testosterone in the fall of 2023, and received from the Italian Anti-Doping Agency (NADO) the maximum punishment for such cases – four years of disqualification. Given Pogba’s veteran age, who will turn 31 in March, a return to football scenario seems unrealistic.

On Thursday all leading media resources reported that the Italian Anti-Doping Agency has sanctioned French football player Paul Pogba. He was disqualified for four years. The Juventus club, for which Pogba played, confirmed the information.

Paul Pogba’s punishment follows one of the most notorious doping incidents ever to occur in football.

Last September NADO reported about his positive doping test taken after the first round match of the Italian Championship on August 20. In it, Juventus beat Udinese, but Pogba himself, being included in his team’s roster, never entered the field, remaining on the bench. In the athlete’s analysis, metabolites of “non-endogenous”, that is, having “external” origin, testosterone were discovered. In the classification of prohibited substances by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), it is included in the category of “anabolic steroids”. Testosterone is used for a variety of purposes, such as speeding up recovery from injury and getting into shape.

Injuries have been Paul Pogba’s problem. The last of the serious ones led to the player undergoing knee surgery in 2022 and missing the most important tournament. Pogba was left out of the French national team’s bid for the World Cup in Qatar, although before him he was one of the key elements in coach Didier Deschamps’ schemes, being virtually an uncontested figure in the support zone.

Paul Pogba’s agents, even before the presence of testosterone was confirmed by sample B, adhered to the version that there was no malicious intent in the actions of the football player, who in any case “did not want to break the rules.” Meanwhile, the verdict issued by NADO directly indicates that no mitigating circumstances were found during the investigation of the emergency. If they exist, the period of suspension is usually two years, but a four-year period is applied in cases where no reason to doubt the deliberate use of doping is found.

The footballer himself, in a statement published on Instagram (owned by the Meta corporation, recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation), emphasized that he would appeal the NADO decision, since he “never did anything to improve his shape by using prohibited substances.” Pogba admitted he was “devastated” by the news, which is understandable.

In mid-March, Paul Pogba will turn 31 years old, his age is the reason to think that a return to football after disqualification, even if its period is counted from the moment the sample was taken, will no longer happen.

Thus, the doping incident ended the career of an extremely prominent, at least in the last decade, football player.

Paul Pogba is an undisputed superstar with an amazing track record. It contains, for example, the transition in 2016 from Juventus to Manchester United for a crazy amount at that time, exceeding €100 million, many different prizes won with these clubs, the title of best young player of the 2014 World Cup and triumph at the world championship already in the status of the core player of the French national team in Russia in 2018. True, it was precisely the fresh stage of Pogba’s career, before his suspension, that was very specific. In fact, he looked like a complete nightmare.

Difficulties for the French midfielder appeared about five years ago. Paul Pogba, who had reduced his effectiveness, was eventually no longer needed by Manchester United, who returned him to Juventus in the summer of 2022 – already for free, as a free agent with an expired contract. Experts did not rule out that a career renaissance for the midfielder could take place in Turin. However, instead Pogba suffered one trouble after another.

It soon became clear that he considered himself a victim of blackmail from a group of people, including his brother Matthias. The footballer claimed that they extorted money from him (about €13 million in total), threatening to publish some compromising photographs. Based on Paul Pogba’s complaints, pending investigations have been opened in both France and Italy. The player, meanwhile, admitted that the negative effect of blackmail was so strong that at some point he wanted to say goodbye to football.

In addition to this, Pogba suffered various injuries – meniscus, muscle. Because of them, in all official tournaments of the previous season, the Frenchman spent only 162 minutes on the field for Juventus, that is, two incomplete matches, without scoring a single goal.

Nothing fundamentally has changed in the new season. Without playing against Udinese, Paul Pogba came on as a substitute in the matches that followed – against Bologna and Empoli. However, his playing time was very modest – only 51 minutes over two meetings. And after the game with Empoli, Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri admitted that Pogba managed to get injured again – this time in his back.

Alexey Dospehov