After nearly 2 and a half years! L’Equipe takes stock of Pogba’s journey from suspension to comeback: experiencing doping and kidnapping cases

After 26 months away from the game, Pogba is expected to play for Monaco in the 13th round of Ligue 1 between Rennes and Monaco. "L'Equipe" took stock of Pogba's suspension process, including doping incidents, kidnapping incidents, etc.

Pogba's suspension

In November 2022, Pogba's behavior was out of control due to repeated injuries (which especially caused him to miss the World Cup in Qatar). Without notifying the Juventus medical team, he received a prescription for a drug purported to be a dietary supplement from a Miami-based self-proclaimed "spiritual guru"-type doctor, a well-connected man who claimed to have helped many athletes with such treatments.

Nine months later, in August 2023, the midfielder tested positive for drugs after a game against Udinese and was found to contain DHEA (a substance that can increase testosterone in the body). On February 29, 2024, he was suspended for four years by the Italian Anti-Doping Tribunal.

The suspension was shortened to 18 months.

As he was about to turn 31, Pogba thought his career was over, but he decided to fight and did not shirk his responsibility, but appealed for lack of vigilance. The core idea is that he was stupid and lacked awareness at the time, but he never intentionally cheated. Furthermore, his defenders insist that it's not even certain that DHEA improves football players' performance.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport recognized this and ruled on October 4, 2023 that his doping behavior was unintentional and reduced the suspension period to eighteen months: Pogba won two and a half years. He will return from the ban on March 11, 2025 and return to his role as a future player. "The nightmare is over," he said in a statement.

Pogba’s kidnapping incident

goes back to 2022, this time on the night of March 19th to 20th. This was the beginning of a horrific case that would eventually go to trial in the Crown Court and result in six defendants being jailed.

These include Paul Pogba's brother Matthias Pogba (now 35 years old), who was sentenced to three years in prison, of which two years were suspended; and Adama C, a close friend of the "little guy" (Paul Pogba), who was sentenced to five years in prison. That night, Pogba was hijacked by a group of masked gunmen who demanded a ransom of 13 million euros, claiming that they themselves were also threatened by criminals.

Signed with Monaco

On June 28, a video was still circulating on the Internet: In the video, Paul Pogba signed a two-year contract with Monaco Club general manager Thiago Scurro, with tears in his eyes. Was this arranged in advance? There may be some truth, but Monaco club chose Pogba precisely because of his person, his image, and the many fans he has around the world.

Monaco knows that Pogba is the French player with the third largest number of fans on social media after Kylian Mbappe and Karim Benzema. In any case, his tears were genuine and his emotions were sincere and moving. That day, Pogba officially signed for Monaco, not Marseille, and he chose Ligue 1 - a league he had never played for - rather than Russia, Major League Soccer, Saudi Arabia or Japan, where he had been widely expected to go.

Problems you may encounter after returning

Pogba has not played in a game for two years and two months, which is quite a long time. But his 2022-2023 season, the season before he was suspended, was almost completely wasted, as he only played 161 minutes due to injuries (knee, thigh, groin, adductor).

His most recent high-level performance is even further back; you have to go back to the 2021-2022 season to find his relatively consistent playing time. In short, Pogba has not played for three years, and there has never been a precedent for a player to return after such a long layoff.

How will his muscles and joints react? What will happen to his endurance, speed, jumping ability, balance and explosiveness? How well does he read the game? How fast does his eyeball move? Most importantly, can he handle the initial high-intensity competition?

"If he is allowed to play, it will be because he has passed the assessment at all levels of the club and meets all the criteria," explained Alexandre de Lal, a former fitness coach for Lyon and Nice and now the fitness coach of the Haitian national team. "Monaco will not play him just to play Pogba. It is mid-November and I think the team's strategy should be to let him gradually adapt to the rhythm of the game, from long fields to short fields, until the end of the year, hoping that he can be in 2026 Contributed to the team in the first half of the year."

source:7m free