FRENCH INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALLER Paul Pogba’s four-year ban for doping has been reduced to 18 months, a spokesperson from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on Friday.
“I can confirm the decision: an 18-month suspension with effect from 11 September 2023. The reasons for the decision will follow later,” the CAS spokesperson told AFP.
Pogba, who is under contract with Juventus until 2026, will be able to return to competitive football from March 11 next year, four days before his 32nd birthday.
Pogba tested positive for testosterone in August 2023 after a match between Juventus and Udinese.
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.
After the ban was announced, Pogba posted on his Instagram account that he had “never knowingly or deliberately” taken doping products.
“I am sad, shocked and heartbroken that everything I have built in my professional playing career has been taken away from me,” he wrote.
On Friday evening, after the CAS ruling, his post was wordless, showing only a close-up of two feet wearing Pogba football boots with socks bearing his initials and decorated with the French flag and the two World Cup stars.
— Paul Pogba (@paulpogba) October 4, 2024
A key figure when France won the 2018 world title 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.
During the 2022-23 season, Pogba made just 10 appearances for the club, mainly due to a knee injury that also ruled him out of the World Cup in Qatar, where France lost out to Argentina in the final in December 2022.
He was also the victim of a case of organised extortion, for which six men, including his brother Mathias, were last month ordered to stand trial.
Waster.
@Ben F: World cup winner and m.o.m in the final. So yeah… a complete waster. Utd is toxic. It distroys players l.
@Louis Jacob: will you stop with your anti United bull. This guy epitomises the sense of entitlement of modern day footballers. Nothing to do with United. Was carrying on the same in his two spells at Juve. Ben F is 100% correct. He completely wasted his career with his poor attitude.
Oh yeah he’s a world cup winner. Look at who his team mates were. Lissandro Martinez is a world cup winner. So your point is?
@Kevin Dillon: Also. Is a sense of entitlement exclusive to modern day players? So you want me to start naming players? We could start with George Best for instance.
Ten Hag monitoring situation closely
Great player who wasted his best years at a toxic club. There’s another chapter in his careers yet. I’d bet on it.
@Louis Jacob: Toxic player who wasted his prime years making TikTok videos like a 10 year old with his equally toxic and delusional friend Jesse Lingard
@Louis Jacob: Wouldn’t put much on that bet.
@Louis Jacob: terrible sports commentator who wasted his years with toxic commentary and I’d bet you have another chapter in you at least.
@Ron Burgundy: zero evidence he’s a ‘toxic’ presence in the dressing room. Literally, any player he’s played with has said quite the opposite. Criticise Pogba all you like for his performances, but this toxicity narrative is based on nothing.
Roidback
Total waste of space..
You’re right. The utd team is full of wasters by pure coincidence.
@Louis Jacob: like your toxic comments by “coincidence” too. You epitomise toxicity in sport. Pogba doesn’t have a patch on you.
@Louis Jacob: even as a liverpòol fan your so toxic