“These four hours were longer than two years,” says Paul Pogba (32) as he prepared to put pen to paper on a two-year deal at AS Monaco.
The Frenchman’s last professional appearance was nearly two years ago. Following a match for Juventus, against Empoli in September 2023, he was provisionally suspended for a doping offence. After that suspension was confirmed, he was kept away from the pitch for 18 months.
In that time, Pogba has not only had to deal with the mental aspect of an enforced period of absence, but there was also the extortion case involving his own brother. The Frenchman, who has been permitted to return to football since March, has previously stated his “hunger” to return, not only to club football, but also to the France team.
Signing for Monaco is step one, and the former Manchester United and Juventus midfielder showed his nerves ahead of signing the deal. “Even with my experience, so long as I haven’t put on the shirt, the shorts.. I have clammy hands! It is a positive stress. It’s as if you’re signing a youth contract, you’re leaving your family to go to the training centre. That’s what I’m feeling a bit,” he told Monaco’s club channel.
At Monaco’s performance centre in La Turbie, he told CEO Thiago Scuro, “These were the longest two hours of my life!”
The tears flowed as Pogba signed his deal, putting an end to a mentally and emotionally difficult two-year period for the midfielder, who could make his Monaco debut against his formative club, Le Havre AC, on the opening day of the Ligue 1 season.