“How can you tell a player you absolutely want him and offer him nothing? Never seen that.”
In ‘The Pogmentary,’ a TV series made on the life of Paul Pogba, the Frenchman utters these words to the late Mino Raiola after the super-agent urges the Manchester United board to build a project around the midfielder and put some serious money at the table to seal it.
There have always been huge speculations and tribulations around Pogba. A few months ago, the Mirror reported that the 29-year-old whose tenure was about to expire at the end of the 2021/22 season, has been offered a £500,000 a week contract. But sources close to the player refuted these claims.
Pogba, who has been on a £290,000 a week contract that puts his total wages for the year close to 16 million British pounds, rejected the speculative offer of half a million pounds a week by the Red Devils. His immense demands didn’t sit well with the dressing room as well. His teammates believed that Pogba was overpaid for his performances. It looked like the Frenchman had also lost the faith of his peers.
During all this turmoil of whether Pogba will extend or leave Old Trafford, the big sharks of European football – Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain were circling the Frenchman.
But it was his former side, Juventus, who swooped in with an underwhelming offer and brought him back to Turin. Pogba had a successful stint with the Bianconeri from 2012 to 2016 before returning to United for a whopping £89.3 million. He is still revered back in Italy and so when Juventus learned about Pogba’s deteriorating condition at Old Trafford; they made the most of that opportunity.
The Italian side brought in a little nostalgia to Pogba and showed him the life he enjoyed in Turin. With his contract up at Manchester, Juventus was able to nail him down for a mere €8 million a year, for the next three years, as reported by Corriere Dello Sport, a major Italian national sports newspaper.
This is a significant fall from the wages that Pogba was used to in Manchester United. He will now earn close to £141,000 per week, which is less than half of what he was making at United. But the Frenchman is eager to win titles which he believes United will fail to do for some time.
Juventus finished fourth in the previous season and Inter Milan brought back Romelu Lukaku, so it was only fair for Bianconeri to prepare the podium for Pogba’s return on a free transfer for the second time.
