Paul Pogba in the Juventus jersey against Torino. MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP
The midfielder returned to competition on Tuesday with Juventus who faced Torino.
Paul Pogba finally sees the end of the tunnel. Almost eleven months after his last appearance on the pitch, the French midfielder returned to competition with Juventus Turin on Tuesday in the Italian Championship against Torino. The 2018 world champion came on in the 69th minute when the score was 2-2.
This is the end of a very long ordeal for “la Pioche”, who had not played again since his exit after ten minutes of play against Liverpool, the day of a memorable defeat (4-0), on 19 April in the Champions League in the jersey of Manchester United.
Touched in the calf, the midfielder who will be 30 years old on March 15, could not finish the season with the Red Devils, ending on a sad note his five years spent in the north of England.
But his return last summer to Juve, where he had already played between 2012 and 2016, did not change anything in his situation and Pogba (91 selections) continued to relapse, accumulating physical worries to end up missing. , death in the soul, the World Cup in Qatar, at the end of 2022.
Injured in the meniscus (knee), Pogba had initially chosen to avoid the operation in early August 2022 so as not to miss the World Cup, even resuming training, to the chagrin of Massimiliano Allegri, opposed to such a choice.
The Frenchman had finally had to resolve to undergo surgery a month later and draw a line under the trip to the emirate.
Consequence: Pogba had still not played a single minute with the Bianconeri in an official match until Tuesday and had only briefly put on the Turin jersey against Mexican club Deportivo Guadalajara during a preparation meeting last July. What frustrate the Italian club, unable to use a player who receives 8 million euros in annual salary.
A place in blue to reconquer
«Juve were penalized because we never had such a player available“, had thus dropped Allegri, on November 1 before the shock against PSG in C1.
Deprived of a potential technical leader in the midfield, the “Old lady“Drank the cup in the Champions League, finishing 3rd in Pool H behind Benfica Lisbon and Paris to be transferred to the Europa League. In Serie A, Juventus fell out of European places after being penalized 15 points due to accounting fraud.
The loss was ultimately less painful for the France team, which still managed to reach the World Cup final in his absence. But Pogba, one of the most influential executives of the Blues and privileged relay of the coach, returns to the race at the best time while Didier Deschamps must announce on March 16 his list for the start of qualifying for Euro-2024 against the Netherlands (March 24) and Ireland (March 27).
While Deschamps had to take note of the international retirement of three major players from his locker room (Hugo Lloris, Raphaël Varane, Steve Mandanda), the return of Pogba, whose last selection dates back to France-South Africa (5-0) of March 29, 2022, is timely, even if it will have to do with competition from Aurélien Tchouaméni and Adrien Rabiot, well established in the middle with their fine career in Qatar.
In the event of a reunion with the Blues, he will also be a very serious candidate for the wearing of the captain’s armband abandoned by Lloris.
By resuming competition, Pogba also hopes to erase a particularly turbulent year 2022 off the pitch. The Frenchman has indeed suffered the consequences of an incredible affair after being the target of extortion attempts from some of his relatives, amounting to 13 million euros.
Five people are indicted to date in this case after the opening in September of a judicial investigation for, in particular, extortion with a weapon, kidnapping or kidnapping in an organized gang and participation in a criminal association.