What the hell, shall we spunk 60m of the suarez cash on this lad?
France’s Paul Pogba: a complete midfielder worth ‘two Gareth Bales’
At 21, the former Manchester United midfielder has achieved more than Platini, Zidane and Ribéry had at that age. Paul Pogba is still raw, but his potential is colossal
France's midfielder Paul Pogba will win his 16th cap when he takes on Germany at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Photograph: Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images
Paul Pogba’s nickname has morphed since he arrived in Brazil. For most of his France team-mates he will still always be La Pioche, literally “The Pickaxe” though, in this context, a kid selflessly going about his business to help the collective. The locals, however, have been seduced by the blend of brute force and sinewy skill delivered in flashes by the youngster. They took one look at that eagerness to dribble, spray a pass or crunch a shot at goal, and awarded him their own moniker. He will take to the field at the Maracanã on Friday as Pogiba.
These are giddy times for the midfielder with the go-faster stripes clipped into that snazzy, Mario Balotelli-esque hairstyle. He is a player with the global game at his feet, a 21-year-old who has claimed the Serie A title in each of his two years of regular senior club football with Juventus, and a talent who can now test himself in a World Cup quarter-final against Germany.
He is being courted publicly by Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid and the Qatar-backed Paris Saint-Germain, and in England by Chelsea andManchester United, the club he dared to depart two years ago against Sir Alex Ferguson’s wishes. His agent, Mino Raiola, believes he is “worth twice as much as Gareth Bale” and, given that the Italian has negotiated Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s Wanderlust around the world’s wealthiest clubs, his sales pitches are persuasive.
Pogba is raw, but his potential is colossal. “Everything just seems easy for him,” said the France manager, Didier Deschamps, who considers Pogba the thrust and goal threat in Les Bleus’ classy midfield trio, with Yohan Cabaye behind and Blaise Matuidi at his side. Pierre Mankowski, who coached the Under-20s to World Cup success in Turkey last year with Pogba as his captain, listed his qualities as “technique, power, finesse, vision, mental strength ... he has everything”.
“Paul is extraordinary,” he told France Football. “The day he thinks he’s ‘arrived’ there’ll be reason to be worried but, at the moment, he is just full of ambition and drive as to where he wants to go.”
Even Patrick Vieira has marvelled at the abilities the young player possesses. “People compare us but, where I would win more tackles, Paul is more technically gifted than I ever was, and far more at ease on the ball,” said the former World Cup winner. “I’d busy myself with defensive duties, but he is only looking to charge forward. He can be one of the best in the world.” With that billing comes the pressure.
At Pogba’s age, Michel Platini was still playing for Nancy with a handful of caps to his name. Zidane was in his first full season at Bordeaux and an Under-21 international under Raymond Domenech. Franck Ribéry was playing for Brest in the French lower leagues.
In contrast the midfielder capped 15 times, but with only 66 senior top-flight appearances to his name, is not permitted much leeway. In Brazil he has had to deal with the flipside: oppressive expectations and the fall-out from reminders that he is, still, a young man learning his trade.Against Honduras he was wound up by Wilson Palacios’s regular fouls and might have seen red for retaliation, memories of his dismissal for two bookable offences within 10 minutes on his second cap, against Spain in March 2013, came flooding back. Rio Mavuba and Patrice Evra took him to one side after that incident to offer reminders of the need to retain control.
A fine cameo as a substitute against the Swiss restored him to the starting lineup against Ecuador, but he was disappointingly quiet in a scrappy contest that night. Back home the debate raged over whether Newcastle’s Moussa Sissoko might be a better pick, though the aggression and inspiration displayed against Nigeria on Monday – he scored France’s opening goal – reminded all of his qualities.
“People talk about me, and there is a lot of pressure,” he admitted. “People expect so much. But all I concentrate on is trying to do better, better, better and to maintain the levels of my performance.”
His career to date has been a pursuit of self-improvement. This is a player who, since he departed France at 16, has employed his own physiotherapist – who treats him post-match, as well as in pre-season and winter breaks – and dietician.
Such an entourage is fairly common among older players, but not with one so young. His commitment is a reflection of the way he was brought up. The competitor in Pogba was cultivated early. Born to Guinean parents, he grew up in Roissy-en-Brie in the eastern suburbs of Paris. His parents divorced when he was only two though his father, Fassou Antoine Pogba, – a former telecommunications engineer from Nzérékoré turned high school teacher in Seine-et-Marne, who had immigrated to France in the 1960s – continued to live close to Yeo, his mother, and has been a huge influence on his life.
The youngest by almost three years of three children, Paul tended to latch on to his elder twin brothers, Mathias and Florentin. When they ventured out into la Renardière for a kickabout with friends, the youngest tagged along, intent upon holding his own. He would come home battered and bruised, but stronger for the experience.
Pogba Sr had hoped to play professionally himself. “But, back then, you had to choose between your studies or sport,” he said when interviewed two years ago. I always told myself I would push my children all the way so that they could succeed where I failed. I wanted them to understand early on that professional football was not a game. It’s a livelihood.”
He would have the three studying videos of other players, quizzing them on technique and tactics. “My kids had the right mindset: they like overcoming challenges. Now when I hear people talking about Paul and his brothers, I tell myself I succeeded in my duties as a father.”
All three are full internationals, the brothers for Guinea with Mathias a striker contracted to Crewe and Florentin a defender on the books at Saint-Étienne. The trio had been assimilated early into a local club on Île-de-France, US Roissy-en-Brie, with Paul playing regularly for their junior sides at the age of six. He worked under Mamadou Papis Magassa.
“The difference between Paul and the other players was simple: he was more talented, but it was mainly his work ethic,” said Magassa. “I remember telling the group at training one Monday to juggle the ball 50 times with their right foot, 50 times with their left, and 50 times with their head. Paul couldn’t do it. But he spent the next two days with a football, practising constantly, and come Wednesday he did it perfectly. He was always a bad loser, too. He grew up playing with kids who were bigger than him in la Renardière, and that forced him to toughen up.”
Another coach at Roissy, Bijou Sambou Tati, concurred. “When he lost, he’d cry,” he said. “He realised a lot depended upon him. I told him once at half-time that everything he’d done up to then meant nothing because we were losing the game. He went back out on to the field with such a look of determination that the whole team was inspired around him.”
It was Tati who contacted US Torcy, the best youth club in the area, to alert them of the rough diamond on their doorstep. “At the time, people were furious with me for calling Torcy, but we couldn’t offer Paul the next stage in his development. He would have stagnated.”
His career has followed a nomadic road ever since. Torcy enjoyed him for only a season and were dismayed when Le Havre, a high-profile professional club with a reputation for developing young talents, lured him away. He captained the Under-16s in the Championnat National, gaining recognition with the France junior set-up and attracting the attention of international scouts.
Manchester United were competing with Juventus, Arsenal and Lyon when they secured him on a youth contract in 2009. Le Havre were outraged, convinced they had agreed a “non solicitation agreement” with Pogba’s family that was due to stand until 2010, though Fifa ruled the French club had no contractual hold on the midfielder.
Compensation was eventually thrashed out to the tune of around €110,000 (£87,000). United’s initial impression of their new recruit was that he ran “like a giraffe”, all gangly limbs, though his talent was clear.
Swapping France for England was bold, but this is a player who has never been afraid to take risks. United should really have known what was coming. Ferguson preached patience for a while, content that the club had another prodigious talent quietly developing in its academy and reserve teams.
Perhaps he sensed disquiet when moving to offer more opportunities in his third campaign, 2011-12, which yielded Pogba’s seven United senior appearances, all from the bench. New terms were offered on his contract, with guarantees of greater involvement in the first team, yet the teenager – guided by Raiola – had already determined to leave. Ferguson criticised a lack of respect when confirmation filtered through that the 19-year-old was bound for Juve. “If they carry on that way, they’re probably better doing it away from us,” he said.
The player offered a different version of events, his priority apparently less financial – the contract on offer in Turin was considerably more than anything proposed at Old Trafford – and more about an education. “My objective was always to play games,” he said.
“Alex Ferguson told me my time was going to come. But it never came. Serie A provides a schooling in football, above all from a tactical point of view. A central midfielder educated in Italy can aspire to become the best in the world in his position. I told myself: ‘Paul, Italy is the best place for you to show how good you can be.’ And then Juve, one of the biggest clubs in the world, contacted me.
“I’m still a nobody. What have I achieved in my career? Nothing, nothing at all. I look around at Juve and see Andrea Pirlo, Gianluigi Buffon, and I’m learning from true champions.
“Those two players have won everything, and yet they keep competing, even in training. Pirlo, Claudio Marchisio and Arturo Vidal are my reference points. At each training session I try and learn something new from those guys. I try and take on Claudio’s technique, or Arturo’s aggression, or the brilliant passing abilities of Andrea.”
His game has matured ever since, the youngster a sponge soaking up every hint of advice offered by seasoned campaigners, and a barnstorming presence out on the turf. The manager, Antonio Conte, has used him sensibly, ever conscious of burn-out – Pogba was rested the day Internazionale ended Juve’s 49-game unbeaten league run despite featuring regularly before that fixture – and has been patient in dealing with his occasional slips in discipline.
There have been reprimands for turning up late for training though, even there, the penny appears to have dropped: the player arrived 15 minutes early the following day, his lesson learned. When the management cited concern last January when that flashy peroxide haircut first surfaced, Pogba’s form on the pitch picked up as if to justify the hairstyle.
“He has become an important player in Italy,” said Alessio Tacchinardi, a midfielder at Juve for a decade up to 2005. “If Pogba was Italian, he would be the new Alessandro Del Piero, the new Francesco Totti. Unfortunately, Italy does not have a player like him. Conte knows he has a Ferrari on his hands.”
So, too, do France. This tournament will serve notice of his talents, but it will only be a taster of what could follow. From Pioche to Pogiba, the youngster’s potential knows no bounds.
France’s Paul Pogba: a complete midfielder worth ‘two Gareth Bales’
At 21, the former Manchester United midfielder has achieved more than Platini, Zidane and Ribéry had at that age. Paul Pogba is still raw, but his potential is colossal
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Paul Pogba’s nickname has morphed since he arrived in Brazil. For most of his France team-mates he will still always be La Pioche, literally “The Pickaxe” though, in this context, a kid selflessly going about his business to help the collective. The locals, however, have been seduced by the blend of brute force and sinewy skill delivered in flashes by the youngster. They took one look at that eagerness to dribble, spray a pass or crunch a shot at goal, and awarded him their own moniker. He will take to the field at the Maracanã on Friday as Pogiba.
These are giddy times for the midfielder with the go-faster stripes clipped into that snazzy, Mario Balotelli-esque hairstyle. He is a player with the global game at his feet, a 21-year-old who has claimed the Serie A title in each of his two years of regular senior club football with Juventus, and a talent who can now test himself in a World Cup quarter-final against Germany.
He is being courted publicly by Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid and the Qatar-backed Paris Saint-Germain, and in England by Chelsea andManchester United, the club he dared to depart two years ago against Sir Alex Ferguson’s wishes. His agent, Mino Raiola, believes he is “worth twice as much as Gareth Bale” and, given that the Italian has negotiated Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s Wanderlust around the world’s wealthiest clubs, his sales pitches are persuasive.
Pogba is raw, but his potential is colossal. “Everything just seems easy for him,” said the France manager, Didier Deschamps, who considers Pogba the thrust and goal threat in Les Bleus’ classy midfield trio, with Yohan Cabaye behind and Blaise Matuidi at his side. Pierre Mankowski, who coached the Under-20s to World Cup success in Turkey last year with Pogba as his captain, listed his qualities as “technique, power, finesse, vision, mental strength ... he has everything”.
“Paul is extraordinary,” he told France Football. “The day he thinks he’s ‘arrived’ there’ll be reason to be worried but, at the moment, he is just full of ambition and drive as to where he wants to go.”
Even Patrick Vieira has marvelled at the abilities the young player possesses. “People compare us but, where I would win more tackles, Paul is more technically gifted than I ever was, and far more at ease on the ball,” said the former World Cup winner. “I’d busy myself with defensive duties, but he is only looking to charge forward. He can be one of the best in the world.” With that billing comes the pressure.
At Pogba’s age, Michel Platini was still playing for Nancy with a handful of caps to his name. Zidane was in his first full season at Bordeaux and an Under-21 international under Raymond Domenech. Franck Ribéry was playing for Brest in the French lower leagues.
In contrast the midfielder capped 15 times, but with only 66 senior top-flight appearances to his name, is not permitted much leeway. In Brazil he has had to deal with the flipside: oppressive expectations and the fall-out from reminders that he is, still, a young man learning his trade.Against Honduras he was wound up by Wilson Palacios’s regular fouls and might have seen red for retaliation, memories of his dismissal for two bookable offences within 10 minutes on his second cap, against Spain in March 2013, came flooding back. Rio Mavuba and Patrice Evra took him to one side after that incident to offer reminders of the need to retain control.
A fine cameo as a substitute against the Swiss restored him to the starting lineup against Ecuador, but he was disappointingly quiet in a scrappy contest that night. Back home the debate raged over whether Newcastle’s Moussa Sissoko might be a better pick, though the aggression and inspiration displayed against Nigeria on Monday – he scored France’s opening goal – reminded all of his qualities.
“People talk about me, and there is a lot of pressure,” he admitted. “People expect so much. But all I concentrate on is trying to do better, better, better and to maintain the levels of my performance.”
His career to date has been a pursuit of self-improvement. This is a player who, since he departed France at 16, has employed his own physiotherapist – who treats him post-match, as well as in pre-season and winter breaks – and dietician.
Such an entourage is fairly common among older players, but not with one so young. His commitment is a reflection of the way he was brought up. The competitor in Pogba was cultivated early. Born to Guinean parents, he grew up in Roissy-en-Brie in the eastern suburbs of Paris. His parents divorced when he was only two though his father, Fassou Antoine Pogba, – a former telecommunications engineer from Nzérékoré turned high school teacher in Seine-et-Marne, who had immigrated to France in the 1960s – continued to live close to Yeo, his mother, and has been a huge influence on his life.
The youngest by almost three years of three children, Paul tended to latch on to his elder twin brothers, Mathias and Florentin. When they ventured out into la Renardière for a kickabout with friends, the youngest tagged along, intent upon holding his own. He would come home battered and bruised, but stronger for the experience.
Pogba Sr had hoped to play professionally himself. “But, back then, you had to choose between your studies or sport,” he said when interviewed two years ago. I always told myself I would push my children all the way so that they could succeed where I failed. I wanted them to understand early on that professional football was not a game. It’s a livelihood.”
He would have the three studying videos of other players, quizzing them on technique and tactics. “My kids had the right mindset: they like overcoming challenges. Now when I hear people talking about Paul and his brothers, I tell myself I succeeded in my duties as a father.”
All three are full internationals, the brothers for Guinea with Mathias a striker contracted to Crewe and Florentin a defender on the books at Saint-Étienne. The trio had been assimilated early into a local club on Île-de-France, US Roissy-en-Brie, with Paul playing regularly for their junior sides at the age of six. He worked under Mamadou Papis Magassa.
“The difference between Paul and the other players was simple: he was more talented, but it was mainly his work ethic,” said Magassa. “I remember telling the group at training one Monday to juggle the ball 50 times with their right foot, 50 times with their left, and 50 times with their head. Paul couldn’t do it. But he spent the next two days with a football, practising constantly, and come Wednesday he did it perfectly. He was always a bad loser, too. He grew up playing with kids who were bigger than him in la Renardière, and that forced him to toughen up.”
Another coach at Roissy, Bijou Sambou Tati, concurred. “When he lost, he’d cry,” he said. “He realised a lot depended upon him. I told him once at half-time that everything he’d done up to then meant nothing because we were losing the game. He went back out on to the field with such a look of determination that the whole team was inspired around him.”
It was Tati who contacted US Torcy, the best youth club in the area, to alert them of the rough diamond on their doorstep. “At the time, people were furious with me for calling Torcy, but we couldn’t offer Paul the next stage in his development. He would have stagnated.”
His career has followed a nomadic road ever since. Torcy enjoyed him for only a season and were dismayed when Le Havre, a high-profile professional club with a reputation for developing young talents, lured him away. He captained the Under-16s in the Championnat National, gaining recognition with the France junior set-up and attracting the attention of international scouts.
Manchester United were competing with Juventus, Arsenal and Lyon when they secured him on a youth contract in 2009. Le Havre were outraged, convinced they had agreed a “non solicitation agreement” with Pogba’s family that was due to stand until 2010, though Fifa ruled the French club had no contractual hold on the midfielder.
Compensation was eventually thrashed out to the tune of around €110,000 (£87,000). United’s initial impression of their new recruit was that he ran “like a giraffe”, all gangly limbs, though his talent was clear.
Swapping France for England was bold, but this is a player who has never been afraid to take risks. United should really have known what was coming. Ferguson preached patience for a while, content that the club had another prodigious talent quietly developing in its academy and reserve teams.
Perhaps he sensed disquiet when moving to offer more opportunities in his third campaign, 2011-12, which yielded Pogba’s seven United senior appearances, all from the bench. New terms were offered on his contract, with guarantees of greater involvement in the first team, yet the teenager – guided by Raiola – had already determined to leave. Ferguson criticised a lack of respect when confirmation filtered through that the 19-year-old was bound for Juve. “If they carry on that way, they’re probably better doing it away from us,” he said.
The player offered a different version of events, his priority apparently less financial – the contract on offer in Turin was considerably more than anything proposed at Old Trafford – and more about an education. “My objective was always to play games,” he said.
“Alex Ferguson told me my time was going to come. But it never came. Serie A provides a schooling in football, above all from a tactical point of view. A central midfielder educated in Italy can aspire to become the best in the world in his position. I told myself: ‘Paul, Italy is the best place for you to show how good you can be.’ And then Juve, one of the biggest clubs in the world, contacted me.
“I’m still a nobody. What have I achieved in my career? Nothing, nothing at all. I look around at Juve and see Andrea Pirlo, Gianluigi Buffon, and I’m learning from true champions.
“Those two players have won everything, and yet they keep competing, even in training. Pirlo, Claudio Marchisio and Arturo Vidal are my reference points. At each training session I try and learn something new from those guys. I try and take on Claudio’s technique, or Arturo’s aggression, or the brilliant passing abilities of Andrea.”
His game has matured ever since, the youngster a sponge soaking up every hint of advice offered by seasoned campaigners, and a barnstorming presence out on the turf. The manager, Antonio Conte, has used him sensibly, ever conscious of burn-out – Pogba was rested the day Internazionale ended Juve’s 49-game unbeaten league run despite featuring regularly before that fixture – and has been patient in dealing with his occasional slips in discipline.
There have been reprimands for turning up late for training though, even there, the penny appears to have dropped: the player arrived 15 minutes early the following day, his lesson learned. When the management cited concern last January when that flashy peroxide haircut first surfaced, Pogba’s form on the pitch picked up as if to justify the hairstyle.
“He has become an important player in Italy,” said Alessio Tacchinardi, a midfielder at Juve for a decade up to 2005. “If Pogba was Italian, he would be the new Alessandro Del Piero, the new Francesco Totti. Unfortunately, Italy does not have a player like him. Conte knows he has a Ferrari on his hands.”
So, too, do France. This tournament will serve notice of his talents, but it will only be a taster of what could follow. From Pioche to Pogiba, the youngster’s potential knows no bounds.
