Why Paul Pogba deserves another #Pogback

Evidently, 52 minutes on the pitch in 2023-24 wasn’t enough even for a player who could generate 635,000 Instagram interactions with Pogback when he returned to Manchester United in 2016 – the number for Kevin de Bruyne’s joining Manchester City was 56,000.

And then came the hammer blow of a four-year ban which Pogba has said he would appeal. Immediately social media, where once Pogba would make news with a tweet or a trim if not a touch, exploded with clippings that encapsulated the charisma, confidence, close control and chutzpah of a man who was born on the Ides of March in the year Harry Kane was.

The circumstances of his failing a dope test is not known yet but given that it came in a game he didn’t play and before two cameos in Serie A makes it seem all very, well, Pogba-like: a riddle hard to decipher. He has gone from anonymity to ignominy as swiftly as he would slip from inspirational to insipid on the pitch. Like in the Euro 2020 last-16 against Switzerland after scoring a fantastic goal that had put France 3-1 ahead.

Riled by Pep Guardiola, who had dragged him into his fight with hotshot agent Mino Raiola, Pogba produced a masterclass that turned a 0-2 deficit into a 3-2 win against City in 2018. Months later, he shone against Leicester City but went missing against Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton.

A poll by France Football has 69% saying Pogba should not be an automatic starter one year before the 2018 World Cup, a tournament he ended being as much, if not more, a darling of the country as Kylian Mbappe. When Emmanuel Macron hosted the world champions at Elysee Palace, Pogba addressed the huge gathering and looked as at ease as the France president.