Paul Pogba has claimed he is far from finished as a professional footballer and dismissed suggestions that he could retire despite a four-year ban for doping.
Pogba, 31, has not played since August 2023 and is now awaiting a date for his hearing in front of CAS, where he hopes for his suspension to be reduced to a two-year ban. He had been suspended earlier in the year after he tested positive for doping twice: first by the A sample, then by the B sample.
“If you haven’t seen an interview of mine in which I say I’m retiring, it means that it’s not like that, because I still feel like a footballer”, Pogba told Sky Italia in Dusseldorf on Monday where he was at France’s 1-0 win against Belgium in the Euro 2024 round of 16.
“I want to fight this, for me, injustice. An interview came out, I don’t know if you’ve seen it, they put something that. I hadn’t finished talking. Pogba isn’t finished, Pogba is here and until you see me say that I’m finished, don’t worry. I have an incredible desire to come back, I feel like a child who wants to be professional. I train, do everything I can to get back on the pitch.”
The latest news is that I’m still a Juve player, I have the contract but I haven’t had the opportunity to speak to the director and coach. there’s silence,” he added. “I think they’re waiting for the outcome of the appeal but you have to ask them.”
Pogba cannot play professional football, neither is he allowed to train with Juventus, yet every day he had been training alone in his mansion in Turin—with a fitness coach in the gym and a personal football coach on the pitch.
Already, the French FA and head coach Didier Deschamps extended an invitation to the 2018 World Cup winner for France’s game against Belgium—upon which he visited the France dressing room to commemorate the victory with former teammates.