Paul Pogba returned to competitive football last season by signing with AS Monaco, and he’s received a brutal verdict at the end of it.
Since his return from the doping ban, Paul Pogba had trained with many teams, including Manchester United.
Ultimately, AS Monaco took a bet on him, and he joined the Ligue 1 club from the start of the 2025/26 season.
There was a lot of excitement since he was joining a club in the Champions League, but the reality has been very different.
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AS Monaco issue brutal verdict on Paul Pogba
Pogba’s talent has never been in doubt, which is why a Champions League team like Monaco were taking a punt on him despite the midfielder being out of action for so long.
Ultimately, the absence was too big a hurdle to overcome, as Pogba repeatedly suffered injuries and struggled to get into rhythm.
He finished his debut season with just six games, one start, totalling 115 minutes across the whole season.
Monaco’s CEO, Thiago Scuro, clearly isn’t happy with the output, and he didn’t make any effort to hide his disappointment at how the move has panned out.
He said [via GFFN]: “It is a complicated topic because we have a lot of respect for Paul, for the person he is. Since he arrived, he has been very positive. Last year, the project didn’t work well because when we started with him in the summer, the expectations were very different to what happened.
“He could [leave at the end of the summer]. With Paul, it has always been a very open and transparent relationship. If, at some point, the expectations of the player are different to the expectations of the club, we will have to speak to find a solution.”
Pogba won’t find an elite club anymore
The hope that Pogba could resurrect his career was extremely enticing, as he was a bit of an unknown quantity when he signed for Monaco.
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Now that it’s proven that his body isn’t capable of handling the rigours of modern football anymore, it could be curtains for him at top-level football.
At 31, he’s not getting more athletic, and a player who was already looking injury-prone has been dealt a hammer blow due to this absence from competitive football.
It is a sad end to the elite-level career of a player who, on his day, was simply the best in the world.
Unfortunately, those days became fewer and fewer in frequency by the end of his time at Old Trafford, and now they are firmly in the rearview mirror.
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