He was written off: Now Paul Pogba is starting again

There are footballers who fade. And then there are those who seem to collapse all at once: career, reputation, and health arriving at the same dead end simultaneously. Paul Pogba belonged to the second category.

A World Cup winner. Once the most expensive player in football history. Then: doping ban, departure from Juventus, silence. Yet on Saturday, in a 2-1 Monaco win over Metz, Pogba started a match for the first time in almost three years, 1,084 days.

While goals from Folarin Balogun and Ansu Fati secured the win. It was not a headline fixture. But for Pogba, it was something close to resurrection.

What happened to Paul Pogba?

The fall was steep, and it happened fast. In 2016, Pogba became the then-most expensive footballer in history when he returned to Manchester United from Juventus for £89.3 million.

The weight of that fee followed him everywhere through inconsistent performances, a fractured relationship with managers, and a body that kept breaking down. By the time he returned to Juventus on a free transfer, hoping for a fresh start, it unravelled completely.

The biggest blow came in February 2024, when he was initially handed a four-year ban by Italy’s anti-doping court after testing positive for testosterone while still at the club. The suspension was later cut to 18 months after an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

He maintained he had done nothing wrong. Few were listening. Total of 811 days passed between his last appearance in September 2023 and his Monaco debut as a substitute last November, a cameo that felt more like proof of existence than a football statement.

The Monaco gamble and what Saturday meant for Paul Pogba

Pogba wept when he signed his contract with Monaco in the summer. That detail matters. This was not a player looking for a payday. This was someone who feared it might all be over. With all the family drama surrounding him and the earlier lack of faith by United, this was big.

The road back has been stuttering. Injuries kept interrupting his return. His first competitive appearance came as a substitute in a 4-1 defeat at Rennes, his first game in 811 days. It was brief, emotional, and ended in a loss. More injuries followed.

But Saturday was different. It was a start, footage of his performance quickly went viral, with fans calling for a France call-up and imagining him in a midfield that could, theoretically, terrorise anyone. The optimism may be premature. The joy, however, is not.

Pogba himself said it, as per SportBible: “Football isn’t over for me. We’ve worked hard, we’ve waited more than two years to get back, and today, it finally happened.” Whether the ability is still there at 32, after years of physical and legal turbulence, remains to be seen.

But the player who was written off entirely just took a first start. In football, that is always where comebacks begin.