Paul Pogba playing for his national team, France before he was banned for doping. Picture courtesy: Paul Labile Pogba.
(The Post News)-Paul Pogba, a football player for the French national team, had his four-year doping ban reduced to eighteen months.
On Friday, October 4, a CAS spokesperson verified the verdict, which is an 18-month suspension beginning September 11, 2023, and noted that the decision on the verdict will be released later.
With a Juventus contract that runs through 2026, Pogba will be permitted to play competitive football again starting on March 11 of the following year, which is four days before his 32nd birthday. Following a Juventus vs. Udinese match in August 2023, Pogba tested positive for testosterone. In September of that year, he was placed on temporary suspension. The Italian National Anti-Doping Tribunal then banned him for four years in February of the following year.Â
Representatives for Pogba claimed the testosterone originated from a dietary supplement that a specialist he saw in the US had recommended. Pogba claimed on his Instagram account that he had “never knowingly or deliberately” taken doping items after the ban was announced.
“That everything I have worked so hard to achieve in my professional playing career has been taken away from me makes me unhappy, astonished, and heartbroken,” he wrote.
Following the CAS verdict on Friday night, he posted a picture of two feet wearing Pogba football boots with socks featuring his initials and the French flag and two World Cup players in the background. Other than that, there was nothing else to see in the photo. Pogba, who was instrumental in France’s victory in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, won four Serie A titles during his first spell at Juventus. However, following his 2022 return from Manchester United, he experienced a number of issues both on and off the field.
Pogba made just 10 appearances for the team in the 2022-2023 season, mostly because of a knee injury that also prevented him from competing in the World Cup in Qatar, when France lost to Argentina in the final in December 2022. In addition, he was the target of a coordinated extortion investigation that resulted in the trial of six persons, including his brother Mathias, last month.
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