Thiago Motta refused on Saturday to say whether or not Paul Pogba had a future at Juventus after the France midfielder’s four-year doping ban was slashed to 18 months. Pogba, a World Cup winner with Les Bleus in 2018, will have the ability to return to aggressive soccer from March 11 subsequent yr following Friday’s ruling from the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Italian media report that Juve may nonetheless search to terminate Pogba’s contract, which runs till the top of June 2026 and is reportedly price as much as 10 million euros ($10.97 million) a season.
“The membership will assess the state of affairs and decide if obligatory. Paul was an ideal participant however he hasn’t performed for a very long time,” coach Motta advised reporters forward of Sunday’s Serie A fixture with Cagliari.
“All I am excited about is our match tomorrow, nothing else actually issues so far as I am involved.”
Juventus refused to touch upon Pogba, who examined optimistic for testosterone following the Turin membership’s opening Serie A fixture of final season, a 3-0 win at Udinese in August 2023.
He was provisionally suspended the next month after which banned for 4 years by the Italian Nationwide Anti-Doping Tribunal in February, a sanction which put the 31-year-old’s profession in danger.
Pogba’s representatives stated the testosterone got here from a meals complement prescribed by a health care provider he consulted in america.
Pogba collected 4 Serie A titles in his first stint at Juventus between 2012 and 2016 however had a string of issues on and off the pitch after his 2022 return from Manchester United.
Throughout the 2022-23 season, Pogba made simply 10 appearances for the membership, primarily resulting from a knee damage that additionally dominated him out of the World Cup in Qatar, the place France misplaced out to Argentina within the remaining in December 2022.
He was additionally the sufferer of a case of organised extortion, for which six males, together with his brother Mathias, have been final month ordered to face trial.
Since Pogba final performed for his membership at Empoli in early September final yr, Juve have switched supervisor from Massimiliano Allegri to Motta and introduced in a number of recent gamers as a part of a rebuild.
Juve, who completed third final time period with out Pogba, splashed out over 120 million euros on midfielders Teun Koopmeiners, Douglas Luiz and Khephren Thuram in a busy summer season on the switch market.
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