France international Paul Pogba said he was “shocked and heartbroken” after being given a four-year ban from soccer by Italy’s anti-doping tribunal following a positive test for testosterone in August last year, his club Juventus said on Thursday.
A spokesman for the club said that it had been notified of the decision against the 30-year-old FIFA World Cup winner, who had been provisionally suspended in September last year.
“We received notification from the tribunal this morning,” the spokesman said.
Photo: AFP
Italy’s anti-doping body did not immediately respond when contacted.
Pogba said that he would appeal the ruling, which risks bringing a premature end to his career.
“I am sad, shocked and heartbroken that everything I have built in my professional playing career has been taken away from me,” he wrote on Instagram.
Saying the verdict was “incorrect,” he denied ever using performance-enhancing substances.
“When I am free of legal restrictions the full story will become clear, but I have never knowingly or deliberately taken any supplements that violate anti-doping regulations,” he said. “As a consequence of the decision announced today I will appeal this before the Court of Arbitration for Sport.”
The ban means Pogba would not be able to play again until the 2027-2028 season, by which time he would be 34.
Anti-doping prosecutors had called for the four-year ban to be imposed on the former Manchester United midfielder, who tested positive following Juventus’ opening match of the Serie A season against Udinese on Aug. 20 last year, during which he was an unused substitute.
A month later a B sample confirmed the presence of testosterone and he had been provisionally suspended since.
Pogba’s representatives said the testosterone came from a food supplement prescribed by a doctor he consulted in the US.
The ban could have been limited to two years if Pogba had been able to prove he was not at fault, or even just a few months if the use of the substance took place “out of competition and [was] not related to his level of performance.”
Pogba, who returned to Juventus for a second spell in 2022 after six years at Manchester United, was a key member of the France team that won the FIFA World Cup in Russia in 2018, scoring in the final against Croatia.
His positive doping test came as he was trying to put behind him a difficult first season back at Juve, in which he struggled with fitness problems and made just 10 appearances, while also missing France’s defense of the World Cup in Qatar due to injury.
He made two substitute appearances for Juventus at the start of this campaign before being suspended.
France coach Didier Deschamps said he “could not imagine” that Pogba “had the intention, the desire to take drugs.”
“What Paul has been experiencing for several months is extremely hard and I obviously cannot remain indifferent to his pain, given everything he has achieved,” Deschamps said in a statement.
Pogba, who was a youth player at Le Havre before a first move to Old Trafford aged 16 in 2009, has been troubled by off-field issues.
An investigation is ongoing in France into an extortion attempt against him in March 2022, which involved a break-in at his home in the Paris suburbs.
Two intruders allegedly held Pogba against his will demanding 13 million euros (US$14.1 million at the current exchange rate).
Pogba’s older brother, Mathias, is one of the suspects involved in the case, along with childhood friends of the family.
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
Olympic bronze medalist Lee Meng-yuan has become the first Taiwanese athlete to top the International Shooting Sport Federation’s (ISSF) men’s skeet world rankings, while top Taiwanese shooters won golds in each of yesterday’s finals in Taoyuan. Lee’s 6,610 points put him ahead of fellow men’s skeet medalists from the Paris Olympics Americans Vincent Hancock and Conner Prince. Lee on Monday said that he was surprised by the result, although he had expected his ranking to rise after the Games, which was also the first time a Taiwanese athlete had competed in men’s skeet. Despite topping the rankings, Lee said he believed Hancock, who