Monaco’s Pogba Eyes France Comeback

Paul Pogba has said that he hopes to make a return to the French national team but added that there are “stages” to the process, as he was officially presented by AS Monaco on Thursday.

The former Manchester United and Juventus midfielder signed for the Ligue 1 club on a free transfer after serving an 18-month doping ban, after testing positive for DHEA, which boosts testosterone levels.

“It’s the wish of every French football player to represent the France national team, but there are stages,” Pogba said at his unveiling in Monaco.

The 2018 World Cup winner has earned 91 caps for France, the most recent of which coming in March 2022 while his last club appearance was for Juventus in Sept. 2023.

He signed a two-year contract at Monaco in an effort to reignite his career, with a source telling ESPN the 32-year old turned down a lucrative offer from a Saudi Pro League side.

“Today I’m at stage one — coming back and performing well.

“There are spots to be won and you have to earn them because it’s a very, very good group, a great team,” he said.

Pogba’s teammate and former Tottenham Hotspur defender Eric Dier — who was also unveiled by Monaco on Thursday — spoke about the excitement of having him back in French football.

“I think it [Pogba’s arrival at AS Monaco] is, obviously, very exciting for the club, and I think for the French league in general,” Dier told French media.

I have played against Paul many times I know how good he is. I think everyone does. I am excited to see him play football again, and to get to see it close as well, is even better.”

Monaco finished third last season and will be hoping the signings of Pogba, Dier and Ansu Fati on loan from Barcelona will allow them to challenge Paris-Saint Germain for the Ligue 1 title.

Pogba won four league titles and two Italian Cups with Juventus as well the Europa League during his time at United.

“Of course we have protocols in place, strategies, which players who have been around longer are familiar with that because they’ve played in circumstances like this — for other players, they get to for the first time.

“We could already practise it in the first week of our training camp because in England it was really hot too, so we have these cold vests, we have [an] ice box, ice drinks they can drink before training session they could also cool down a bit, get your temperature a little bit lower with [drinks like] Slush Puppies.

“We have ice cold towels at the rest moment in the training sessions; they get the towels if they want to. So we make sure we are hydrated. Take another rest and do those things to keep your body temperature low.”

Wiegman later added they’re using cryotherapy too.

When asked about them training in the hottest part of the day, Wiegman replied: “We did today, I think it’s cooling down over the next couple of days. We also know that we play 9 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m. in the group stage, so we don’t expect it to be this hot. Today we didn’t change the schedule.”

Wiegman said the potential heat on Saturday will not change the way which she approaches the match and she will judge any changes on player impact and exhaustion as she usually does.

“What we do now is get prepared for Saturday, for France and we’re going to do everything to win that game, when we sub we do it because it’s necessary to change the game or to sub someone who gave everything that needs to go out,” Wiegman said.

“I will not think of managing the heat at that point — after that game, we recover and then we come together as a team with the medical and technical staff and look at how does everyone come out of this game. Then we move forward to the next game against the Netherlands.”

Espn.co.uk