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Paul Pogba considered retirement during doping fiasco

Paul Pogba revealed that he considered retirement after he was first handed a four-year suspension for doping.

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Pogba considered retirement amid doping scandal

Pogba’s doping ban was reduced to 18 months following a successful appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Speaking with ESPN, the 31-year-old said he was thinking of hanging up his cleats when he was initially handed a four-year ban.

“Yeah, I had many thoughts in my head, I had so many thoughts to even stop playing,” he said.

“I’m like: ‘What am I going to do?’ If it’s four years, you start making the maths in your head. … Four years not playing, training — which club is going to want me? Would I be fit and stuff like that, you make a lot of pictures in your head.”

“When you sit back and see how things went through my whole life, not only the doping, I’m like yeah, definitely I gained 10 more years, got more experience, more sage, I would say more wise,” he said. “And it made me realise you sometimes have to be more careful of the decision that you take.

Lesson learned

The 2018 World Cup winner tested positive for DHEA, a substance that raises testosterone levels.

His last professional game came against Empoli on September 3, 2023.

Pogba said he learned a lot from the incident.

“Definitely what I’ve learned is you always triple check because until it happens, everything is fine. … A lot of players have coaches, physios, chefs on their own and that can happen. So for sure the advice I would give everybody is make sure that you have everything on record,” said the France international.

“At the end of the day, obviously I took responsibility for not double checking.”

Meanwhile, multiple sources have reported that Juventus is considering terminating Pogba’s contract.

However, Pogba has remained silent about his future with the Serie A club.

Nevertheless, he is set to resume training this January.

“Right now I’m with Juventus, so we don’t know really what’s going on,” Pogba said. “All the parties are talking, lawyers, etc. So I want to know what will happen next.

“But my main focus right now is just to get myself ready. I keep training and everything. Get ready for being able to join a team in January.”