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The career of Paul Pogba, once the most expensive player in football history, is in ruins.
Pogba has been given a four-year ban for doping. It is an unprecedented sanction for a player of his stature. It is also incredibly rare in football.
So, what actually happened? And what could happen next?
Written by Nick Harris and Seb Stafford-Bloor, illustrated by Philippe Fenner.
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Music sourced from epidemicsound.com
Additional footage sourced from freestockfootagearchive.com
#Pogba #Juventus #France
I would never have looked at his perfomances in a United shirt and thought "hmm, he's definitely taking PEDs"
lol that's a damn good point! As the song title goes, the drugs (clearly) don't work!
This one gave me a good laugh
This alone should be his argument to come out of the ban. Lawyer: judge, my client doesn't take peds, have you seen his performance for united and juventus? Judge: yeah, you're right, case dismissed.
Always the victim. People like Pogba, Martial and Lingard.
To me if anything he looked like he smoked a blunt before the games started.
It seems impossible to me that Abel Xavier is the only premier league player to be caught taking banned substances. There must be cover ups all the time.
Rio Ferdinand was caught but was technically banned for evading tests. Still a drugs cheat.
Sakho was banned from football by UEFA in April 2016 when he was playing for Liverpool for substance misuse due to an allegation made by WADA. However, further investigation revealed that the substance Sakho used was not included on WADA's prohibited list and UEFA cleared Sakho's name. In 2020, Sakho and his lawyer decided to file a lawsuit against WADA both for defamation and for immaterial loss as he missed UEFA Europa League Final 2016 between Sevilla and Liverpool due to suspension, and Sakho won the lawsuit.
Was Jake Livermore not PL at the time?
Happens all the time just UK anti-doping do not release to the media as per request from the FA who fund them.
@@iamthemanwithnoname6140 That's not technically being caught
Waiting for Souness to enter chat
He's at Mourinho's throwing a party. 😃🎉🎉🎉😂
He's definitely somewhere celebrating this. He will probably blame Pogba's ban for United's next shambolic performance
He was right though about Pogba. Yet people are still joking about it as if he was wrong! 🤦♂️
I pleeeyed the geeeyme!
Doesn't need to. Pogba himself confirms everything Souness ever said
He rejoined Juve in 2022, not in 2020
I came to the comment section just to type that but you got it done already ahaha
Tifo does so many mistakes latly its crazy
You'll be ok
Please TIFO 😂
I remember when United bought him back people said he was Ferguson's biggest mistake, but now it seems Fergie was always right to sell him. Respect to Pogba though, on his day he was a treat to watch.
respect for playing fairly good football? Why?
He didn't want to sell him. Pogba forced the move because he felt he wasn't being played enough.
He left UTD on a free, he wasn't sold.
He should have never left Juve , that juve was made around him and dybala
Some believe he was stitched up so Juve can get out of paying him. Easy to give a player who keeps on getting injured steriods in his recovery, then bump him off.
Juve - wouldn't be a surprise. Disgusting cheaters.
Least controversial Juve dealing 🤣🤣
That conspiracy theory hold up for me
Wouldn't be surprised in itallian football (or barca/madrid)
To be fair, with the frequency with which Pogba was regularly tested, it's hard to believe he'd dope.
No one can convince me Juve didn't chuck him under the bus to get out of his deal.
most players being done for doping are playing in Italy, so it wouldn't surprise me
Never let a crisis go to waste
Always some who try hard to work a conspiracy theory in when the more likely truth is what's actually being reported.
He was easily Juve's best player when he was fit, a complete game changer
Pogba was the most over rated player ive ever seen. For his level of technique he had the worst decision making of all time. The lad could get by anyone and has great range of passing. But he spent most of his career dribbling dangerously in his own half causing as many goals and he created. Putting in wild challenges box. When he lost the ball he would stand there and cry and not track back. He played well once every three games. If theres no kante and matuidi or vidal and pirlo to do literally all of real work for him he wont be functional. He would be injured and posting videos playing basketball in dubai. Lazy and foolish player with amazing ability sad to see.
Mourinho having the last laugh on this one lol
A 4 year ban for a 1st time offense is like lying on your taxes once and getting 20 years in prison. Totally over the top. In the US, most sports have tiered suspension with each offense starting from a quarter season than half, then 1 year and so on. 4 years makes sense for the Olympics, not for a yearly sport like club football
I agree to a certain extent. A 4-year ban for a first-time offense is too harsh but a quarter season is not harsh enough (unless it's something insignificant like cannabis). I think 18 months is good for a first-time offense.
a 4 year ban is ludicrous, especially looking at how many times they drug tested pogba. Not saying that necessarily makes him innocent, but it does seem like theres something shady behind this.
A 4 year ban for taking performance enhancing drugs is absolutely fair, what are you on about?
@@thenayancat8802for a first offense? While everybody else typically get 18 months??
@@eN3RD Everybody else should be getting proper punishments as well :)
Why did you guys stop uploading as many main videos as you used to on this channel?
Focusing more on content they are actually paid for
@@HorridDavelike ?
The Athletic
like you don't earn money on youtube.
@@1886Joelthey usually don’t have paid sponsorship in the video outside the athletic and ads revenue for shorter video like these aren’t enough to pay a full team of people
Always sad to see someone who children used to look up to, end up labeled as a cheater.
Only children could look up to Pogba.
I mean.... Was he ever an upstanding person?
@@adamcetinkent LMFAO FR
@@jonbar140 No he wasn't. Always sad that these pathetic turds who lack any sort of responsibility in their positions, get looked up to. They should act upstanding like Keane, Lampard, Iniesta, Xavi, Xabi, etc. back when football had actual men. These new kids are just that. Boys. Silly boys
Messi took steroids mean while pogba just smoke THC from the pain that he was in 🤣🤣🤣🤣
A general point/question, not directly related to Pogba. If someone in a club gives you drinks or supplements containing banned substances, in the hopes of boosting recovery of short-term performance perhaps, how do you guard against that?
You don't take it anything without official say-so....but in the best-worst circumstance, someone with the club officially, you can claim unknowingly and hopefully get less than a multi-year ban, but since clubs are your employers, they should be guarding against it as well as the players themselves.
you guard by not taking them. that's it. If the club trainer gave it to you and you can prove it AND also prove you DIDN'T knew, then it's a different story eventhough you will be banned anyway
Well if that someone is official, you can ask for legal document and permission to use the drug and a reasonable answer for taking the drug. Then you can go ahead and take it as long as you were following the rules given. But mainly, things like this don't exist in the top league. Somewhere down the tier, there is.
While I was watching previous videos just now, ie John Thomson, Carlos Tevez&Mascherano and Erno video, this one popped, I love Tifo✔️
As an American, four years is eye-watering. Major League Baseball, which has long had its own PED issues, prescribes an 80-game (½-season) suspension for the first positive test, with a full season for the second and Banned From Baseball for the third.
Ye lunatics play 160 games a season in baseball???😮
@@mastemawolfesq.2408162 games, and if the games are tied after the standard nine innings, then the games keep going until there's a winner. Then throw in the postseason, and it is glorious.
Unless you're Alex Rodriguez, and you had your first ban of 211 games reduced to an entire season.
@@uncreative5766 sounds excessive! Lol.
@@uncreative5766 That's insane! I suppose there isn't really the level of physicality and endurance as soccer but 162 games is absolutely insane. Also P.S I've watched moneyball for the third time recently.... would it be worth it to try and get into baseball?
Very convenient for Juventus. Saving a lot of money. He hasn't really played good in years anyway. If Juve would ever break any rules...
0:46 shout out George Saville - a good proper midfielder.
His career was finished when he made that move from juventus to Manchester Utd it was a wrong move for him like sancho
Difference is Sancho returned to Dortmund and is actually playing well again
@@BarcaFan1899 yeah but unlike sancho pogba actually played well for united. he won us the league cup and europa league in his first season, then created bags of chances helping us to finish second, added goals to his game in his third and then in his fourth him coming back from injury inspired us to an unbeaten run coming back from 14 points off fourth to eventually finish 3rd. Shame injuries got to him and there was instability around him
He earned a lot of money with a finished carreer
@@andreashillitzer2291 he deserved that money for ending career
Just like hazard
4 years sounds crazy. Juventus was like naw we need to get out this contract. Put that in his drink. 😂
There's actually precedent for the accidental ingestion defense: Danish cyclist Martin Toft Madsen also tested positive for some banned substance a few year ago, after an hour record attempt. Madsen made a point out saving a sealed container from a batch of food supplements, and could prove that he had upheld his responsibilities - the supplement was simply dodgy. His hour record attempt was struck from record, but he did not get banned otherwise. And I wonder what happened if Operacion Puerto was investigated to its fullest. Eufemiano Fuentes claimed to have worked with half the teams in La Liga, including Barca and Real, yet no footballer was banned, and anti-doping runs at a pathetic level compared to other sports.
Can you do a video of who would be a perfect West Ham manager, someone who would actually fit our players and wish of our fans to play attacking football?
Don’t need a video for that. I will tell you who is your perfect manage, Mikel Arteta.
3 things: - the fact that FIFA was slow to adopt anti-doping policy in the first place - that soccer players are not tested very often (or some are tested disproportionally more than others-see video of Pogba tested at United and responding “Again?!”) - that a 4 year ban is rare in any sport, but was handed to Pogba Makes me think he was in some way targeted by soccer authorities. Don’t know who, but just doesn’t smell right.
targeted for what? stop making james bond arguments over simple stuff. FiFA has been pressured for decades to up their game in banned substance regulation and Pogba made the wrong mistake at the wrong time
By who, for what, how? Lol anyone can claim anything
Guardiola got caught while at Brescia, funny how you forgot to mention that.
He is definitely giving the City players some PEDs, even his biographer talked about the "magic shakes" his physios gave the Barça players.
"140 000 professionals"? For a global sport, that fields 11 players per team with squads consisting of more than 25 players at a time, those figures seem hard to believe. . . But back to our regularly scheduled programming.
5600 teams, seems wrong to me
A huge chunk of people competing in hundreds of lower leagues across the world are playing as amateurs or are semi-pros at most. 140,000 full-time professionals worldwide sounds about right to me.
32 MLS teams x 25 Players =800 Players in a single league alone. Plus those teams have reserves, so at least 1000 players in the top flight of a country where soccer is like the fourth most popular sport
@@drakonlegend4452 5600 teams times 25 players in each squad gives... 140.000 players. And many clubs have more than 25 players in their squads
@@josuebarboza9809 England alone has 12 lower divisions.
Gonna be honest here lads, it’s sad It’s not even funny; I don’t support United, or Juve. It was genuinely depressing to see such a good player essentially fail, it actually disappointed me, he was so talented
Nah its kinda funny
No it’s not
Yup. What a waste.
He wanted to be Mr Instagram, now he has the chance!
Laughs in Souness
Graeme Souness was on the decision panel.
I can't believe you didn't mention the Rio Ferdinand case. That was massive at the time.
These animated videos are my favourite
'Everybody's on steroids' - Nate Diaz Would bet my entire bank balance that most participants of your sport or doping
More context on the Simona Halep case and why you can’t compare Pogba. Halep was accused not only of taking Roxadustat by WADA, but they also accused her of BLOOD DOPING based on “irregularities” on her athlete biological passport (ABP). This is why she was handed down a 4 year ban. As the video said above, Halep did not contest the fact that Roxadustat was found but rather argued she took a contaminated supplement. CAS cleared / acquitted Halep from the charges of blood doping. I wish the Athletic would go deeper into this issue because CAS basically admonished WADA on their ruling esp re Halep’s ABP.
More of these videos plz
Players should be tested at least on a monthly basis
4 years is substantially higher than basically all in football
your videos are excellent
Honestly insane how infrequently footballers are tested, that needs to change asap!
Meanwhile Kyle Walker literally breathing the juice
4 years is wild and unfair.
In 2017, his face was next to Messi in clothing stores.
Now he's next to a mess
I remember Kevin Kilbane once saying he was only tested twice in his entire career!
With his athletic ability you'd just be testing him for coke let's be real here 😂
Mourinho like almost always having the last laugh
This was a way for UEFA and Fifa to get at Juventus for their part in the super league and their scandal with the ex juve president Agnelli. I'm sure Pogba isn't the only player caught, but he serves a good example.
Graham Souness will be delighted!!!!!
My childhood friend Abel Xavier never smoked or drank and then this 😢😢😢
4 years is crazy
It is amazing how quick Juventus as a whole fell post COVID!
Nah he definitely got setup
Why did ramos not get a ban?
So there are drugs that aren't banned? I know Anadin makes you a beast on the pitch.
There's legal supplements like caffeine (which Leicester were rumoured to be using to a ridiculous extent in their title-winning season), but also banned drugs that are allowed with therapeutic use exemptions (very common in cycling). The latter is where the rumours about Liverpool's insane levels of 'asthma' in the squad come from. Whether or not those two examples are true, it almost certainly happens across the sport, because a lot of people are paid a lot of money to find any improvement in performance they can within the rules. What you could argue though, is that unlike purely physical sports like weightlifting and cycling, there's less of a payoff when it comes to doping in football. Firstly, it's more of a mixture of skill, tactics and physicality, so doping is only changing a small aspect of your performance. And secondly, you're only one of eleven players on the pitch, so your individual impact on the result is far less than in individual sports. In football, it's seems to just as often be players putting pressure on themselves to get into the team, rather than giving themselves the edge in an important game. I still remember Kolo Toure getting done for slimming pills, and that was when he wasn't really getting starts.
Trenbolone and dbol aren’t banned
Like caffeine and nicotine. Technically drugs, but completely legal.
@@smartwhip. Are they effective?
4 years is way too long with out proof he did it deliberately for a long period.
He has to face it, unfortunately. He's done in top flight football. When the ban ends, is either MLS or retirement for him. It's "unfortunate" if he really took the american supplement without knowing what was in it (kinda like Maradona in '94), but the stricter rules have to start somewhere. Doping is an epidemic and it's football's time to cleanse from it
Considering juve's reputation, they ordered a hit on pogba is not far-fetched
How come wheres JJ bull
"My thought process is to show Manchester [United] that they made a mistake in waiting to give me a contract." Thanks for proving your point
Difficult to imagine his time back at Juve would be worse than Utd. Turns out I just wasn't trying hard enough
More or less most footballers do it, especially with such a tight schedule, Pogba (and some then and there) just get caught. As it mentioned on the video, so few tests are going on in football compare to other sports like cycling. As much as UCI is s*** in places, at least they put a good efforts in anti-doping
That's quite sad.
Let's be honest, 4 years is too much
Who would have thought one of the best football players would b in jail it doesn’t feel right not having my favorite player not in juve 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢 as a pogba fan I am very sas
In other words, he was supposed to take something else that wouldn't show up on a test, but got screwed somehow
I always thought 4 years were excessive, especially for a first-time offender. 2 years would have been a more appropriate penalty
Less since their is proof he had not intention
@@shafsteryellow he decided to take an experimental treatment without his club's approval, so he is still fully responsible for the tainted supplement.
The death of former controversial football agent Mino Riola has made his clients go through hard time
No mention of Pep doping when he’s one of the biggest names in football?
Tifo has been cooking😅
@TifoFootball He rejoined Juve on a free transfer in 2022, not 2020.
As a United fan, I wish he got banned when he was playing for us. He was just a dabbing Glenn Whelan with good PR
Bruh, Harry Maguire still at ManU.
United is not a club talented players flourish these days. Hasn't been for many years.
Yea, would've saved the club millions on a tool-downing virus
If Pogba played in the NBA or NFL, Xitter would paint him as a victim.
lock him up, throw away the key and free him when Spurs win the Prem 😏
I wonder what manchester city players are taking
Walker and Rodri need to be tested 😂
Why did the sevilla player get 2 and pogba get 4? Genuinely curious
Maybe different laws in Spain and Italy
@@seb2750 but the ban isn't a govt ban I think. It's a ban from FIFA from working in their competitions
It's because Papu Gomez's ban was by FIFA and their standard punishment is two years instead of four.
Damn, real madrid dodged a bullet on this one, glad he went to Manchester
Pogba returned to juve on a free transfer in 2022* 0:52
This guy left a team made around him and left for Man united without Ferguson , he was already high on something 😂
he was never the most exspensive player in football
Wasnt Kolo Toure banned while playing in the Prem?
Yeah, in 2011 while at Man City. He was banned for 6 months.
The 4 years to Pogba is not for the drug itself or for the offense, but because he's black. let's stop pretending otherwise, we're only fooling ourselves.
whoa 2027
He voodoo the wrong doll 😂😂
Paul Pogba is not a serious player and has surrounded himself with a dubious entourage and he now faces the consequences. Disregarding this, it is more and more clear that a great deal of players are taking performance enhancing drugs. There is no denying this and at some point we will know the truth. For now, there are well kept secrets, but secrets tend to get to the surface. All these players collapsing on the field is particularly suspicious to me. Unfortunately, the crazy "show" must go on for the betting agencies and the investment funds
Let's just say he is not the brightest crayon... even with his haircuts.
4 years seems excessive in my opinion. Just ban him for a season or two and be done with it. Taking 4 years off his life for something ALOT of players are doing.
Pogba is my favourite player
I hear Joe Devine, my ears perk up and listen.
He said late naughties
He rejoined in 2022
When you're not really an honorable person, we don't care what you say after you get caught doping, or cheating, or whatever
Very upsetting how such a great player just ruined his legacy
"great player" 😂🤣
@@Mercurial.He was unreal
@@Mercurial.he had all the talent to become France's greatest midfielder had he not come back to United
Even before "ruining his legacy" he would have only been remembered as a part in Frances World Cup win. He'll never make any "great players" lists
@@christhewolf4246 So with that being said from you that means he had shown 2 promising seasons with Juventus to be France's greatest midfielder?! An absolute joke of a disgrace you even uttered that nonsense in 2 years at Juve 😭
Man... we got robbed
Mourinho warned him looool
Doping cases prove that drugs don't work as well as we think 😂😂
It started with his brothers voodoo
His United transfer did worse to his career than the drugs
Athletic finna get cursed
What are the benefits of DHEA?
Pogba had some mystery injuries at United where he was out for 4 months without anyone knowing anything specific. I wouldn't be surprised if he's been taking performance enhancing drugs for years, maybe since his first stay at Juventus. I hope people haven't covered for him since I don't think clubs are obliged to report on internal drugs tests.
You don't need to be a doctor to know this man use it, his "ice in the veins" celebration was a clue all along
Lol
José was right
He's no loss.
Pogba what went wrong my bro
Time to come to mls
I was never a PP fan and I hate drug use in sports, but 4 years seems a bit much, even if he did it willingly. Two years is a real deterrent for players - four years is a career ender.
his career was already over anyway
nah