Pogba, the prodigal son returns “It was a choice of heart”

“I went home, I missed the fans and I have always talked to Allegri” He will wear the Bianconero after six years and will have the number 10 that belonged to Dybala

Torino

Six years later, Paul Pogba returns home. We always say this, when nostalgia directs the market and careers close like circles, but this is really an intimate choice, anomalous in a football that is increasingly slave to business: “I felt that Juventus was my destination and I listened to the heart, there were other teams but I had no doubts. See how people welcomed me? It’s more than a dream, I’m very happy ».

The total blonde is a trait-d’union with the past, the particular sign of a football player who has always made his hair a canvas, including engravings, cuts and colors, but the boy who left in 2016 has become a man, father, leader on the pitch: in Manchester he did not perform as he hoped (“No repentance: I learned and I grew up”), but with France he raised the World Cup. No pressure (“What is it?” He asks laughing) and a lot of confidence in a young team (“There is talent, we can do great things”), the certainty of turning the page and forgetting the last season without triumphs: “Juventus it is still the number one club in Italy: it has won for many years and therefore it seemed strange that it did not succeed, but repeating itself is never easy. Not even I, lately, have won: we will try to do it together, I want to find joy and raise a trophy. The championship is a goal, and then there is everyone’s dream which is the Champions ».

He expresses himself in good Italian, fears some mistakes and asks for indulgence, but only once does he call for help because a word escapes him. “I missed you so much,” he says to the audience of reporters, and it’s not just a joke: he missed everything about Juve, every member. A strong bond, never severed, witnessed by the incessant messages of the fans who regretted him: «I was pleased – he says -, but I was focused on United. Then, in the last year, as the deadline approached, I thought more and more often about coming back and I did it ». Not even with Allegri he ever broke off the relationship, even the technician played an important role: “I’ve always talked to him over the years, and his words joined my choice of heart: it was easy to say yes, I didn’t listen other proposals “. Allegri was also an adversary in amusing basket matches: he always beat him, now Paul is looking for revenge. «I was young – he jokes – and I didn’t want to win against the coach. It looked ugly. Now I’m grown up and I don’t joke anymore ».

There is time for a comment on Angel Di Maria, another top player hired on a free transfer basis and another guarantor of the project (“He is a world-class champion, he is hungry and experienced. He wants to win like all of us”) and for a background on Paulo Dybala , his friend: «On vacation we never talked about the number 10 that passes to me. But I asked him why, since I was coming back, there was still not a “bit” left ». Finally, he swears that he has never heard from Zidane, acquits Italy out of the World Cup (“I would never have imagined it, but it remains a great team”) and avoids the controversy over Mourinho with whom he had tense relations: “At the third Rome? No more reason. I just want to win all the matches: if against whom it doesn’t matter ». –