{"id":149754,"date":"2025-11-23T14:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T14:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/149754\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T14:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T14:56:08","slug":"pogba-makes-monaco-debut-plays-1st-game-in-2-years-since-doping-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/149754\/","title":{"rendered":"Pogba makes Monaco debut, plays 1st game in 2 years since doping ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Manchester United<\/a> and Juventus<\/a> star Paul Pogba<\/a> made his Monaco debut Saturday, playing his first minutes in over two years.<\/p>\n

Pogba, 32, came on in the 85th minute of a 4-1 loss<\/a> at Rennes in the French league, receiving a loud ovation from supporters at Roazhon Park.<\/p>\n

“Football isn’t over for me. We’ve worked hard, we’ve waited more than two years to get back, and today, it finally happened. Thank God,” Pogba told reporters afterward, according to AFP.<\/p>\n

“It really touched me to see the crowd stand and applaud,” he added. “I honestly didn’t expect that, so a huge thank-you to all the fans who were there today and supported me.”<\/p>\n

Paul Pogba made his long-awaited Monaco debut against Rennes on Saturday.\u00a0Lou BENOIST \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Once a standout world champion for France<\/a>, the midfielder’s career was derailed by injuries, off-field problems and a doping ban.<\/p>\n

He wept when he signed his two-year contract with Monaco during the offseason in a bid to relaunch his career. He recently overcame a minor ankle injury and resumed training with Monaco during the international break.<\/p>\n

A total of 811 days had passed since his last game, when he made his last appearance for Juventus on Sept. 3, 2023.<\/p>\n

At his peak, Pogba helped his country win the 2018 World Cup, scoring in the final when France beat Croatia<\/a> 4-2. He spent most of his career between United and Juventus, finally leaving the Italian club in November 2024.<\/p>\n

In 2016, Pogba became the then-most expensive soccer player in history when he returned to United from Juventus for a fee of \u20ac105 million ($116 million).<\/p>\n

The biggest blow to his career came in February 2024, when he was initially banned for four years by Italy’s anti-doping court after he tested positive for testosterone while still at Juventus. In October 2024, the Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced his ban to 18 months<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I’m relieved to be back playing football, the thing I love most in the world,” Pogba said.<\/p>\n

“But there’s still work to do to get back to full fitness, play 90 minutes, and help the team as much as possible.”<\/p>\n

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Manchester United and Juventus star Paul Pogba made his Monaco debut Saturday, playing his first minutes in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-149754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}