The former France<\/a> star recently returned to light training following a lengthy injury layoff due to a persistent left calf problem, and on Thursday he scored in a friendly match against Premier League<\/a> team Brentford<\/a>.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks 1 Related<\/p>\n The 2018 World Cup winner Pogba joined Monaco on a two-year contract last summer, but has played only about 30 minutes since making his debut at the end of November.<\/p>\n Monaco is sixth in Ligue 1<\/a> with seven rounds remaining. The top three qualify directly for next season’s Champions League and the team finishing fourth goes through qualifying.<\/p>\n Coach S\u00e9bastien Pocognoli has turned Monaco’s fortunes around and his side is on a six-game winning run and just three points behind third-place Marseille<\/a>. Monaco host Marseille on April 5, after the international break, with sources telling ESPN Pogba has a chance to play in that game or their next game against Paris FC on April 10.<\/p>\n Former star Pogba scored in the World Cup final win over Croatia<\/a> eight years ago, when he was considered among the best midfielders in the world.<\/p>\n He also dealt with thigh and ankle problems since joining Monaco, after more than two years out of the game in a career derailed by injuries, off-field problems and a doping ban<\/a>.<\/p>\n In February, Monaco dropped the injured Pogba<\/a> from their Champions League squad in order to include signing made in January ahead of their playoff knockout round matchup with Paris Saint-Germain.<\/p>\n PSG eliminated Monaco in that tie in a hard-fought 5-4 aggregate win for the defending champions.<\/p>\n He previously played for Juventus<\/a> and Manchester United<\/a>.<\/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 105 million euros (then $116 million).<\/p>\n Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. ESPN writer Julien Laurens also contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mar 26, 2026, 03:35 PM ET AS Monaco‘s bid for a Champions League spot next season could be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-547215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/r1579202_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&w=130&h=130&scale=crop&location=center.jpeg\")
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