Clubs ‘seduced by opportunity’ to sign Manchester United legend on a free transfer

Paul Pogba is attracting global interest as he nears his return to football at the end of a doping ban.

Manchester United junior graduate Pogba was initially banned from football for four years after failing a drugs test in August 2023 but his suspension was subsequently reduced to 18 months and he is now eligible to play again.

Now 32, Pogba left Juventus by mutual consent last November as a result of his ban and is therefore a free agent. While there are clearly enormous risks involved in signing a player in his thirties who hasn’t played for so long, it’s no surprise that there are interested parties.

Pogba left United for the second time to join the Bianconeri (for the second time) in 2022 but his second stint in Turin wasn’t anything like the success of the first.

The French international was right at the heart of the Juventus team that won four Serie A titles on the bounce between 2013 and 2016 before he returned to Old Trafford to add the Europa League to his medal collection in 2016-17.

Widely recognised as one of football’s most exceptional individual talents of the last ten years, Pogba hit his peak at the perfect moment, leading France to a World Cup win in Russia in 2018. It’s fair to say it’s all been downhill from there for the Parisian.

With his ban now expired Pogba is searching for a route back into the game for what he hopes will be a positive conclusion to a career that delivered so much but should really have been so much more.

Foot Mercato reported earlier in June that Pogba had been offered a deal by Monaco, whose management were ‘quickly seduced by this opportunity’ to bring in a World Cup winner as he works to ‘relaunch’ his career once more with an extremely ambitious target of rejoining Les Bleus at the World Cup in 2026.

But there could be a Saudi Pro League spanner in the works for Monaco.

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Jeddah side Al Ittihad, one of the handful of Saudi Pro League clubs majority owned by the state Public Investment Fund and the reigning Saudi champions, has reportedly ‘begun initial discussions’ with Pogba.

Should Pogba opt for Saudi Arabia over Monaco, he would become the fourth French player in a squad managed by 1998 World Cup winner Laurent Blanc.

Al Ittihad are captained by Pogba’s one-time France teammate Karim Benzema and former Premier League players N’Golo Kante and Moussa Diaby also play for the Tigers, who finished 2024-25 in a very comfortable first place.

Blanc also has former Liverpool midfielder Fabinho and ex-Tottenham Hotspur man Steven Bergwijn at his disposal but Pogba is far from a certain addition.

“Optimism remains high within Monaco, even though the former Manchester United star is exploring all opportunities,” reports Foot Mercato.