BREAKING: ANTI-DOPING TRIBUNAL BANS POGBA FROM FOOTBALL FOR FOUR YEARS

February 29, 2024February 29, 2024

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Paul Pogba, a midfield player for Juventus, has been given a four-year sentence by the Italian anti-doping tribunal on Thursday after he tested positive for testosterone in a previous test.

The 30-year-old World Cup winner was the subject of a ruling against him, a club spokeswoman told AFP.

“We received notification from the tribunal this morning,” the spokesman said. Italy’s anti-doping body did not immediately respond when contacted by AFP.

Anti-doping prosecutors had called for the four-year ban to be imposed on the former Manchester United midfielder, who tested positive following Juventus’s opening match of the Italian Serie A season against Udinese on August 20, during which he was an unused substitute.

A month later a B sample confirmed the presence of testosterone, and he has been provisionally suspended since.

Pogba’s representatives said the testosterone came from a food supplement prescribed by a doctor he consulted in the United States.

Pogba, who returned to Juventus for a second spell in 2022 after six years at United, was a key member of the France team that won the World Cup in Russia in 2018, scoring in the final against Croatia.

His positive doping test came as he was trying to put behind him a difficult first season back at Juve, in which he made just 10 appearances and was troubled by off-field issues including an investigation into an extortion attempt against him.