UPDATE: Juventus Star Paul Pogba’s Agent – ‘Paul Didn’t Want To Break The Anti-Doping Rules

UPDATE: Tuesday, September 12 at 1:55 am

IN light of the situation surrounding his player at Juventus, Paul Pogba’s agent Rafaela Pimenta tried to clarify things with the Italian media late on Monday evening.

She told tuttosport.com: ‘We await the counter-analysis and until then we can’t say anything. The certain thing is that Paul Pogba never wanted to break the rules’.

Pimienta was the ‘partner’ of the late ‘super agent’ Mino Raiola. She has looked after Pogba’s interests for most of his footballing career. He has even described her previously as his ‘second mother’.

 Despite following Monday’s events closely, nobody inside the French midfielder’s entourage has commented on what happened, nor on the hypothesis that the doping substance may have been taken involuntarily.

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UPDATE: Monday, September 11 at 10:04 pm

JUVENTUS announced this evening that they have received formal communication from the National Anti-Doping Tribunal regarding their French international midfielder, Paul Pogba.

An official statement on juventus.com, read: ‘Juventus Football Club announces that today the player Paul Labile Pogba received a precautionary suspension order from the National Anti-Doping Tribunal following the adverse outcome of the analyses carried out on 20 August 2023. The Company reserves the right to evaluate the next procedural steps’.

Nota della società

— JuventusFC (@juventusfc) September 11, 2023

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Monday, September 11 at 7:22 pm

THE French international football star Paul Pogba is facing a potential ban of up to four years after allegedly failing a drugs test.

He is believed to have undergone a random drug test following his club’s opening match of the Serie A season when Juventus took on Udinese on August 20.

Pogba never actually made it onto the pitch for the Turin side in that game. According to various Italian news outlets, when the test was analysed, the World Cup winner apparently showed traces of testosterone in his body.

Sport Mediaset and Corriere dello Sport were just two of those to claim that the former Manchester United midfielder had failed the drug test.

Pogba has been dogged by injuries since his return to Turin

Following his return to the Old Lady, the player has endured an awful spell of injuries that have limited him to a combined total of only 52 minutes of action so far in the new season during matches with Bologna and Empoli.

According to Sport Mediaset this Monday, September 11, Pogba will now be suspended as a precaution. He then has a three-day window in which to request a counter-analysis of his test results.

Unless he opts for a plea, should the 30-year-old be found guilty of using a banned substance then the midfielder would be subjected to an investigation by the National Anti-Doping Tribunal in Italy, the news outlet said.

He could face a ban of up to four years

If he is subsequently found guilty of violating the sports doping articles 2.1 and 2.2, then Pogba could face anything from two years up to four years of disqualification from football should it be proved that he took the drug intentionally.

The articles in question concern the: ‘presence of a prohibited substance’, and ‘the use or attempted use of a prohibited substance. Atalanta’s Argentinian centre-back Palomino was the last player in Serie A to be involved in a similar case the paper pointed out.

After his brother Mathias was charged and detained over his involvement in an extortion plot to get around £11m from him, Pogba hinted that he could be ready to retire from football.

“Money changes people. … It can break up a family. It can create a war. Sometimes I was just by myself thinking, ‘I don’t want to have money anymore. I just don’t want to play anymore'”, Pogba revealed in a recent interview.

He added: ‘I just want to be with normal people, so they will love me for me – not for the fame, not for the money. Sometimes it’s tough’, as reported by football365.com.