Complex Pogba: I show myself, yes, but I’m not arrogant
Paul Pogba is not a bad person, but he can be a complex one to understand. His nickname ‘La Pioche’, which is embroidered into some of his designer clothes, translates as ‘pick axe’, yet in France it is used as a term of endearment for someone who goes out of their way to help others.
‘He always has a smile on his face, I’ll give him that,’ said one United player. ‘He’s really like a big, bouncy kid.’
Indeed, there was some surprise when Pogba turned up on a night out at plush Alderley Edge Chinese restaurant Yu recently with Bolivian girlfriend Maria Salaues heavily pregnant. Few team-mates can envisage 25-year-old Pogba being a father just yet, when looking after himself seems such a struggle.
Only last year, player support staff had to get him out of bed for training. Mourinho would roll his eyes in despair on the team coach when Pogba’s loud music came blaring from the upper deck on the way to a game. ‘It’s Pogba,’ said Mourinho’s assistant, as if he had to confirm.
On a Friday night before a game, Pogba would often ask celebrity hairdresser Ahmed Alsanawi to cut his hair at the team’s hotel. Team-mates began to follow suit, with Alsanawi staying past midnight on one occasion.
‘The No 6 is killing us,’ said Mourinho’s staff. He knew. He warned his players they were part of a virus sweeping the club.
Mourinho had been charmed by Pogba on his return to Old Trafford. He was a winner. However, the irascible Frenchman’s appetite for dancing, ‘silly handshakes’ plus a footballer’s life and its trappings, slowly began to leave the Special One cold.
It wasn’t just the diamond encrusted personalised earrings, the odd £160,000 Richard Mille watch, the flash cars, from the Rolls-Royce to the Maserati, and personalised pool table.
Mourinho had always given his players power of responsibility but became concerned at Pogba’s increasing influence over the likes of Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard and Andreas Pereira. ‘Why aren’t these players putting football first?’ he would ask.
In Pogba’s mind the job is never in question. ‘I’m a happy guy, who laughs, who changes haircuts,’ Pogba told French GQ. ‘I joke, I dance, I do not dress like the others. I show myself, yes, but I’m not arrogant. I am nature.
‘In Europe, this behaviour is surprising, we must stay reserved, do not say everything we think. I have what is called “the American mentality”. Let’s say I’m different. And some people do not take it in a good way.
‘I know how to be serious. Football is my passion, I play, I can smile, I laugh. But the job is the job.’
He is generous, giving both time and money to charity, paying for children in Africa to have life- saving surgery. He has been a driving force in UEFA’s Equal Game initiative and donates to the Red Cross.