Paul Pogba banned from football for four years after failing anti-doping test

Paul Pogba has received a four-year ban from football after returning a positive drugs test in August, according to reports. The 30-year-old tested positive for testosterone last year and has not played since making his most recent appearance for Juventus in September.

According to La Repubblica, Pogba has been hit with a four-year ban with the sanction being imposed by Italy’s national anti-doping tribunal. The report states the anti-doping prosecutor’s office had requested a four-year suspension, which was accepted on Thursday. Express Sport have reached out to Pogba’s representatives for comment.

It is said that Pogba’s lawyers had rejected a plea deal and were hoping for the Juventus midfielder to be handed a lighter punishment, claiming that he had accidentally ingested the substance that was responsible for the positive test. However, their pleas fell on deaf ears, with Pogba’s ban considered among the strongest possible punishments for the offence.

The tribunal said that Pogba had violated anti-doping rules when they found ‘non-endogenous testosterone metabolites’ in his positive drugs test. They added that his results were ‘consistent with the exogenous origin of the target compounds’.

The length of Pogba’s ban means that he will be unable to return to the pitch until 2027, with his suspension having been backdated to 2023. His positive test was submitted in August following Juventus’ victory over Udinese, a game in which Pogba was left as an unused substitute.

Pogba will turn 31 next month, meaning he will not be able to play football again until he is almost 35. His contract at Juventus will expire before then, with the Frenchman only tied down at the Allianz Stadium until the summer of 2026.

The midfielder was once the world’s most expensive footballer, joining Manchester United from Juventus in 2016 for a transfer fee of around £89.3million. He won the World Cup with France two years later but struggled to hit the same heights at Old Trafford, often coming under fire as a result of his performances for the Red Devils.

Pogba returned to Juventus on a free transfer in 2022 after making over 200 appearances for United during his six-year spell at the club. His first season back in Italy was blighted by a serious knee injury, which required surgery and kept him out of action for several months.

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