Paul Pogba says he is “shocked and heartbroken” after being handed a four-year ban by Italian anti-doping authorities that could end his playing career.
The 30-year-old tested positive for DHEA, a banned substance that boosts endogenous testosterone, after Juventus’s opening game of the season against Udinese on August 20.
Pogba will now take his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the hope of reducing his sanction on appeal, but at this point the career of one of the finest players of his generation appears to be in shreds.
“I have been informed of the decision and believe that verdict is incorrect,” Pogba said.
“I am sad, shocked and heartbroken that everything I have built in my professional playing career has been taken away from me.”
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Pogba has played 91 times for France and was a key part of their World Cup-winning squad in 2018. He began his career as a youngster at Manchester United before joining Juventus in 2012, with whom he won the Serie A title in four successive seasons. He went back to United for £100 million in 2016, a world transfer record at the time, but the move failed to bring the desired success for either player or club — aside from winning the Europa League and League Cup in 2017 — and he returned to Juventus in 2022.
DHEA is classed as an anabolic androgenic steroid but Pogba’s camp had pointed to previous cases where athletes had claimed to have unwittingly ingested the drug via a supplement.
In 2022, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) announced that Bobby Green, a UFC fighter, had received only a six-month suspension after testing positive for DHEA.
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DHEA can be sold legally in the United States as a dietary product and Green provided evidence to the testing agency that he purchased and ingested the banned substance as an over-the-counter supplement.
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Green’s cooperation, and the fact that a low degree of performance enhancement was determined, led to Usada reducing the length of the suspension. Green said he had not realised DHEA was banned after seeing a video on YouTube and started using the supplement when his wife purchased it from a supermarket. He nevertheless accepted responsibility.
Usada’s website nevertheless states that, while DHEA is “allowed in both medications and supplements, it is considered a prohibited anabolic agent in sport”.
Pogba has been judged on the grounds of strict liability and has received his punishment as a consequence.
Last year Pogba’s representative, Rafaela Pimenta, said: “We are waiting for the counter analysis and until then we can’t say anything. The certain thing is that Paul Pogba never wanted to break the rules.”
A statement from Juventus confirmed the initial positive test: “Juventus Football Club announces that today, September 11, 2023, the footballer Paul Labile Pogba received a precautionary suspension order from the National Anti-Doping Tribunal following the results of tests carried out on August 20, 2023. The club reserves the right to consider the next procedural steps.”
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The Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, has reported that Pogba’s lawyers had rejected a plea deal and hoped to get their client a lighter sentence after claiming that he had accidentally ingested DHEA. This, however, did not prove successful.
