What happened to Paul Pogba?

When he joined Juventus the first time around in 2012, Paul Pogba explained the origin of his French nickname , the Pickaxe. «That's the kid who helps the others,» he said. «I'm a good kid.»

Over the subsequent decade, plenty of bad things have happened to that undeniably good kid. The 2018 World Cup winner was continually torn down by fans, pundits and some of his managers during his six-year-long second spell at Manchester United. A return to Juventus in the summer of 2022 was plagued by injury before a four-year doping ban effectively ended his playing career at the tender age of 30.

And that's before we get to the kidnapping, witchcraft and blackmail.

Here's a look at all the things that have chipped away at .

«I am less entitled to make mistakes than others,» Pogba has sighed in the past. «I went from the biggest transfer in the world to the most criticised player in the world. Criticism is always here.»

Unattainable expectations have been placed upon Pogba ever since he returned to United in 2016 after four trophy-laden seasons at Juventus.

The bar was initially raised by his world-record fee of £89m — more than three times the sum of the previous most expensive central midfielder the game had ever seen; Juan Sebastian Veron, who also endured mixed success at United after arriving in 2001.

Pogba's unique skillset also worked against him. A lithe, 6'4 frame afforded Pogba a remarkable amount of industry alongside the dexterity of his balletic ball control. An astonished Jesse Lingard once gawped: «He's a midfield maestro, isn't he? He's an octopus! You just can't get the ball off him. It's like he grows an extra leg!»

After excelling in a perfectly balanced three-man midfield at Juventus — a club considered to have the