90min

Why some PSG fans don’t want Paul Pogba transfer

By Jamie Spencer

Some PSG fans have protested against the possible signing of Man Utd midfielder Paul Pogba
Some PSG fans have protested against the possible signing of Man Utd midfielder Paul Pogba / Daniel Mihailescu - Pool/Getty Images
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Sections of Paris Saint-Germain's support have made their feelings known about Paul Pogba after the French giants were linked with a €50m (£43m) transfer for the Manchester United midfielder.

Pogba is out of contract at Old Trafford next summer and appears set on assessing all of his options before deciding his future, raising the possibility that the Premier League club could sell him this summer in order to command a transfer fee before it is too late.

Pogba left United once before as a free agent in 2012 and the club then spent a world-record fee to take him back to Manchester four years later. The prospect of losing him as a free agent again is not a pleasant one and a sale may now be in the best interests of both parties.

Paul Pogba
Pogba is weighing up his options / Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images

Real Madrid have long been linked with the Frenchman, but challenging finances would make it difficult for Los Blancos to pay a transfer fee. Juventus are also interested in taking him back, but PSG appear to be the club most financially able to make it happen.

A move to Parc des Princes would see Pogba - a World Cup winner with in 2018 - play professionally in his homeland for the first time in his career. But some PSG aren’t keen on the idea.

Banners hung at Parc des Princes and the club’s training ground read: ‘Pogba, you should listen to your mother, she doesn't want you here, neither do we.’

The question is: why?

Pogba grew up in an eastern suburb of Paris to parents who had emigrated from Guinea – his twin older brothers Florentin and Mathias were born in Guinea before the family moved. But he has revealed in the past that his parents supported Marseille.

PSG vs Marseille is French football’s most prominent domestic rivalry, dubbed Le Classique, while Pogba himself has previously declared he has no interest in playing for the Paris club.

PSG/Marseille is France's primary domestic club rivalry
PSG/Marseille is France's primary domestic club rivalry / NICOLAS TUCAT/Getty Images

“I'm sure that I wouldn't play club football at the Parc des Princes,” Pogba told Canal+ in 2018.

“I'm not attracted to that because my father and mother were fans of Marseille so Paris doesn't really fit into my plans.”

The issue now if PSG do make him an offer this summer and he decides he definitely wants to leave Manchester, is whether Pogba is now prepared to change his mind on the subject and whether fans accept him if he does.

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