Juventus and former Manchester United star Paul Pogba has said he isn’t a “cheater” as he took responsibility for the failed doping test that led to a four-year ban from football.
The French World Cup-winner told Sky Sports News he has “never taken performance-enhancing drugs” and he didn’t do it on purpose.
Pogba, 31, said he’s an “honest person” and “not a cheater”.
“I like to win fairly,” he said, adding, “I’m a bad loser, but I’m not a cheater.”
Pogba was banned for four years in February after testing positive for elevated levels of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), that can raise testosterone, the previous August in the first game of the 2023/24 season.
The midfielder, who plays for Juventus, “took responsibility” for the failed test as he “didn’t triple-check”.
But the ban, he added, “should never be four years” – and it was reduced to 18 months earlier this month after a successful appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
What he took wasn’t performance-enhancing, he said, but “just supplements. Just normal things to improve health” and it was a “shocking moment when I found out [he had tested positive]”.
If the original ban had stood, he would have been out of the game until 2027, when he would be 35, and he admitted it “came to my mind” that his career was effectively over.
Paul Pogba fell out with manager Jose Mourinho at Manchester United. File pic: AP
But, he said he “threw that thought away”.
“My wife told me ‘you’re gonna play again’ and ‘you’re gonna get through this'”, he added, putting his mental strength down to his family and his faith in God.
Even so, he was “really down” at times, and was grateful for the support of his wife and children and friends.
He called it a “tough moment”, but one which has “helped me to grow as a man [and] learn lessons of life”.
Pogba, who started his career at Premier League giants Man United before leaving in 2012 for Juve and returning to Old Trafford four years later, had encouraging words for another new arrival in England, Thomas Tuchel.
Some have criticised the Football Association’s decision to make a coach from a big footballing rival the new England manager, but Pogba disagreed.
He said: “Why not have a German in charge of England? Other countries do it. It happens.
“I play football manager – I see that it happens. He’s a very good coach. People should be happy.”
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Pogba, who won the Europa League and two League Cups at United, had a well-publicised fall-out with manager Jose Mourinho, during his second, six-year spell there.
He played 157 times for the club, scoring 29 goals.
With Juve, he has won four Italian titles, two Italian cups, and three Italian Super Cups.
He could make his return to football around spring next year.