On July 3, 2025, Paul Pogba’s eyes sparkled. After three seasons lost to injury, a doping suspension and a bizarre criminal case in which he was the victim, the new AS Monaco player fantasized about a return to competition against his boyhood club, Le Havre, on the opening day of the French football championship in mid-August.
“That would be a beautiful story,” the 2018 World Cup winner told the press at the time. However, his hopes were quickly quashed by Monaco’s CEO Thiago Scuro. “I can guarantee you that he won’t be able to play,” said Scuro, suggesting that the new signing “was probably joking.”
Six months later, the 32-year-old midfielder’s dreams have vanished. Pogba continues to suffer physical setbacks, keeping him in the medical room and preventing a full return to the squad. He was unavailable for the trip to Real Madrid on Tuesday in the Champions League โ a match in which his team was thrashed 6-1 โ and the French international will also miss the journey to Le Havre on Saturday, January 24, in Ligue 1.
Scuro, meanwhile, has remained an unflinching spokesperson, openly acknowledging what increasingly looks like a failed bet: “The plan put in place since Paul arrived is not working as expected,” he admitted on Wednesday, January 14. The statistics speak for themselves: the former Juventus player has not featured in the Champions League this season and has played only 30 total minutes in Ligue 1, between late November and early December 2025. A far cry from the hopes sparked by his recruitment by Monaco.
His last appearance on the pitch was on December 5. Pogba played 21 minutes against Brest in a 1-0 loss. He suffered a calf injury shortly afterward and has yet to recover. It is as if his body is betraying him, after his long months of inactivity. Before those brief outings with Monaco, his last match was on September 3, 2023, in a Juventus shirt against Empoli in Serie A.
His return to Les Bleus drifts further away
Pogba’s struggles are not only physical; they have also taken a mental toll. “He is deeply affected by how difficult it has been to be available and increase his playing time,” said Scuro. To make matters worse, the overall atmosphere in Monaco has been tense due to the club’s sporting crisis. For several weeks, Monaco has been on a losing streak. The enthusiastic statements of the French international about his ability to bounce back now seem a distant memory.
Scuro insisted that the team and Pogba himself “are working hard to find solutions.” Yet his hopes remain cautious. “Either it works, and he’ll soon be back on the pitch to make an impact, or it doesn’t,” he said. In the first case, “the parties can sit down this summer to discuss what’s next,” the executive added, even though Pogba’s contract officially runs until June 2027.
This situation has another consequence: The likelihood of Pogba wearing the national team jersey at the upcoming World Cup (June 11 to July 19, in the United States, Canada and Mexico) is diminishing. The player, who has 91 caps and 11 goals for Les Bleus, had spoken of his dream to return when he arrived in Monaco. However, he knew that his close relationship with the coach, Didier Deschamps, would not be enough. A fierce competitor, Deschamps has never been the type to call up a player just to please him.
“If I’m not fit, if I play poorly and don’t perform well for Monaco, I have to forget about the French team,” Pogba himself admitted on November 22, when he returned to action in Rennes (a 4-1 loss for Monaco). “He has the ability to return to his best,” Deschamps said of him in a press conference in March 2025. But he added a note of caution: “It’s not going to happen with the snap of a finger.”