A dictionary about Paul Pogba would read: 1) La Pioche: The Pickaxe, as midfield pivot; 2) Pogiba: for his dribbles during the last World Cup; 3) Il Polpo Paul: Paul the Octopus, for his long legs that look like tentacles while tackling or running; 4) Pogboom: for his explosive style and energy on the pitch.
At Euro 2016, "Pogmania" may also become mainstream vernacular – not a moniker for his sublime skills, brute brawn and midfield motion, a combo French fans have been enchanted by, but a reference to Pogba’s outings, projectively steeped in grace and glory, at the European Championship.
Yet, last Friday in France's opening game against Romania, Pogba didn’t star for the hosts. He was subdued, if not anonymous. West Ham’s Dimitri Payet darted and dazzled on the wing, at times bamboozling defenders with his nifty footwork. Then, with Les Bleus in despair, stalled by stage-fright and anguish, Payet received the ball outside the box, slid inside and let fly a Beckham-esque shot, regal in curve, radiant in finality.
Payet’s goal had a French chic, in line with the zip and oomph of his Premier League season for West Ham United. When the fourth official showed his number, the enormity of his feat struck. Tears welled up in his eyes and he left the field to a rapturous applause.An underwhelming start
Pogba watched it all from the bench. French coach Didier Deschamps had substituted his No 15 for Manchester United’s Anthony Martial after 77 indifferent, and slightly underwhelming, minutes. Pogba has somehow always underachieved with Les Bleus, and rumours are circulating that Deschamps is prepared to axe his poster boy.
It's not that Pogba didn’t try. In the opening exchanges, the 23-year-old was a zealot, one of eleven in fact, but, for much of the 90 minutes, he drifted in and out of the game. He struck a neat volley, which Romanian goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu parried. Overall, he played disappointingly.At Juventus, Pogba enjoys an attacking role, but Deschamps asks him to play deeper for France. The French midfield, however, looked laboured, slow in both ball circulation and transition. Pogba got a bit exasperated, at odds with his many pursuits this tournament. He has always wanted to be the best after all.
Ingrained competitiveness
Pogba cultivated that ingrained competitiveness in Roissy-en-Brie, an eastern suburb of Paris, where he grew up and played with his elder twin brothers, Mathias and Florentin, against bigger and stronger boys. Pogba senior had dreamed of a professional career and wanted his sons to succeed. He had them study videos and quizzed them.Today, Paul, Mathias and Florentin are all internationals. The twins play for Guinea. At an early age, they enrolled at the local club US Roissy-en-Brie. Paul Pogba moved to Le Havre, a French club famed for its youth development, and, then, at the age of 16, to English giants Manchester United.
His spat with Sir Alex Ferguson remains nebulous. Pogba, so focused on self-improvement, felt alienated and frustrated with the Scotsman’s persistent promise of playing minutes at the highest level. In his last season in England, Pogba got seven cameos at senior level, but his discontent simmered.He left for Juventus with an explicit motive: first team action and game development. Andrea Pirlo, Claudio Marchisio and Arturo Vidal became tutors for technique, aggression and passing abilities. He added a latent steeliness to his game, derived from the physical and tactical encounters in the Italian Serie A.
At the 2014 World Cup, Pogba’s youthfulness led to inconsistency. Wilson Palacios of Honduras wound him up in the opening game and his retaliation deserved a red card. Rio Mavuba and Patrice Evra pleaded with Pogba to calm down. Against Ecuador, Pogba was ominously quiet, but he came good with a goal in the round of 16 against Nigeria.The new midfielder
On the back of another Italian championship with Juventus this season, Pogba is more mature, more decisive, the way he wants it to be. The Frenchman once said that he wants to be "the new midfielder". When asked to elaborate, he projected a science-fiction player, who can defend, attack, score, give assists, tackle, win back the ball and be a leader on the field, all at the same time – a surreal concoction of Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta.
In real terms, Pogba is an avant-garde decision maker, who in a split second executes game play all over the field, a box-to-box midfielder, a number eight, but with a touch of Zinedine Zidane. His ambition is to become a legend of Zizou’s magnitude. Zidane’s 1998 World Cup win was celebrated as a triumph for Les Bleus’ multicultural DNA.Pogba is both black and a Muslim, the son of immigrants and from Paris's suburbs. He can carry those values and emotions forward and, in his own right, transcend the French game. He must, however, improve his performances, starting with the game against Albania in Marseille. If he does, expect plenty of "Pogmania" in France.
