Euro 2016: France are still waiting for the real Paul Pogba to turn up

If he does, starting with the game against Albania in Marseille on Wednesday, expect plenty of 'Pogmania' in the tournament.

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 immigrants and from Paris' 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.

Ronaldo and Ronaldinho eliminated from Legends World Cup

The star quarter-final clash is undoubtedly Lionel Messi vs the late, great Johan Cruyff, while Pele, Zinedine Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo were among those who won their bouts.

World Cup-winning former Brazil forward Ronaldo was the most high profile of the eight eliminated Legends World Cup stars as Cristiano Ronaldo came back from behind in the final few hours to topple his namesake.

The current Real Madrid No.7 edged the vote with 51 per cent of of the 54,000 votes cast in the 48 hours leading up to the full-time whistle, despite being behind the retired Ronaldo for most of the race.

Another close-fought battle came between Barcelona icons Lionel Messi and Ronaldinho, which the Argentine edged with 51% of the vote too.

Ronaldinho did the equivalent of scoring after the whistle had been blown by overtaking Messi once the voting deadline had passed, but it was too late to stop Messi from sealing a quarter-final tie with the late Johan Cruyff, who saw off competition from Alfredo Di Stefano.



Without doubt the closest battle was between Real Madrid legend Ferenc Puskas and Dutch icon Marco van Basten. The footballing giants were separated by just SIX votes of the 6,062 cast upon the deadline, with Puskas winning the photo finish.

The Hungarian has a quarter-final game against Diego Maradona to look forward to on Saturday. The Argentine made light work of his contest with fellow cult icon George Best.

The winner of that last-eight battle will face either Pele or Zinedine Zidane in the semi-finals. The Brazil phenomenon eased past Eusebio while Michel Platini faced the biggest thrashing of the last 16 with just 17% of the tally against Zidane.

The final last-16 spot went to Paolo Maldini having won the battle of defensive giants against ex-West Germany skipper Franz Beckenbauer, meaning he lined up a last-eight tie against Ronaldo.

The three secrets of Barcelona star Neymar's adaptation

When Neymar Jr goes out to play he turns the pitch into a huge canvas. He comes from the classic Brazilian school. The Barcelona No 11 is a prodigy of individual technique. His happiness, like with Garrincha, comes from dribbling.

Neymar, however, differs from his compatriots, by being the first "crack" from his country that has run his career so far in a 100 per cent professional way.

From when he exploded at Santos FC in 2010, at just 18, a project was organised around him to give him the fundamentals to go on and win a Ballon d'Or. 

With his family company NR Sports, it wasn't just about image rights, but a comprehensive vision encompassing speech therapy, psychology, 'media training' and personalized fitness. 'Ney' was formed on and off the pitch.

"Neymar Jr is a perfectionist, sometimes it's better to say nothing because he's obsessed, he knows perfectly where he's gone wrong and can improve," said his coach at Santos, Muricy Ramalho. 

The main challenge Ney had when arriving at Barcelona was not to compete with Messi, and much less stoke up memories of Ronaldo, Romario, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho. His opponent was himself. His process of adaptation was completely different to the 4Rs - all of them had come to the Camp Nou after playing for a different European club. 

His professional environment took work. Neymar's father told SPORT: "Neymar Jr is a Brazilian footballer who comes from a culture that trains twice a day and plays many more game. The first year we realized that the culture of Europe is a single workout with more intensity, Neymar needed to know how the new system worked." 

And after the first year, Neymar and his father decided to establish in Barcelona their own sports structure, with two professionls from Santos FC, whom they knew perfectly: Ricardo Rosa as a trainer and the physiotherapist Rafael Martini. They subsequently denied that the decision did not sit well with some of the Blaugrana coaching staff.

"We coordinated with Barcelona and introduced his own trainer and a physiotherapist, we judge it necessary to leave Neymar in the best possible physical condition along with the club and the results have come - Neymar has a higher percentage of finishes [in games], we managed to protect him from injuries," said his father.

"It is true that Neymar has gained muscle mass, but we are looking for other things, this structure is to prevent certain injuries occurring, preventive work is done."

Meanwhile, the forward was very receptive to the indications of the club. "The club nutritionist changed his diet," added his father. "Culturally this is something difficult for Brazilians, who have a base of rice and beans."

"Everything changes with respect to Brazil. Schedules, habits need to adapt and we have done everything possible to speed up this process, last year this was ok, we won the treble, and this year we go for more!"