France star Paul Pogba has received a four-year ban from football by Italy’s anti-doping tribunal for testing positive for testosterone last August, as confirmed by his club Juventus on Thursday.
The 30-year-old World Cup winner had been provisionally suspended in September, and the tribunal’s decision has now been communicated to Juventus.
Italy’s anti-doping body has not yet responded to media inquiries regarding this matter. The ban was advocated by anti-doping prosecutors, stemming from Pogba’s positive test following Juventus’s Serie A season opener against Udinese on August 20. It’s worth noting that Pogba was an unused substitute in that particular match.
A month later, a B sample confirmed the presence of testosterone, leading to Pogba’s provisional suspension. Pogba’s representatives argued that the testosterone resulted from a food supplement prescribed by a doctor he consulted in the United States.
Paul Pogba, who returned to Juventus in 2022 after a six-year stint at Manchester United, played a crucial role in the France national team’s victory at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, scoring in the final against Croatia. This doping incident adds another layer of challenge to Pogba’s recent return to Juventus, marked by a challenging first season, where he made only 10 appearances and faced off-field issues, including an extortion attempt against him
