Ronaldo could draw Man Utd midfielder Paul Pogba to Juventus, says Barcary Sagna
Paul Pogba is more likely to join Juventus than Real Madrid because of Cristiano Ronaldo if he leaves Manchester United, according to Bacary Sagna.
The French midfielder left the Old Lady for United for £89.3m back in 2016 and has since lifted EFL Cup and Europa League titles with the Red Devils.
Pogba to leave Man Utd? Five things to know…
- Pogba rejoined Man Utd from Juve in 2016 for a club-record fee of £89m.
- He’s since scored 31 goals in all competitions, winning two major trophies.
- However, the Red Devils have been unable to win the Premier League during that time and Pogba has played just two Champions League campaigns.
- Agent Mino Raiola has hinted publicly that Pogba could join Real Madrid this summer.
- Solskjaer said in March:“You can expect Paul to be here [next season], yeah.”
However, despite outperforming his teammates in a number of key metrics since then — including assists (25), chances created (167) and dribbles completed (216) in the Premier League – Pogba has occasionally come in for criticism among United fans amid links with a move away.
“Everyone within the club [United] from the manager to the owner knows Paul’s wishes,” agent Mino Raiola said last year. “Everyone knows the willingness of Paul to move on. Everyone knows what the feelings of Paul are.”
Pogba has been most often linked with Real Madrid, but former France teammate Sagna believes Ronaldo’s presence at Juventus — as well as his affinity with the French club — could tip the scales for a potential move.
“I see more Paul returning to Juventus because Cristiano [Ronaldo] is there and because Juventus is the club that made him shine,” Sagna told Goal.
Subscribe to Squawka’s Youtube channel here.
“He loves the club, he already knows it.”
Having previously dominated the Champions League with three titles in four seasons between 2014 and 2018, Real Madrid have suffered something of a fall from grace recently, crashing out of the competition at the round-of-16 stage to Ajax and continuing to trail fierce rivals Barcelona in La Liga.
Juventus, meanwhile, continue to lead the way in Serie A and Sagna believes Pogba stands a much greater chance of success returning to Turin, rather than relocating to Madrid.
“It will be tricky for him to go to Madrid now because Madrid are not doing so well and there would be big expectation on him and the Madrid team is getting old,” the 37-year-old added.
“Juve have bought some players like Ramsey and Cristiano. Okay, Cristiano is not young anymore, but he plays like a young boy and they still have a young team.
“If you think about the next two or three years, I think Juve has bigger potential than Madrid.”
