Should Paul Pogba come to MLS? Positives and negatives of the ex-Man Utd, Juventus and France star potentially coming to North America

After nearly 18 months away from the game, come March, the Frenchman - wherever he lands - will need a rebrand. There will be critics who will focus on his doping allegations and there will be coaches and sporting directors who will doubt his ability to return at a high level.

He needs to lean into that and use it as motivation. Whoever takes a chance on him is giving him the opportunity to re-launch his career, and he needs to grab that bull by the horns and ride it until he has nothing left. Aged 31, he still has nearly a decade left in his boots if he chooses so, and at his peak, he was a top five midfielder in the world. It's hard to imagine he will ever reach that level again, but there is still magic left in his boots, he just needs to find it.

MLS presents him that opportunity. Messi is still thriving on the international stage with Argentina, despite crafting his trade stateside. Footballers like Thiago Almada, Diego Gomez, Mateusz Bogusz, Joseph Paintsil and Denis Bouanga are all regulars with their national teams - whom compete against the world's best - while in MLS, too.

The league presents him with the opportunity to compete outside of Europe, while completely rebranding himself at the same time. There is less media and fan pressure in soccer in North America as opposed to what he would face in the old continent.

It's a move that makes plenty of sense for both the league and the Frenchman - it now just comes down to how on if the two parties are actually interested in each other.

Paul is a player who has had success at the highest levels of both the domestic and international game, he's not going to come cheap.

His last contracted salary with Juventus was reportedly an $11m per-year deal that had him inked through 2026. In the wake of his suspension, though, it was reduced to $44k per-month until the recent termination of his deal. For context, in 2024, only two players in MLS - Messi and Lorenzo Insigne - had higher year-round compensation deals than him, though the Italian winger is rumored to be departing Toronto FC this offseason.

If he were to be signed on a similar deal, he would immediately be one of the highest-paid players in the league, and those figured typically tend to be handed toward goal-scorers or creators in the final-third rather than a box-to-box midfielder. However, the direct comparison would be Sergio Busquets at Inter Miami, who is on a Designated Player contract at $8.74m per-year. That figure seems to be a more ballpark area to work around for a potentially interested MLS side.

That's a lot of compensation to throw at a player who has not seen the pitch in 18 months.

For nearly seven seasons, Pogba was arguably the world's best central midfielder. He was one of the most recognizable players on any day, due to his natural flare in the middle of the park, or his trademark outside-the-boot shot that wowed spectators. From his days in Italy to his time in England to his international performances with Les Bleus, he was an absolute star who people all over the world admired.

Even in 2024 - nearly five years after his last truly stupendous season - that still means something.

If an MLS team were to take a gamble on him, they would be bringing the name-factor and star-power of a World Champion, Champions League finalist, Europa League Winner and more to the pitch. He's a name who sells, whether that's kits, marketing deals, partnerships or tickets, he has the name to draw an audience - and that alone may be worth the gamble for some teams.

European midfielders like Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Rafa Marquez and Andrea Pirlo all made the move to MLS in their 30s - could Pogba be the next?

With opportunity comes responsibility, though, and Pogba has to ultimately prioritize his legendary career with whatever step he takes next. If he struggles or fails, the backlash will not be kind - regardless of if that is fair or not. He has a lot riding on this choice, with FIFA handing him a second chance in his career two and a half years earlier than expected.

If a move to MLS came about though, he wouldn't be the only party at risk. With the amount his contract would command, and the sheer amount of marketing that would go into making him the face of a franchise, the hypothetical team would be putting a lot of trust in him as well. Frankly, neither party would benefit from any negative aspects of a move to MLS.

Pogba needs wherever he ends up to be a league and a club that trusts him and gives him time, while on the opposite side of the table, there needs to be patience with him in that aspect as well. Regardless of location though, he is putting him self at risk by thrusting himself into the limelight. As likely the highest earner of an MLS team he would join, the spotlight would be heavily on him.

On paper, Pogba's size, skill and athleticism is a perfect in MLS -- a league that has several young, quick and gifted stars.

The midfielder might not be as fleet-footed as he used to be, but in his last season, he was still incredibly agile for a 6-foot-3 midfielder. He's strong on both feet and he was one of the players who brought the mezzala role back into prominence in modern football. He is as effective in tracking back to help the defense as he is pushing forward to assist and score goals. And that's why he's been so successful prior to his doping controversy.
From 2012-2016, Pogba won eight domestic trophies with Juventus, and led them to a UCL final, too. He made 124 appearances for the Bianconeri, scoring 28 goals including a strike that many consider to be one of the greatest strikes of all time, when he was just age 19 in a match against Udinese.

It's a reminder of just how talented he was at one point, and brilliant of a player he still is.

He earned a move to English giants Manchester United in 2016, where for three years, he was sensational. His accolades include leading the Red Devils to a 2016-17 UEFA Europa League title and EFL Cup title in the same season, and second-place honors in the 2017-18 FA Cup and 2021-22 UEFA Europa League. He scored 29 goals in 154 appearances for the Premier League side until leaving in the summer of 2022 on a free transfer back to Turin.

During his spell in England, he won the 2018 FIFA World Cup with France, was a Runner-Up in the 2016 EUROS and UEFA Nations League winner in 2021-21 with Les Bleus as well. Individually, from 2013-2019, he won 14-different personal awards at different levels of the game as well. Most notably, though, he was named a Knight of the Legion of Honor in France in 2018 - an accolade that is the highest order of French merit.

There are questions about how much he has left, but if Pogba can tap into that once again, he will be an elite-level player in MLS.

All of that leads into what he does he exactly have left. He has not played competitively since August 2023. However, they also arise due to the injury history he suffered in the later stages of his United career, and during his first year back with the Bianconeri in Italy.

He missed nearly the entirety of the 2019-20 season due to multiple recurrences of an ankle injury he suffered in a Premier League match against Southampton early in the campaign, and come 2020-21 he suffered a hamstring injury that sidelined him for 42 days, and in 2021-22, suffered a recurrence of the same hamstring injury, twice, that sidelined him for a total of 124 days - with his United career coming to an end with him on the medical table.

Upon his return to Juventus in 2022, he suffered a meniscus injury in the summer that ultimately required surgery - ruling him out of competing in the 2022 FIFA World Cup with France, and the first half of the campaign with the Bianconeri. He made his second debut for the club in February of 2023, but one month later - was dropped from the squad due to "disciplinary reasons" by the then-manager Max Allegri. Just days after, he suffered an ankle injury that ruled him out for three weeks. Upon his return to the XI, he earned his first start in May, only to be removed 23 minutes in due to a left thigh injury that ruled him out for the remainder of the season.

He returned, healthy and fresh for the 2023 season, only to be provisionally suspended in early September on a drug test from a match on Aug. 20 against Udinese. The test was confirmed to be a failed sample in early October, and come February 2024, he was ruled to be suspended for 4 years by the Anti-doping National Tribunal, only to see it reduced to 18 months in October of this year. He is allowed to begin training in January 2025, and playing in March 2025, at the recognized FIFA level.

In summary? He has had a hell of a ride since 2019, dealing with injury after injury, missing a World Cup and then being the victim of a lengthy suspension. It's absolutely fair if teams are skeptical, or if they are throwing caution to the wind over his recent injury history. However, a gamble is a bet, and a bet is a gamble. Who's willing to throw the dice on him? Will it be MLS? It's a waiting game now.