Manchester United and France midfielder Paul Pogba is an extremely polarizing figure, and those strong opinions aren’t limited to fans of rivals and neutrals either. Some supporters of Pogba’s own national team took to heckling him in Nice last night during Les Bleus 3-1 win over Italy in an international friendly.
Pogba was far from his finest form during this outing, as a shot he took from 40 yards out nearly hit the touchline flag. He also missed some passes, and heard some whistles from the France supporters. They jeered him again as he got subbed off with five minutes to go for Steven N’Zonzi. In response, Pogba’s teammates and manager have come to his defense.
“The whistles are part of football, you have to stay tough mentally,” said teammate and friend Antoine Griezmann.
“We’re all playing for the same shirt. He plays his game, you’re used to him scoring. We don’t expect that from him, only that he rotates the ball and plays for the team.
“He has had a difficult season at Manchester United but he has a lot of confidence in himself.”
In addition to Pogba, Thorian Flauvin was also the target of French supporter heckling. Corentin Tolisso came to the defense of both.
“Paul had a good game, he worked hard. It hurts because I wouldn’t want to be whistled, even if I went to Saint-Etienne, as an ex-Lyon player,” Tolisso said. “Fans need to realize this. We’re all in the same boat, and we have to all stick together.”
France national team manager Didier Deschamps also addressed the issue in his post game news conference, mentioning how the jeers were directed not just at Pogba, but at the whole team in general. Deschamps believes the fans just didn’t care for the overall optics of the match.
“The whistles for Paul Pogba? It’s not just for him, at one point we kept the ball and they whistled too. It had already happened,” he said. “The public also prefers to score five, six goals but it’s high level, there is a team in front of us. The players do the right thing.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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