PSG tried to sign Paul Pogba

Paul Pogba might be back playing in France, but it nearly happened in a very different shirt.

Paris Saint-Germain are set to face AS Monaco in the Champions League this week, yet Pogba will be watching from the sidelines.

The 32-year-old only returned to action after serving a doping ban, joining Monaco on a two-year deal in the summer, but his involvement has been limited so far.

Pogba has managed just over 30 minutes across three appearances, and he has not featured at all since the start of December.

As a result, he has been left out of Monaco’s Champions League squad, with the club opting to deregister him for the competition.

It means there will be no reunion with PSG on the pitch, but there is a twist to all of this, because the former Manchester United midfielder could have ended up in Paris years ago.

According to a report from L’Équipe, Pogba’s name was genuinely on PSG’s radar during the winter of 2022, when he was approaching the end of his contract at Old Trafford.

At the time, Juventus, Real Madrid and PSG were all credited with interest, and sources at the Ligue 1 club have suggested it was Pogba himself who initiated contact.

Either way, the key point is there were “concrete” discussions with Leonardo, who was PSG’s sporting director during that period.

However, the talks did not lead to an agreement, with the report claiming PSG moved away from the type of “bling-bling” approach they had previously been associated with.

Pogba would then go on to return to Juventus that summer, leaving PSG as the big “what if” of that window, particularly given the marketing pull he would have brought in the French capital.

For now, his focus is simply getting back to full fitness and forcing his way into Monaco’s plans again, but the idea of Pogba in PSG colours is one that came a lot closer to reality than many fans will have realised.