Pogba wins 'Comeback Player of the Year' Award despite playing three games in two years

Martin Macdonald

• 29 Dec 2025 08:01 CST
• 6 min read

Nieuws

Paul Pogba has won the 'Comeback Player of the Year' Award at the Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai despite barely featuring for AS Monaco this season.

In fact, the World Cup winner has played just three matches totally around 30 minutes of football in the 2025/26 season.

In September of 2023, Pogba was banned from playing football or training after failing a drugs test after a non-endogenous testosterone was found in his system following a match against Udinese. The following February, he received a provision ban of four years by the Italian Anti-Doping National Tribunal, though this was subsequently reduced to 18 months which meant he was allowed to train in January of 2025 and play from March of 2025 onwards.

Following the ban he was released from his Juventus contract and in June of 2025 he signed for Monaco on a two-year deal.

He has struggled to regain the fitness he lost over that banned period and didn't make his debut until the middle of November when he came off the bench for Monaco's 4-1 defeat against Rennes. It was the first match he had played in 811 days.

Following that game, he told reporters: "Seeing the crowd rise and applaud, I never imagined that would happen.

"I'm relieved to be playing football again, the thing I love most in the world.

"But there's still work to do to get back to full fitness and be able to play 90 minutes... If I don't perform well at Monaco, I can forget about the French national team.

"I believe in myself and in my qualities, and since I knew I had done nothing wrong and it was not my fault, I never lost hope.

“Football is NOT over for me. I was the one who suffered the most. I was looking forward to it. You have moments when the devil tries to talk in your head to say it's over. But there is a good God, I believe in myself."

The Frenchman has since played two more times for Monaco.

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A post shared by Paul Labile Shakur Pogba (@paulpogba)

Comeback Player of the Year

Even though he has played 30 minutes of football in two years, the Globe Soccer awards honoured Pogba with their Comeback Player award.

Accepting the award, he told the audience:

"It was a very important moment for me, in my life, to see what really, the people that were really there for you, the people that really love you when you are outside the shiny moment.

"This award means a lot, for me and for my wife...we've gone through so much together. She helped me a lot, and my kids kept me smiling.

He also reserved praise for his former Manchester United team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo.

"Cristiano, you are here, you have inspired all of us as a soccer player," Pogba added.

"You did this for the next generation. Big thank you, Cristiano."

Ronaldo won the award for Best Middle East Player at the awards.

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