Paul Pogba has denied claims he is about to quit international football.
The Manchester United midfielder was alleged to have made the decision following remarks from his country’s leader, President Emmanuel Macron, when he described the murder of teacher Samuel Paty as an ‘Islamic terrorist attack’.
Macron later added, as per Sky News: “Unity and firmness are the only answers to the monstrosity of Islamist terrorism.”
However, the claims which appeared on The Sun’s website have been rubbished by the player himself via social media. (The Sun’s article has been updated since initially published.)
Read about Macron’s treatment of Muslims via Al Jazeera.
Pogba, who made his France debut back in 2013, is understandably annoyed by the situation. It’s a completely made up story and the journalist to blame for running the story should hang his head in shame.
The Sun stated: “Pogba’s apparent resignation was published Sunday in the Arabic sports website 195sports.com, which said that the decision to give the teacher the Legion d’honneur and the comments were the motivation for his decision to stop playing as a French international. Pogba allegedly considered the decision an insult to him and to French Muslims, especially since Islam is the second religion in France after Christianity.”
— Paul Pogba (@paulpogba) October 26, 2020
On Instagram, Pogba wrote: “So The Sun did it again… absolutely 100% unfounded news about me are going around, stating things I have never said or thought. I am appalled, angry, shocked and frustrated some “media” sources use me to make total fake headlines in the sensible subject of French current events and adding the French National Team and my religion to the pot. I am against any and all forms of terror and violence. Unfortunately, some press people don’t act responsibly when writing the news, abusing their press freedom, not verifying if what they write/reproduce is true, creating a gossip chain without caring it affects people’s lives and my life. I am taking legal action against the publishers and spreaders of these 100% Fake News. In a quick shout out to The Sun, who normally could not care less: some of you guys probably went to school and will remember how your teacher said to always check your sources, don’t write without making sure. But hey, seems you did it again and in a very serious topic this time, shame on you!”
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