On Monday, several news reports claimed that Paul Labille Pogba, World Cup winner with France in 2018 over Marcon’s remarks about Islam. A report in The Sun - known for its stellar journalistic credentials – quoted an Arabic sports website called 195sports.com claiming Paul Pogba had decided to retire.
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.”
Th claim comes after Marcon’s blistering attack on radical Islam after the beheading of Samuel Paty by a radicalised teen.
On October 16, an 18-year-old French citizen of Chechen origin beheaded a teacher who had show shown caricatures of Prophet Muhammad in class.
Macron said at Paty’s funeral: “Samuel Paty became on Friday the face of our republic, of our determination to break terrorists, to diminish Islamists, to live as a community of free citizens in our country.”
Marcon’s urging to ‘free Islam in France from the foreign influence and strengthen control on the mosques’ funding’ has angered many including Turkey and Pakistan.
However, Paul Pogba himself busted the reports of his apparent resignation as 'Fake News' in a story at his official page on Instagram.
Incidentally, Pogba taught how Macron to dab after the 2018 victory when the French president visited the dressing room.
Pogba, a devout Muslim, was part of group of immigrant French footballers who led the nation to victory. Pogba’s parents emigrated from Guinea. Kante, the defensive juggernaut of that squad had parents born in Mali. Varane, the Real Madrid defender, is from West Indies. Umiti was born in Cameron and Benjamin Mendy is Senegalese.
The 2018 World Cup-winning team emulated the one lead by Zinedine Zidane’s France which won in 1998 when the defining chants was black, blanc et beur (black, white and a term for Arabs of North African descent).
Claim: Paul Pogba has retired from international football over Marcon’s remarks.
Veracity: Fake news. In addition to the fact that was nothing to back the claim beyond dodgy media reports, Paul Pogba has himself busted the reports as fake on his Instagram.
(To receive our E-paper on whatsapp daily, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)
