A record has been broken. Pogba becomes the most expensive player in history

French international moves to Manchester United for astronomical transfer fee. Italian club Juventus Turin receives 133 million euros for him.

The most expensive football transfer in history is now a reality. According to British media, French international Paul Pogba is officially joining Manchester United. Italian giant Juventus Turin is set to earn a record 133 million euros from the departure of the 23-year-old midfielder. The finalist of the recent European Championship is expected to sign a five-year contract with the 20-time English champions over the weekend. With a weekly salary of nearly 350,000 euros, he is also set to become Manchester United's highest-paid player. “Football business, fortunately, is not regulated, so transfer fees are purely a matter of supply and demand,” said Jozef Tokos, sports analyst and football agent, commenting on the record-breaking transfer sum.

A star from a small town
Pogba took his first football steps in the small French town of Roissy-en-Brie, which has 20,000 inhabitants. The Economic Daily managed to speak with his very first coach and current president of the local club, Samba Tati. “He came when he was six or seven years old and played here until he was thirteen. I personally coached him during some training sessions, and I can say that even as a child, he had exceptional abilities,” said Tati. His small football club will also benefit from the record transfer. For developing young Pogba, the club is set to receive nearly 700,000 euros from the deal. Tati declined to comment on whether any footballer is worth 133 million euros. However, many global football figures have said the amount is astronomical and no player should cost that much. From the perspective of the overall football business, however, it is a logical outcome of the continuously growing revenues of the richest clubs. For comparison, in 1996, Newcastle United paid what was then a record fee of 15 million pounds for Alan Shearer. At that time, the English club had annual revenues of about 50 million pounds. Today, Manchester United generates revenues ten times higher.

A grand return
The irony is that Pogba already played for Manchester United as a teenager between 2009 and 2012. However, he didn’t get opportunities in the first team under then-manager Sir Alex Ferguson and decided to leave for Juventus Turin for free at the end of the season, without informing the club. “It’s disappointing; he showed us no respect,” the legendary Manchester United coach Alex Ferguson said at the time about the 19-year-old’s departure. But in four years in Italy, the once-overlooked youngster became one of the best footballers in the world. He led Juventus to four league titles, two Italian cups, and last year reached the final of the prestigious Champions League. “That’s the biggest irony of the whole Pogba story. Even a club as big as Manchester let such a talent slip through their fingers, only to pay the highest transfer fee in history to get him back,” said Jozef Tokos.