Being compared to one of the game’s modern greats may seem fortune enough for a young footballer. When the illustrious old-timer points out areas where his youthful counterpart may be his superior, it is even more auspicious.
Where Paul Pogba is concerned, however, it is not altogether surprising.
He has been touted for the top for years, likened to a legend since he emerged.
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“Fortunately for us, Paul is like [Patrick] Vieira,” France teammate Yohan Cabaye said.
Vieira was an emerging force in France’s midfield the only time they won the World Cup.
Now Pogba, 21, is the wunderkind, to use a word today’s quarter-final opponents, Germany, will know.
The original sees the similarities.
“People say he’s like me,” Vieira said. “I guess we have similar power in possession, and he’s strong, quite tall, an elegant player.
“But in his head, he’s more attacking than I ever was. I would win more balls, but he’s more technical. He’ll become one of the best in the world.”
Some would say he already is.
“Everything just seems easy for him,” France manager Didier Deschamps said.
Pogba’s first league start came less than two years ago, but he has displaced Claudio Marchisio from the Juventus side as the team won back-to-back Serie A titles.
He is a central figure in an impressive French side and was named man of the match in the last-16 win over Nigeria.
Germany have a hugely accomplished midfield themselves, so gifted that there is always a high-profile exclusion, but in Pogba they face a player who has something none of manager Joachim Loew’s group – Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm, Toni Kroos or Sami Khedira – can boast: Vieira-esque box-to-box running power.
It is allied, as the former France captain recognised, with more delicate gifts. Think of Pogba’s defence-splitting, outside-of-the-boot pass to create Karim Benzema’s goal against Switzerland.
Yet for others, the enduring image of this World Cup is of Pogba leaping high to head in against Nigeria.
The third stand-out moment came first: a petulant little kick at Honduras’ agent provocateur, Wilson Palacios.
Rightly, Pogba’s punishment was only a yellow card, but it seemed part of a concerted plan by Honduras to get him sent off.
It backfired when Palacios saw red for hauling Pogba down and conceding a penalty, but the fact remains that he possesses a temper.
It does not deter his suitors.
Since Pogba joined Juventus two years ago, speculation has been a constant, with reported links to Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester United all too regular.
United should rue the one that got away.
Pogba was on their books for three years until his contract expired in 2012. They received £800,000 (Dh5m) for a player now valued at £60 million and who was scouted extensively by David Moyes.
It was a major misjudgement. “The word ‘mistake’ is not something you would normally associate with Alex Ferguson’s time at Manchester United,” Zinedine Zidane said in January. “But I do think it was a mistake letting Paul Pogba leave.”
It was an almighty error. Pogba himself has referenced the December 2011 day when, with United depleted by injuries, Ferguson made the ludicrous decision to pair Park Ji-sung and Rafael da Silva in the centre of midfield rather than pick him.
The path to Turin probably began then.
Juventus have granted him the chances he wanted, polishing a rough diamond and serving as a model for France. Juve manager Antonio Conte deploys a deep-lying passer in midfield, Andrea Pirlo, with more energetic presences in front of him, in the shape of Pogba and Arturo Vidal.
France have aped them, relocating the attack-minded Yohan Cabaye to anchor the midfield to utilise the athleticism of Pogba and Blaise Matuidi.
They have a mutually beneficial relationship.
Juventus and France, over the years, has been a description that fit Michel Platini, Deschamps and Zidane, one serial semi-finalist and two winners.
Now Pogba shares the same bond.
It bodes well for France.
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