Paul Pogba reveals the real reason he left Man United – and says his mum predicted his return

Paul Pogba says he quit Manchester United because he was angry at Sir Alex Ferguson not playing him. It was always assumed that Pogba left over a contract dispute. Juventus were offering him £30,000 ($A59,000) a week which was twice what United had on the table. But the club record buy has revealed to ‘The Official Manchester United Podcast’ he believed he deserved to be in the United starting XI and Sir Alex didn’t.

Pogba, 27, said: “My brother, the United fan, told me he was really angry – even more than me – when I didn’t play. He told me: No, go. You can play in this team. If they don’t want you here, go somewhere else. They will see.’” Go he did, after making just three first team appearances, to Juventus where he won four Scudetto’s before United bought him back for a record £89 million ($A175m) in 2016. A move that he says his mother had always predicted would happen even as he left England for a new life in Italy. Pogba said: “My mother always told me: ‘You will go somewhere but come back.’ She always said this. I was like: ‘We will see’. “But you know mothers and the things she said: ‘You will come back here, don’t worry’ and that was just after. She said you will come back to Manchester, don’t worry, and I did.”

He says he returned to complete unfinished business, explaining: “Yeah, when I came back, I was really happy to come back. I started something but I didn’t finish, I just went somewhere else. Obviously, coming back where I started, I was really happy.” Pogba paid credit to his parents for his drive that took him to the top in Italy and a World Cup winners medal. He said: “My parents came from Africa to get to France and worked hard for me. I think, as a kid, you don’t really know but my mum, there used to be five in the house, and it’s hard for a mother. You have to feed them and have to be there for them and everything. She works hard to help us, you know.

“So we have everything, because of her, so I have to work 10 times harder and it’s something I always have in my mind. “To be the best, the first, to always want more. I always want more, we can always learn at this age or 10 or even 40 or 50. You will always learn something. I love to learn new things. I love to try things and stuff.” Pogba has missed most of this season with an ankle injury but will be fit when football starts again after the coronavirus lockdown. It does, however, still look like he will be leaving United for a second time with a return to Juventus or move to Real Madrid on the cards and United now ready to part company. This story originally appeared on The Sun.