It’s claimed Barcelona and Juventus have made an agreement to leave Paul Pogba in Turin for another year before La Blaugrana officially make their move.
Mundo Deportivo reports a meeting between Barca sporting director Ariedo Braida and his Juve counterpart Beppe Marotta, said to have taken place on Tuesday in Milan.
There, Marotta is said to have revealed Juve have received only two direct offers for Pogba – one from Barca and the other Manchester City.
City are, however, looking at alternatives to Pogba as they are starting to believe they will miss out, and have turned to Aston Villa’s Fabian Delph.
Real Madrid have sent mixed signals, on the one hand denying rumours of an approach for Pogba, while on the other, Zinedine Zidane has publically praised his compatriot.
MD add that Zidane has the ear of Florentino Perez and has been talking up his countryman, but not offer has come from Santiago Bernabeu.
Barca’s hopes of signing Pogba are affected by Euro 2016, taking place in his native France. The midfielder has reportedly been convinced by Patrice Evra not to embark on the disruption of a move 12 months before the tournament.
La Blaugrana don’t want to get into a bidding war with anyone – even though that is what Pogba’s agent, Mino Raiola, is trying to engineer – but a Barca offer is complicated by the elections to be held this summer.
There is a capacity for the stand-in Barca hierarchy to make the transfer and Pogba has been requested by Luis Enrique, but MD note it doesn’t seem like that will happen.
Barca had proposed signing Pogba this summer and loaning him back to Juventus, but Juventus didn’t feel a club of their stature should loan a player in such an arrangement.
It has therefore been agreed between Braida and Marotta that Barca will receive preferential treatment over Pogba and be in pole position for his signature in the summer of 2016.
Pogba will still cost somewhere in the region of €80m but not the €12m a year that has been quoted. Pogba would be paid slightly below Lionel Messi and Neymar, who will be given a new deal.
The player is said to be willing to join Barca, particularly after seeing Enrique’s team up close in the Champions League final. He believes Barca would make him a better player while Enrique wants Pogba’s physicality and skill.
