‘Lack of goals means Pogba will never win Ballon d’Or’
France boss Didier Deschamps doesn’t think Paul Pogba can ever win the Ballon d’Or because the award is only for forwards and goalscorers.
The Manchester United midfielder has only scored two goals in 13 Premier League appearances this season, while he hit two more in the Europa League.
At a cost of £89million it wouldn’t be unreasonable for United fans to expect a few more goals from the Frenchman but his national team manager is adamant that simply isn’t his style.
“He’s a midfielder. The Ballon d’Or is for forwards or No 10s, apart from rare exceptions in certain competitions. They’re players who score goals,” Deschamps told RMC.
“Paul has scored some, he’s going to score some, but he won’t score three goals per match. That’s not his game.”
Paul Pogba's problem? Doing things that are 'not necessarily useful', according to the France boss. https://t.co/Zt23rzMC09
— Football365 (@F365) December 6, 2016
Similarly, Pogba’s boss at Old Trafford, Jose Mourinho, thinks you can only win the Ballon d’Or unless you score 20 plus goals in a season.
“First of all, when you speak about the best players in the world you go immediately to the ones that score a lot of goals,” Mourinho said.
“You don’t give a gold ball to a goalkeeper. They gave a gold ball to [Fabio] Cannavaro once but because in that season he was captain of Italy, they were world champions, and there were not too many top players.
“[Paolo] Maldini never got a gold ball, [Javier] Zanetti never got a gold ball, top goalkeepers over history don’t get a gold ball. You look immediately to the ones that score a lot of goals.
“Can Paul score Ronaldo and Messi goals? Not even 25 per cent. I believe in a season he cannot score 20 goals. If to be the best player in the world means to score a lot of goals, that’s not the point.
“He is one of the best midfield players, maybe I could say the best midfield player in the world.”