Manchester United to announce Pogba's deal after holiday

 

Pogba

Paul Pogba will sign for Manchester United once he returns from his summer holiday in the United States, with the midfielder’s £112m world record transfer inching closer to completion after a deal was reached with Juventus, it has been reported.    

With Pogba making the most of his post-Euro 2016 holiday – he attended a Drake concert at Madison Square Gardens on Thursday after visiting Miami, Los Angeles and New York – United have been left to wait for what is set to be the most expensive transfer ever seen.

The Manchester Evening News claims that Pogba made his mind up to return to United two weeks’ ago, having left the club in 2012 after his agent, Mino Raiola, fell out with former manager Sir Alex Ferguson. Pogba left for Juventus after his contract expired, with United receiving just £800,000 for the Frenchman, and they stand to make a phenomenal loss on the deal to bring him back to Old Trafford.

Not only will United pay £112m for Pogba in a deal that sees Juventus claim £92m and Raiola pocket the remaining £20m, they will also shell out a reported £275,000-a-week in wages that will make Pogba the highest paid player in the Premier league.

Both Pogba and Raiola have toyed with reports that a deal had been reached, with the pair taking to social media to either mock journalists reporting on the move or tease that a medical was taking place – with Pogba actually enjoying a break at California’s Universal Studios.

The report goes on to claim that despite agreeing to join United, Pogba’s preferred destination was actually Real Madrid. With Real manager Zinedine Zidane pushing club president Florentino Perez to sign the France international, it appeared at one stage that the reigning Champions League winners could hijack United’s deal and take Pogba to Spain.

However, Perez refused to meet Juventus’s nine-figure asking price, and Raiola is said to have talked Pogba into joining United, having already overseen deals to take Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan to Old Trafford.

Pogba’s decision was also swayed by the influence of Jose Mourinho, given that the Portuguese has spoken publicly about his desire to make one more marquee signing this summer before the season gets underway. It was initially hoped that Pogba would sign for the club before Sunday’s Community Shield clash with Leicester City, though they now expect the deal to go through ahead of their Premier League opener against Bournemouth next weekend.