Pogba might have grown up supporting Marseille, but he was playing his football as a child around 20 miles from Paris Saint-Germain’s Parc des Princes stadium. He was one of France’s hottest talents, the talk of the Paris suburbs, but Pogba had to move to Le Havre on the northern coast to begin his academy career.
According to Tati there was never any interest from PSG in Pogba, who was born in Lagny-sur-Marne, just 16 miles from the centre of Paris, and he blames the scouting systems in place at the club then.
While they were casting an eye over the whole of France, PSG were missing talent on their own doorstep. It was a mistake they made with Kylian Mbappe as well, one that cost them €145 million to put right in the summer of 2017.
“When he was young they weren’t interested in him, Monaco and Le Havre were interested in Paul when he was young,” remembers Tati.
“The scout of PSG in this area at the time, when Paul was young, was not very good, they weren’t very good in Paris generally. They didn’t really search the players of the region in Paris.
“They watched the whole country but they didn’t really focus on the area around Paris.”
Pogba moved to Le Havre after a year at US Torcy, a club he moved to from US Roissy. He did two years at Le Havre before his first move to Old Trafford.
It was a rapid rise for a player who has ambitions of being the world’s best, but he wasn’t dreaming that big while at US Roissy, according to Tati, it was as his career progressed that his targets altered.
“I think when you start to play football and you go in the academy, your first ambition is to become a professional,” he said.
“When Paul went to Le Havre his ambition was to play for the first team, after he played with the youth section he then went to Manchester, when he went to Manchester he wanted to play for a big team. He wanted to be a big player.”
PSG visit Old Trafford on Tuesday for the first leg of the last-16 Champions League tie, before Pogba returns to his home city for the second leg on March 6.
It will be the first time he has faced them in a competitive game and the 25-year-old will return to France and to Paris as an hero.