It is hard for anyone to comprehend the journey that Paul has made from his first club just down the road, US Roissy, to his status as one of modern football’s elite, a man whose arrival at Manchester United was presented with all the glamour of a Hollywood movie. But every story, however remarkable, has a beginning, and this is the story of Paul Pogba, United midfielder, France international and the most expensive footballer in the world.
“He was always curious to know things, even as a small child,” said his father Fassou once. “He always wanted to learn new things. We always encouraged him to do lots of things and to follow his interests. When I saw him play football for the first time though, I could see that his technique was very good. He was four years old, and he always played with boys who were older than him.”
In his living room are pictures of Paul with his older brothers, the twins Mathias and Florentin who play at Partick Thistle and St-Etienne respectively and are two years senior to the star of the family. There is a picture of the trio from Christmas 1998 sitting in Santa’s grotto. Pictures of the three brothers in the kit of US Roissy, are all afforded equal prominence on their father’s shelves.
Fassou is 78 and came to Paris from Guinea, his country of origin, at the age of 30. He worked in telecommunications and is retired now. He is not as mobile as he once was but he hopes to get to Manchester to see Paul play for the club to which he has returned. Fassou played football himself in Guinea and then when he came to Paris, although there were fewer opportunities then.
“While I was trying to bring these boys on, Paul was getting better and playing with boys much older than him, including his two brothers. At Residence la Renardiere [the estate the Pogba family lived on originally] every kid plays football all day so he always had a game to play in. Even then, as such a young child, he knew he wanted to be a professional footballer.”
For a small boy in Renardiere, there is only one place in Roissy-en-Brie to go for organised 11-a-side football. From the top of the 16-storey tower-blocks of Renardiere you can see the small stand and pitch of the Stade Paul Bessuard, which is home to US Roissy, the little football club where dreams come true.
Past the athletics club office at the Stade Paul Bessuard and down the path to a door that says “Bureau Football”, you will find Nicolas Moressee, the treasurer of US Roissy and coach of the Under-17s team. He is a friendly man who wears a Manchester United shirt that coincides with Paul’s first spell at the club.
It is a small office of three rooms, shelves full of trophies, a strict player “code du sportif” on the wall and a washing machine that looks like it has been run to the brink of collapse, with damp kit spilling out the open door. Out the back there is a table of snacks, instant coffee, plastic cups and on the wall, the framed professional shirts of the three Pogba brothers, as well as one from another of their famous old boys, Nicolas Isimat-Mirin, a centre-back at PSV Eindhoven.
At the centre of the wall is one of Paul’s Juventus shirts, signed with the message, “For my first dream club … Roissy-en-Brie”.