Real Madrid’s interest in signing Manchester United’s Paul Pogba in the summer has been well documented and was recently confirmed by their president Florentino Pérez.
Los Blancos failed to bring the midfielder to Spain as the Red Devils were reluctant to part ways with the World Cup winner, despite him publicly expressing his desire to leave Old Trafford.
The European window has been closed for around two weeks and Paul is getting on with his Manchester United life, not even using the international break to drop a few comments.
However, the same cannot be said about the player’s brother Mathias, who moved to Spanish football himself this summer.
You may know Manchego best as a fantastic Spanish cheese, but it’s also the latest name addition of fourth level side CD Manchego Ciudad Real, who the older Pogba brother signed for.
Ordinarily, the Spanish media would care little about what Mathias, formerly of clubs including Wrexham, Crewe Alexandra and Crawley Town, had to say.
Yet over the past three weeks, he’s spoken on at least three different occasions to the Spanish media. Of course, the takeaway has been about Paul and the failed move to Real Madrid, and now he’s got chatty again.
“I like [Zinedine] Zidane and he liked my brother and everyone knows it,” Mathias told Radio Marca.
“He [Zidane] wanted players, but he hasn’t had them. I have no doubt he will do the job he needs to bring the team to the level he wants.”
There were also comments about his own career and adaptation, but in reality it would be a stretch to believe many people care. Whilst the comments on their own aren’t blockbuster, the reason for the chat is to take the headline and keep the Paul Pogba to Real Madrid ball rolling.
For example, Marca use the headline: Mathias Pogba: “That Zidane liked my brother, everyone knows”
Mathias has given more interviews than he’s made appearances for his new club. It’s disingenuous to believe this has nothing to do Paul Pogba, because it clearly has everything to do with the Manchester United player.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and others at the club cannot be so naive as to let this pass and have a transfer saga encouraged from afar, all the time providing headlines which encourage doubt over their star player’s future.
The problem is, just what can they do without upsetting the Pogba family?
