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Paul Pogba

LONDON. – Paul Pogba has scoffed at criticism of Manchester United’s performances last season by claiming trophies are the only currency he cares about.

United scored just 54 goals en route to finishing sixth in the English Premier League but they won the Europa League, securing Champions League qualification, the League Cup and the Community Shield.

United manager Jose Mourinho claimed he had been made to feel as if his side were the “worst team in the world” but Pogba believes three trophies served as the perfect riposte to the detractors.

In an interview with Esquire magazine, the United midfielder said: “I accept that we didn’t play well, we didn’t do this, we didn’t do that. I know what we did – we won three trophies. That’s all I know. And that’s all that matters. Because you can be the best team in the world, you can play great football and you win zero trophies. And who remembers them? No one. Right?”

Pogba was subjected to intense scrutiny last season following his world-record £89 million move from Juventus but the Frenchman claimed he gave little thought to the fee.

“After one week, I forgot,” he said. “It’s people that reminded me. Because at the end of the day, when you die, the most expensive and the less expensive, they go in the same grave. So I don’t even think about it.”

Pogba left United in acrimonious circumstances in 2012 but always believed he would return to the club one day. “I left Manchester to play,” he said. “That’s all I wanted. Even though I was young, I felt I could play now and I didn’t want to wait. So if it wasn’t with Manchester it would be with someone else. But in my mind, I knew: ‘It’s not finished, I might come back.’ My mum told me this: ‘You’ll come back one day.’ And here I am: having a haircut in Manchester.”

Pogba – who is a Muslim – was devastated by the suicide bomb attack that claimed the lives of 23 people at the Manchester Arena last month and remains saddened that such terrorists routinely besmirch the name of Islam.

“It’s a very difficult moment but you cannot give up,” he said. “We can’t let them get in our heads – we have to fight for it. Sad things happen in life but you cannot stop living. You cannot kill a human being. To kill a human being . . . it’s something crazy, so I don’t want to put religion on it.

“This is not Islam and everybody knows that. I won’t be the only one saying that.”

A little over a week earlier, Pogba lost his father, Fassou Antoine, aged 79, after a long illness. “When you lose someone you love, you don’t think the same way,” he said. “And that’s why I say I enjoy life, because it goes very fast. I remember when I was talking to my dad and now he’s not here.

“My dad was a very strong man, very stubborn as well, he fought, but at his age, it’s not easy. No, he was a very good man, a very good dad and I’m proud to be his son. He was one of the funniest guys ever, so funny. Every time you had time with him you were laughing. Very clever as well, because he was a professor. You have to remember the happy things.”

Pogba, who also dismissed the sniping at the overall performances of Mourinho’s side saying they may not always have played well but they still won three trophies, admitted his first spell at United aged just 16 he hadn’t been able to settle due to not understanding then manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

“No! No, I couldn’t. At first, I couldn’t,” he said referring to the Scot’s accent.

“I couldn’t even understand my teammates with their Mancunian accents. My friends right now, they laugh at me. They say, ‘Oh, I remember the first days you couldn’t speak and now — you speak Mancunian with the accent!’ So it’s funny.” – The Telegraph.