Paul Pogba's Monaco Chapter Set to Close Before It Ever Truly Opened
Paul Pogba is expected to leave AS Monaco after just one season, with talks under way to terminate his contract a year early. A source told the BBC that discussions over Pogba's early exit are ongoing and expected to be concluded soon. Monaco had not commented publicly as of the BBC's report on 11 August 2026.
It is a sobering turn for a player who arrived on the French Riviera last summer carrying the weight of a remarkable comeback story. Pogba, a 2018 World Cup winner with France, had been provisionally banned from football for four years after testing positive for dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) — a banned substance — in a doping control carried out in August 2023. He maintained the violation was a mistake, saying he had been given a supplement without knowing it contained a banned substance. The Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced the ban to 18 months in March 2025, clearing him to return to professional football.
Juventus, his club at the time, had already moved on. They announced a mutual contract termination in November 2024, and by the following June, Pogba was signing a two-year deal with Monaco. The move reunited him with Ligue 1 — France's top flight — and gave him a stage to rebuild. He was presented alongside fellow new arrivals Eric Dier and Ansu Fati at Monaco's training centre, and veteran coach Claude Puel, then 63, said the club would need to build a collective around him to help him rediscover his best level.
That collective never quite took shape around Pogba. He managed only 30 minutes of competitive football for Monaco, with his first season disrupted by injury. By January 2026, beIN Sports was reporting that his future at the club was hanging by a thread. In July, Monaco CEO Thiago Scuro publicly acknowledged that Pogba could leave this summer. Now, according to the BBC, those exit talks are nearing conclusion.
A change of manager has added to the sense of a club pivoting away. Filipe Luis has replaced Sebastien Pocognoli at the helm, and the new regime may look in a different direction in central midfield. Pogba's deal was due to run until the summer of 2027, meaning a termination would cut it short by a full year.
For Pogba, the Monaco move was meant to be the second act — a chance to remind people of the midfielder who once ran a World Cup final. Instead, injuries and circumstance limited him to a cameo. Where his career goes from here is an open question. He turns 33 next March, and any next club will be weighing pedigree against a body that has played precious little football across the past two seasons.
For fans, the frustration is that we never got to see whether Pogba could still be Pogba. Thirty minutes is not a verdict. It is barely a sample. But football waits for no one, and Monaco appear ready to move on.
