Paul Pogba’s agent believes his superpower is his ability to ‘overcome difficulties with incredible strength and great positivity.’ The French midfielder is on the verge of returning to the Bianconeri squad after spending the entire season out through injury, the latest in a long series of setbacks. Speaking to Tuttosport, Rafaela Pimenta spoke about her clients recent misfortunes, including an extortion attempt that allegedly including his own brother:
Did Pogba have a bad time? Yes. A not uncommon problem among soccer players, that of experiencing situations of tension or blackmail. They are threatened because they are very exposed subjects.
I have seen everything, especially blackmail: players are afraid to report these things because they fear the damage to their image or they are ashamed. So they keep silent and experience unbelievable stressful situations, risking compromised performance or even injury.
By keeping silent they make the situation worse because a good agent can always help them. When Paul finally decided to get help he improved the situation and realized there was a solution.
The situation? It is in the hands of the lawyers. Paul has now done everything he had to do. Yes, maybe he could have told me earlier but I understand him. Because it’s not easy to talk about these things and often you try to solve them on your own, because you’re ashamed, because you’re afraid.
But when Paul decided to talk, things were on their way to resolution. It happens much more often than you imagine, and in fact with Paul we came up with a project: to develop a platform for dialogue and support for a footballer’s mental health, anonymous to give advice, because footballers are not always able to overcome certain problems.
How’s Paul? He is enthusiastic. Paul’s superpower is to overcome difficulties with incredible strength and great positivity. There was a moment a few weeks ago when he said to me, ‘Rafaela, that’s enough. I don’t want to think about anything anymore, I focus on my knee and recovery, because I want to play again.” And so he did: I’m sure he didn’t listen to anyone or hear anything anymore, because he is able to shut out the world and focus only on one goal.
Returning to Juventus? Look, it all happened in April, when Arrivabene and Nedved came to Monte-Carlo to watch the Masters 1000 tennis tournament. They came by here to the office, we chatted a bit, and I said to them, ‘why don’t you sign Pogba?’ And they said ‘Sure! For us it can be done tomorrow, would he come?’ And I said, “Let’s call him.” And that’s how it went….”
