‘Paul Pogba will never win Ballon d’Or’

Pogba was named on the shortlist for this year’s European Footballer of the Year award.

FRANCE national team coach Didier Deschamps believes midfielder Paul Pogba will never stand achance of winning the Ballon d’Or award.

Following the end of the agreement between FIFA and France Football, the Ballon d’Or is back to being the prize for ‘European Footballer of the Year’ and is separate to ‘The Best FIFA Football Awards’ in 2016.

Pogba was named on the shortlist for this year’s European Footballer of the Year award, after an impressive start to the year with Juventus before he completed a world-record transfer back to Manchester United in August.

However, the Les Bleus manager believes Pogba doesn’t stands a chance to lift the prize neither this year nor in the future, as he doesn’t fit the profile.

“He’s a midfielder. The Ballon d’Or is for forwards or No 10s, apart from rare exceptions in certain competitions. They’re players who score goals,” Deschamps told RMC.

“Paul has scored some, he’s going to score some, but he won’t score three goals per match. That’s not his game.

“First of all, when you speak about the best players in the world you go immediately to the ones that score a lot of goals,” Mourinho said.

“You don’t give a gold ball to a goalkeeper. They gave a gold ball to [Fabio] Cannavaro once but because in that season he was captain of Italy, they were world champions, and there were not too many top players.

“[Paolo] Maldini never got a gold ball, [Javier] Zanetti never got a gold ball, top goalkeepers over history don’t get a gold ball. You look immediately to the ones that score a lot of goals.

“Can Paul score Ronaldo and Messi goals? Not even 25 per cent. I believe in a season he cannot score 20 goals. If to be the best player in the world means to score a lot of goals, that’s not the point.”

Despite not backing Pogba for the coveted individual award, Deschamps still feels the Man United star is unrivalled in the midfield position.

“He is one of the best midfield players, maybe I could say the best midfield player in the world,” he concluded. Kickoff.com