Jimmy Cabot, a retired French footballer from Lens and Lorient who was forced to retire in December 2024 after a serious knee injury sustained in October 2022, has been very critical with the Globe Soccer Award given to Paul Pogba on Sunday for "Comeback of the Year".
Pogba returned to the competition at the end of 2025, after not playing since testing positive on testosterone in September 2023, when he was playing for Juventus. The French international, World Champion in 2022, was given a 18-month ban by the Italian Anti-Doping National Tribunal (reduced from a four-year ban by the Court of Arbitration of Sport) and is now playing for Monaco.
Cabot, who knows by experience what is like to not being able to play due to injuries, was very critical of the award: "Matthieu Udol, 4 torn ACLs, return to starting lineup in Ligue 1's first team at the break with RCL. Bentaleb, cardiac arrest, several months out, return on the field scoring for LOSC's victory. Pogba suspended for doping: Trophy."
https://x.com/Cabot_Jim/status/2005590815301873939
Cabot believes it is cinical to give an award to a player that only made a "comeback" because he had been banned for doping. Pogba always mantained that the positive was accidental, that he would "never knowingly or deliberately" dope and that he always played with integrity. What do you think?