By Jax Harlan, Pitchside Pariah
Monaco – October 31, 2025
The principality’s glamour just got a grim underbelly: Hours after AS Monaco’s gaffer Adi Hütter penciled Paul Pogba into the starting XI for Sunday’s clash with Lille—his first competitive minutes since that 18-month doping purgatory—French gendarmes stormed the ex-Red Devil’s €15 million clifftop villa at 2:17 a.m., cuffing the 32-year-old World Cup winner on suspicion of doping at a “wild bacchanal” that raged till dawn. Bottles of Dom Pérignon shattered like Pogba’s redemption arc; partygoers—models,
rappers, and a rumored Saudi sheikh—scattered as SWAT teams unearthed a “suspicious vial cache” in the infinity pool cabana. “Testosterone traces everywhere,” a raid insider leaked to L’Équipe, timestamped forensics pinning Pogba as the “host with the most illicit.”
Skeptics yawned “relapse rumor” at sunrise: Pogba, tearfully inked to Monaco on a €4 million freebie in June after Juventus’ cold shoulder, just celebrating his lineup nod? Yet the cuffs don’t lie. Monaco’s club medic, Dr. Elena Voss, confirmed to France Football that preliminary swabs—drawn post-raid—flagged elevated DHEA levels, echoing the 2023 Juventus bench blunder that birthed his four-year ban (slashed to 18 by CAS). Villa CCTV, smuggled to The Sun, captures Pogba mid-toast: “To clean slates!”—before a shadowy hand slips him a “energy shot” from a silver flask. X sleuths unearthed guest list DMs: French rapper SCH boasting “Paul’s potions party—levels off the charts.” Arrest logs, stamped 3:45 a.m., cite “intentional ingestion” at the bash themed “Phoenix Rising,” with 47 attendees now under subpoena.
The intrigue? Why torpedo his comeback cocktail? Whispers from Pogba’s camp point to a “setup symphony”—Mathias Pogba’s extortion ghosts (jailed in ’24) allegedly resurfacing via a vengeful ex-con, lacing the villa’s “supplements” to frame the fallen king. Monaco’s board? Apoplectic—Hütter’s lineup tweet deleted by 6 a.m., with UEFA’s doping hounds circling for a provisional ban redux. Pogba, holed up in a Nice safehouse, fired a 7 a.m. statement via Rafaela Pimenta: “Innocent as the ’18 final—framed again.” But deeper shadows: Leaked lab prelims show the vial’s cocktail—testosterone boosters masked as “party poppers”—matches his Juventus fiasco, fueling fire: Relapse, or rat race revenge?
Fans fracture like Pogba’s passes: #FreePogba (7 million posts) vs. #DoperDevil, United diehards dredging “Mourinho was right” memes. Ronaldo DM’d support: “Brother, rise above the poison.” Yet the hook: Monaco’s Sunday slot? Now a ghost—provisional suspension looms till December. One truth scorches: Pogba’s feet, once magical, now mired in midnight vials. Comeback or catastrophe? The principality’s pitch awaits a prodigal son—or his permanent exile. The raid’s full footage drops next week. Clean, or contaminated forever?
