Come the final reckoning in Berlin, when the last peep of the whistle confirms the outcome of this edition of the Champions League, it is inevitable some of the television close-ups will home in on two iconic players at the end of their European peaks. One of Andrea Pirlo and Xavi Hernández, maestros of the modern midfield, will be vanquished, but both will remain undisputed champions of the game.
Somewhere on that same pitch in Berlin Paul Pogba, rated by many as a player with all the qualities to pick up the baton to become a dominant midfielder of his age, will be taking in the consequences of the biggest game of his career. The Frenchman is 22. His CV is already well decorated, with three Serie A titles, one Coppa Italia, a winner’s medal from the Under-20 World Cup and the individual honour of being named the world’s best young player in 2014. Pirlo, no less, has tipped him for more greatness. “He has it all,” said the man responsible for organising most of Juventus’s parties. “Physique, technique and an eye for goal. He is perfect. He can mark an era.”
Pogba is at such an intriguing point in his development. For all the hype and plaudits that come his way, and enough stories linking him with every major buyer in world football to have his agent, Mino Raiola, shaking with excitement, there remains a degree of scepticism about where on the excellence spectrum Pogba will end up.
There is not much dispute about Pogba’s qualities but there is a question mark about his capacity to use them to the optimum level. That obsessiveness, that hunger to be the best you can be, that inner drive that is down to him and him alone – does he have enough of it?
Pogba can grab your attention and make you gasp with his power and panache but he tends not to control a game over 90 minutes. Pogba usually does not need to operate at full throttle for an entire game, not in some Serie A matches in which Juventus can cruise. It is a fine line in the brilliance stakes and that is where the challenge lies if he is to reach the kind of status Pirlo and Xavi have enjoyed. He needs to show he can consistently grab a game from the start and keep it in his grip until the end.
It was interesting to hear Max Allegri, the Juventus coach, picking at that notion after the final game of the Serie A season, when Juve drew 2-2 against Verona. “He’s very talented but if he lowers the concentration levels then he can make technical errors. This is part of his growth process and he should stop showboating in midfield.”
Mostly due to his physique he has been compared with Patrick Vieira. One thing Vieira would admit about his own playing days is that he needed a kick up the backside sometimes, as he could find himself coasting in easy games. He always said he needed to feel he had a fight to win to be completely switched on. He made a point, even as an experienced player, of asking Sol Campbell, positioned in defence behind him, to shout if he was drifting. “I was telling him, when the game was easy I can get a bit lazy. I notice it when I start to make a silly mistake. It’s a lack of concentration, really.”
Vieira had the insight and the desire to make sure he was ready to command matches. If Pogba can find that in himself, to push himself to the limit, he can turn into one of the principal footballers of his generation.
It was not particularly helpful when Michel Platini, the benchmark for Juventus as far as French midfielders are concerned, aired some reticence about placing Pogba at the very highest level, using Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as a comparison.
“A great footballing star is someone who scores a lot of goals,” Platini said. “I don’t know if Pogba is someone who can be on the same level as Messi or Ronaldo, as they both score 50 goals a season. It’s interesting to notice that when he loses the ball and his team-mates suffer, they yell at him straight away.”
Didier Deschamps stepped in to point out that Pogba is not essentially a goalscorer. They harbour high hopes that he will be a leader of the next generation for France. He is a popular figure, who is respected for being well behaved and he has a positive image off the pitch.
Liam Brady, the former Juventus midfielder who keeps a keen eye on the Old Lady, hopes the Champions League final may provide more of a clue. “To be put up alongside the best midfield players around is a bit premature,” he says. “We haven’t seen enough evidence yet. It is not hard for him to be a star in that team in Serie A as Juventus are so far ahead of the rest but he has yet to convince me he can dominate a midfield like Vieira did. I am looking forward to seeing him against the Barcelona midfield, with Iniesta, Busquets and Rakitic. In fairness he plays in a very good midfield himself with Pirlo, Vidal and Marchisio.”
Pogba has spoken of his desire to be as influential as Pirlo, one of his heroes. He told L’Equipe how he has tried to study from him, and also Paul Scholes when he was a youngster at Manchester United. “What I have noticed with both of them is the quality of their passes and the way to ask for the ball. Also the way they can feel the game,” Pogba said. “They have the ability to know what will happen ahead of everyone else.”
That comes from extraordinary levels of concentration. If Pirlo has somehow passed some of that on, the rewards for Pogba can be huge. Pirlo certainly hopes so. “If he carries on the way he is, then he will become the greatest midfield player in Europe,” says the veteran. “And at his age he could have that title for a long time.”
