PARIS: Paul Pogba has reportedly quit international football after Islamophobic comments by French President Emmanuel Macron.
The Manchester United star has made the decision following controversial remarks from the French president alleging that Islam was in crisis.
The French government’s decision to honour the teacher who showed blasphemous images of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), which Pogba reportedly resented, are also said to be behind the move.
Pogba’s decision comes in the wake of the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty who was attacked on his way home from the junior high school where he taught in a Paris suburb.
Paty was awarded the French Legion d’honneur, the highest decoration bestowed by the French state. President Macron described the murder as an “Islamic terrorist attack” that took the life of the French teacher.
Pogba’s apparent resignation was published in Arabic sports which said that the decision to award the teacher lead to the decision to stop playing for the French team.
Pogba reportedly considered the decision an insult to him and to French Muslims. Neither Pogba nor the France Football Federation (FFF) have made an official statement on the situation that has erupted over the past few days.
