By: Nima Tavallaey
Paul Pogba's agent, Mino Raiola, spoke exclusively with RMC Sport about a presumed obscene gesture his client made to the crowd in Marseille during yesterday's Euro 2016 fixture.
"No, Paul made no obscene gesture after the match to anyone. No he didn't do anything like that and this crap has to stop because now it's under control, although these things don't go down well. In the world we have what's called in English "haters", people who detest everyone. But we need to concentrate on other issues, ont he match he played, on the positive things, not on crap he never did. It was a dance that he came up with his brothers and his friends, you can't use Paul to create hype around yourself. The people who published these images are not serious people, they took these images out of context, in that dance was a series of movements which Griezmann also took part in, but some people want to create a scandal and destabilize Paul. But they wont succeed because he is stronger than all of this. He knows that this is part of life, 50% of people love him and 50% are jealous of him and his talent: they should be proud of having a player of his quality, who everyone wants. I tried the same things with Zlatan in the beginning of his career with Swedish media and now Zlatan has become the person that everyone appreciates, maybe this also happens with Paul. It's difficult to be the king of your own country, even Paul with have this problem, and I were him I would make an obscene gesture to the people who have created this story. With pleasure."
"Paul is a well-mannered and calm person and he doesn't do these things, I'm more nervous than he is. He doesn't have my character and at times he calms me down and is more of an adult and balanced than I am. I've seen the same thing in my career. When there is a great star or a great talent, instead of helping him do well some people look to hurt them, who are racist, jealous and so on. I don't know why this is."
"Why the TV-channel who owns these images doesn't show them is something you have to ask these journalists. This was part of a dance that took place off the field but Paul knows that the only opinion that matters is that of Deschamps and his teammates. We could have taken legal action against these people but I don't want to give too much importance to these people, it would be an honor for them to be involved in a legal battle. If I took legal action for every stupid thing that happens I'd live in a courtroom."
