Search icon

Football

26th Oct 2020

Paul Pogba accuses The Sun of ‘fake news’ over France national team story

Wayne Farry

The midfielder simply posted The Sun’s headline with the words ‘fake news’ stamped over it

Manchester United and France star Paul Pogba has accused The Sun of fake news with a tweet from his personal account on Monday morning.

The post by Pogba featured the words ‘fake news’ stamped over a screenshot of the story, whose headline reads: Man Utd star Paul Pogba has ‘quit playing for France’ over President Macron’s comments on ‘Islamist terrorism’.

The initial story relates to comments made by French president Emmanuel Macron on the murder of schoolteacher Samuel Paty, after which he said: “Unity and firmness are the only answers to the monstrosity of Islamist terrorism.”

It has been reported that Paty was targeted for showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to his students. He was posthumously awarded the French Legion d’honneur, the highest award that can be granted by the French state.

There appears to be little connection between the comments made by Macron and the speculation surrounding Pogba’s international future, aside from the fact that the 27-year-old is a high-profile Muslim male.

Pogba’s response confirms that there is little truth to the rumours, which appear to be originated on the Arabic website 195sports, who alleged that he “resented” Macron’s comments about the murder being Islamist in nature.