Gary Lineker has learned the hard way that you can’t use “overrated” and “Paul Pogba” in the same sentence without incurring the wrath of the player’s agent.
It may have been a tad premature, but with Pogba being one of the hottest transfer targets of the summer, some people felt his performances at Euro 2016 fell a little short of their expectations of the youngster.
One man who appeared to have doubts over Pogba’s status as one of the most highly-touted midfielders in Europe was Gary Lineker. The BBC pundit received a lot of backlash over a recent tweet in which he merely posed the question, “is he the world’s most overrated player?”
Is Pogba the world's most overrated player?
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) June 26, 2016
A few have passed since Lineker hit send on that tweet and although some people agreed that Pogba’s abilities may have been a tad overblown, a lot of people took issue with it. One person who falls into the latter category is the player’s agent, Mino Raiola.
When he was asked about Lineker’s tweet by Rai Sport, the agent tore into the pundit, suggesting that he is absolutely clueless regarding the matter of his player’s skill-set.
“When someone is paid to talk about something, that doesn’t mean he knows what he’s talking about. Lineker is one of those.”
Raiola believes that if anything, Pogba is an underrated player, citing Chelsea’s reported deal to sign Michy Batshuayi as an example of how transfer fees have become inflated.
“Considering the qualities Paul has and the prices I see around Europe, I think Paul is under-rated. How much is Pogba worth? The maximum amount a club is prepared to pay for him.”
“Just look at a player who is on the bench of Belgium and Olympique Marseille, but is being sold for €40m.”
He closed off by giving Lineker one last sucker-punch to the gut, calling into question his knowledge on the subject before, perhaps unfairly, referencing his writing-off of Leicester City in the Premier League title race as evidence that he doesn’t have a clue.
“When Gary Lineker talks about Pogba, he hasn’t the slightest idea what he’s talking about. I remember he said if Claudio Ranieri won the Premier League title with Leicester City, he’d present his show in his underpants. That tells you everything.”
Strong words.
