Paul Pogba
Le Havre product Paul Pogba joined United as a sixteen-year-old and rose quickly through the academy. Within two years, he broke into the first team and started playing for the reserves regularly. In the 2011-12 season he made his first-team debut but throughout his first season, he never got enough game time to his liking.
While Sir Alex Ferguson was justified in not overplaying an eighteen-year-old, especially with United chasing the title, the situation spun out of control as the French teenager left for Juventus the following season. Over the next four years at Juventus, he went on to become one of the most dangerous box-to-box midfielders in the world.
Brute strength, genius skill on the ball, incredible athletic prowess and a fancy for the incredible; Pogba was readying himself to become a Ballon d’Or material in the coming years. The dynamic midfielder had developed into a world-class player and Manchester United, who let him go as a teenager, had to fork out a record-breaking £89.3 m to bring him back.
After a decent first season back, Pogba started the second one on a hot run of games and implanted his swashbuckling nature of football on the team to give United a bright start.
Toni Kroos
It was all the way back in 2007 when a young seventeen-year-old broke into Bayern’s first team and made an immediate impact by setting up two goals for German legend Miroslav Klose. The impressive start to his career as Toni Kroos spiralled up the progress ladder and made most of his limited game time at Bayern Munich.
He was subsequently loaned out to Bayer Leverkusen for eighteen months where he continued to develop and upon returning took on the mantle as the chief midfield creator for Bayern and led the club to great success including Heynckes’ treble-winning team of 2012-13.
Unfortunately, things fell through between the player and the club in the future and Real Madrid swooped in and lured him away to Santiago Bernabeu. He is now into his fourth year at the club and has developed into not only an integral cog in the team but into one of the finest midfielders in the world.
The Swap Deal
It is being reported that Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is a huge admirer of Toni Kroos and wants to bring in the German at any cost. According to reports he is willing to go as far as offering Pogba in place of Kroos. The deal looks like a highly unlikely one as Madrid find Kroos indispensable and moreover United, no matter how much they want a player, are unlikely to offer their record signing French ace to anybody, especially Real Madrid, a club they have a sour history with.
