Paul Pogba

The plan was simple: Paul Pogba, French world champion, perhaps football's most divisive genius, in this autumn's flyest sportswear. But then Pogba wouldn't be Pogba if there weren't a few twists and turns on the way.

- Federico Sarica

IT HAS BEEN A STRANGE year for Paul Pogba. In April, Pogba's long-time agent and mentor Mino Raiola passed away. In June, Amazon Prime released The Pogmentary, a film that ignited as much controversy (see its IMdB reviews) as it did cement Pogba's rep as one of the most unique and outspoken players in football. Then, in July, Pogba returned to the Italian giants Juventus after six seasons at Manchester United-only to suffer a serious knee injury during the club's summer tour of the United States. In early September, after a slew of non-surgical interventions (and, as it happens, in the middle of this story) Pogba and the club decided he would undergo a knee operation with an unpredictable recovery time, just two months before the start of the World Cup in Qatar, which his national side, France, will begin as defending champions.

But all that is to come when I first meet Pogba on a sunny August day in Turin. Turin is not a city famous for its sunshine; in fact, the Piedmont capital-with its mixture of industrial history, working-class traditions, and grey northern climes-has always been known for its somewhat austere atmosphere. So maybe it's coincidence or maybe it's a metaphor that when Pogba and I meet at the Juventus first team's training ground we're surrounded by light. The sun is high-and so, all things considered, is the midfielder's mood.

"I've always been like this, it's in my nature," Pogba says. "I'm a positive person.

And maybe, at the end of the day, people like positive people." Paul Pogba knows Turin well. He lived here from 2012 to 2016, after joining the club from Manchester United as a 19-year-old in perhaps one of football's most notorious free transfers. It was at Juventus that Pogba grew from promising youngster to global star, playing amid one of the strongest Juventus teams of all time, alongside club legends like Andrea Pirlo, Giorgio Chiellini, and Gianluigi Buffon.