OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL: Paul Pogba joins Juventus on a free transfer — again

We know how things work when it comes to players arriving in Turin ahead of signing on the dotted line and officially joining Juventus. They fly in the night before, they most likely head to the club headquarters and then J Hotel right next door, making things easy with everything that is to come the next morning.

Rather than follow the normal program, Paul Pogba was very much in the mood to buck the trend over the weekend.

It’s that kind of exuberance that Juventus fans ate up in droves. The same can be said the next morning when Pogba, now back in Turin after a tumultuous tenure at Manchester United, with over 1,000 Juventini awaiting the Frenchman’s arrival at J Medical. The smile was about as big for everybody in attendance to see over the weekend, and it’s one that Juventus’ front office, coaching staff and rest of the roster hope they’ll see plenty of over the next few months and years.

That’s because Pogba is back. #POGBACK has another chapter to it, with the talented Frenchman officially seeing his second move on a free transfer to Juventus be completed Monday and his three-year contract worth a reported €8 million a season get one final signature.

Just as was the case when he left Juventus the first time, Pogba will be the man to don the No. 10 jersey, which was left vacant after his good buddy Paulo Dybala saw his contract expire at the end of June.

The official announcement from Juventus’ website:

Although we parted ways, we never really forgot about each other, and there is something ancestral in the call that after a thousand adventures eventually leads you back home.

Paul is back in Turin. He left as a boy and returns as a man and a champion, but there is one thing that has not changed - the desire to write unforgettable pages of club history together once more.

Pogba is back and we couldn’t be happier.

The issues that Pogba dealt with during his second stint with Manchester United are very much out there for all can see. If it’s injuries, up-and-down form or simply disagreements with United’s revolving door at manager our the club’s dumpster fire of a front office are no secret and you don’t need to be a “Pogmentary” viewer to understand where Pogba is coming from about all that.

But Pogba is back where his career truly exploded. He’s back where he was able to develop into a player who cost the then-world record transfer fee as he headed back to Manchester. And he’s back to try and help Juventus’ midfield get out of the rut it’s been in recent years ever since the last pieces of the MVP midfield headed out the exit door. He is not the answer to all of Juventus’ problems, but he’s a signing that will hopefully help Max Allegri solve some of the problems that have been a massive weak point over the last few years.

Pogba returns to Juventus as a player who’s stock has fallen in a lot of people’s eyes. At 29 years old, this could very well be the final big contract that Pogba signs in his career, and there is certainly a lot to prove knowing the season that he is coming off of with United. He knows that. We know that. Everybody knows that.

In the Pogmentary, the late Mino Raiola talked about everybody wanting “the Juventus Pogba” to come back on the club level. Well, maybe to get Juventus Pogba back, coming back to Juventus had to happen. We’re about to find out.