French international and World Cup winner, Paul Labile Pogba has allegedly quit international football after French President Emmanuel Macron’s comments on Islam and terrorism.
Paul Pogba allegedly made the decision following Emmanuel Macron’s remarks on Islam been the source of international terrorism.
Aside from that, the 27-year-old’s decision is reportedly also influenced by the French government’s decision to honour a teacher who was involved in Prophet Muhammad’s offensive images controversy- an action Paul Pogba strongly resented.
Emmanuel Macron who claimed Islam been the source of international terrorism was speaking in the wake of the beheading of a teacher who was attacked on his way home from the junior high school where he taught in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, 40km northwest of Paris.
Identified as Samuel Paty, the 47-year-old teacher was accused of showing his class two offensive cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.
Mr Paty was posthumously awarded the French Legion d’honneur, France’s highest honour, in recognition of the fact that he died for trying to explain the importance of freedom of speech.
President Macron described the murder as an ‘Islamic terrorist attack’ that took the life of the French teacher, according to The Sun.
He reportedly said: “Unity and firmness are the only answers to the monstrosity of Islamist terrorism.”
Pogba’s apparent resignation was first published on Sunday in the Arabic sports website 195sports.com, which said that the choice to give the teacher the Legion d’honneur and the remarks were the inspiration for his decision to quit playing as a French international.
Paul Pogba supposedly considered the decision an insult to him and all French Muslims, particularly since Islam is the second-largest religion in France after Christianity.
Pogba, who is a devoted Muslim, made his international debut back in 2013 and went on to lift the 2018 World Cup in Russia. He has won 72 caps and scored ten goals for Les Bleus.
