Paul Pogba refuses to rule out Manchester United transfer

Paul Pogba has refused to rule out a return to Manchester United after being quizzed on his future at an awards ceremony in the United States.

United are in pole position to sign the France midfielder in the event he leaves Juventus this summer.

Real Madrid are thought to have cooled their interest in Pogba amid doubts over whether he is worth a world record £90 million fee and concerns about upsetting the club’s wage structure by inviting a flurry of demands for pay rises from existing players.

Asked at the ESPY awards ceremony in Los Angeles how he would react if Jose Mourinho called to ask him to re-join United, whom he left in acrimonious terms for Juventus in 2012, Pogba said: “I don’t know. Let’s see, let’s see. For the moment, I am here [Juventus] and I am happy here, but I don’t know where I want to go.”

Paul Pogba refuses to rule out Manchester United transfer

During the interview with ESPN, replica shirts from Juventus, Real and United were pulled out of a bag, one after the other, and shown to Pogba, who was asked for his views.

Of Juventus, he said: “This is my team, my family, where I am playing. I am happy there, I play football, and do things I wanted to do when I was small.”

He then described Real as “the white house, which won the Champions League this year, a great club” and when the United shirt came out of the bag, he initially joked: “I don’t know this one” before adding it was “my first club, my first family”.

Mourinho will take charge of his first game as United manager tomorrow afternoon (SAT), when his team face Wigan Athletic at the DW Stadium. New signings Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Eric Bailly are expected to make their debuts and Luke Shaw is in line to return for the first time since breaking his leg 10 months ago.

Mourinho said on Thursday that he was enjoying his first week in charge. “After 10 training sessions I can say: ‘I love to work with these guys’,” the Portuguese posted on his Instagram account.