Manchester United have agreed a €120m deal to sign Paul Pogba from Juventus, according to French daily L'Equipe.Earlier on Wednesday, Sky Italia and The Guardian had claimed that the Italian champions had refused an opening offer of £85 million (€101m), which came with £15m (€18m) of performance bonuses attached which could have raised it to £100m in total.
Juventus were reportedly insisting on a basic fee of £101m (€120m), plus a further £8m (€10m) in add-ons.
Reputable French daily L'Equipe now report United have agreed to that counter-offer and are ready to stump up the £101m (€120m).
That would see Pogba’s fee exceed that of current record-holder Gareth Bale, who cost Real Madrid €100.8m when he moved from Tottenham Hotspur in 2013.
The Sun had earlier reported that the 23-year-old had agreed terms on a £220,000-a-week deal over five years.
Pogba, 23, has won four successive Italian league titles with Juventus.
Should he join United, he would become a third high-profile recruit by new manager Jose Mourinho, after Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
THE VIEW FROM FRANCE (Cyril Morin)
How reliable is the story?
L’Equipe are almost always right when they break these types of stories. Furthermore, the journalist who has broken the news, Bilel Ghazi, knows Pogba well and his stories on the France squad tend to be very accurate. This is a very solid story.
Is Pogba worth the money?
No, clearly not, but the market is crazy nowadays.
Of course, he is a great player and at 23-years-old is still very young but he isn’t one of the best players in the world currently. His displays at the Euros sum him up: he has huge potential but is not the finished article.
However, Pogba is the new marketing figurehead for Adidas so that might explain the fee.
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