Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba has agreed to a two-year deal to join French football club Monaco AS following his 18-month ban from football-related activities.

French media outlet Le Parisien reported that Pogba had made some “significant sacrifices to seal the deal” and facilitate his return to football after his contract with Italian side Juventus was terminated in 2024 following his suspension by Italy’s national anti-doping agency, NADO Italia.

The 31-year-old midfielder was provisionally suspended from football-related activities in September 2023 after testing positive for elevated levels of testosterone through DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone). This precursor hormone boosts natural testosterone production and doubles as a banned substance in sports under the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules for its performance enhancement effect.

Pogba, per WADA’s code, was meant to have served a potential career-ending four-year ban that could have kept him out of football until August 2027.

However, a subsequent appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) led to a reduction of the ban to 18 months, bringing his return to football to as early as March 2025.

Although the World Cup winner had finished serving his ban in March, he remained a free agent, keeping up his training regimen at a training camp in Florida, USA.

He will be returning to France for a new challenge with the French side that also qualified for European competition next season, having finished as the third-best team in Ligue 1.