Paul Pogba has criticised the media for their treatment of Dele Alli.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, the Juventus midfielder addressed the difficulties of being a footballer and how he believed the media were ‘killing’ Dele prior to his interview with Gary Neville.
The Everton star received support from all over the globe after he spoke on The Overlap YouTube channel, discussing his difficult childhood, sexual abuse and addiction to sleeping pills.
Dele returned home from a six-week stint in a rehab facility in the US over the summer, shortly after ending his unsuccessful loan spell with Besiktas prematurely due to an injury.
Dele remains out of action but has been the subject of endless discussion and has seen supporters hold up banners to show their support. However, Pogba believes it was the media who contributed to his struggles in the first place.
Paul Pogba claims the media were ‘killing’ Dele Alli
He told Al Jazeera : “I saw Dele Alli do the interview. It is so easy now he’s spoken out for everybody to be behind, support him but for so long they’ve been killing him. But who, when they were killing him, I saw nobody in the media ask him whats going on, mentally and stuff like that.
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“We’re going through a lot, we grew up to play football, we didn’t grow up to get ready for the media. They will bring you up so high, then bring you down to destroy you. I didn’t learn to get ready for the negative talk, the criticism – I just came to play football.
“I was with my friends playing, then you get to a first team, you play and score goals, get all the praise, hailed as the best young player. Then, things happened in his life and they’re destroying him, no one is asking if he’s okay, they don’t care.”
Pogba was often on the end of plenty of abuse from fans and often the media during his time at Manchester United. The Frenchman has continued to get himself into hot water, having been provisionally suspended from football due to an anti-doping offence this week.