With the African Cup of Nations kicking off this week, NTOF will be looking at some of the most interesting African players to grace Scottish football. Next up is former Partick Thistle powerhouse Mathias Pogba.
A band of footballing brothers
Paul Pogba plays for Manchester United and has won the World Cup with France. Florentin played for St Etienne, against Paul in the Europa League, and now plays over in America for Atlanta United.
Manchester United’s Paul Pogba (C) and his brothers Florentin (L) and Mathias (R) attend the MTV EMAs 2017 . (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
Mathias Pogba’s achievements are nothing in comparison to his brothers’. He spent the early part of his career in the English lower leagues after a youth career with Celta Vigo in Spain.
Pogba’s pals pushed on to success
Upon the return to his native France to play professionally with fourth tier side Quimper, he lived with Manchester City superstar Riyad Mahrez. Since the duo lived together, Algerian Mahrez has won the Premier League with Leicester City.
Leicester City’s Riyad Mahrez holds aloft the Premier League trophy . (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
The two-time Algerian Footballer of the Year won just about every personal accolade there was to win in the Foxes’ phenomenal 2015-16 season. His Manchester City side completed a domestic treble in 2018-19, becoming the first English side to do so.
Pogba was poor at Partick
At the start of that season, in August 2015, Mathias signed for then-Premiership side Partick Thistle. Just three goals followed, two of which came against Hamilton Accies.
Pogba wasn’t prolific by any manner of means. (Photo by Christian Cooksey/Getty Images)
The only other came a month prior to his release, in a 4-1 victory over Stenhousemuir in the League Cup.
Headed to Holland from Firhill
Since then, things don’t seem to have improved for Mathias Pogba at all. A spell in the Netherlands with Sparta Rotterdam came after his Thistle failure. In September 2018, he returned to France again. This time with Tours, who have just been relegated to the fourth tier.
Not a gifted player, it’s a shame when you must feel like the least successful out of you and your siblings. Unlikely to see either Florentin or Paul come up north, at least Scotland managed to say they once had a Pogba playing in its leagues.