France must remain humble even if we're world champions, admits Paul Pogba
Paul Pogba has warned the French side to be wary and not to get carried away by the quality of their squad because the expectations could break them. The addition of Karim Benzema alongside a world-class front-line has seen Pogba urge his teammates to remain grounded and not get complacent.
Ahead of the Euro 2020 openers, Paul Pogba has warned his French counterparts to stay focused on the mission and not get carried away by the individual talent. Tipped to be the outright winners for the Euros, the French side are loaded with talent and quality especially with the addition of Karim Benzema. The Real Madrid forward joins Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and co to form a star-studded team with a lot of expectations on their shoulders.
Equating the talent in the France squad to the likes of "PlayStation team" Pogba is in awe of the presence of generational talents that have emerged in the French squad over the years but still asked them to remain grounded and humble. Mindful of the expectations that the national squad carries on their shoulder, Pogba has pushed his teammates to keep their ego low and build on a successful international campaign.
“You can’t see yourself as being too beautiful. You shouldn’t see yourself as beautiful at all. I don’t want to get carried away too much because we’ve already been built up enough, I think. Of course, it’s scary for other teams, but it can also be scary for us too. It can put pressure on us because of the team we have, that we feel that we’re guaranteed to win or even to always score three goals. People are going to expect all of this,” Pogba said, reported by Goal.
"But that’s not football. It’s the ego that kills you. In this squad, there is none. There is not one person above another. We have a PlayStation team but it will remain a PlayStation team if we don't win a trophy. We have to live up to expectations and there'll be even more expected with Karim's return.
"It's nice to see a team sheet like that... It's always an honour but you always have to be present on the pitch. Being world champions and having a team like that, we will be expected to do even more. We must remain humble. I want to give this message: it's not a foregone conclusion. We hear a lot of talks but we keep our feet on the ground," he added.