How Paul Pogba’s trademark was transferred offshore
By Yann Philippin, Michaël Hajdenberg et Michel Henry
Paul Pogba, the world’s most expensive football player, has provided rich pickings in commissions for his agents. Beyond the lucrative returns on his transfer fees, the 23-year-old French midfielder’s image rights represent a major source of revenue both for the player and his intermediaries. In the space of two years, and amid a bitter dispute between two of his agents, Pogba’s image rights have been managed by a company in Luxembourg, subsequently by another in Ireland, and are now held by a shell company in the Channel Island tax haven of Jersey, according to documents obtained by the journalistic collective European Investigative Collaborations, of which Mediapart is a founding member. Yann Philippin, Michaël Hajdenberg and Michel Henry report.
On August 9th this year, at the age of 23, France international midfielder Paul Pogba became the world’s most expensive player ever. That was when English club Manchester United agreed to pay a record 105 million euros to Italian side Juventus to buy back Pogba, who had left the Mancunians for Turin four years earlier.
