Paul Pogba is the perfect combination of player and personality

One of my favorite things about Manchester United’s Paul Pogba is that he is very good at putting himself between the defender and the ball when he’s dribbling. He posts up the defender and then rolls the ball with the bottom of his foot. He’s too strong for the defender to muscle him off the ball, and much too skilled to lose his dribble. So the move ends up infuriating the defender, and they react to being shielded by lunging into a desperate tackle, where Pogba then turns them or just takes the foul.

On Saturday morning, I woke up to watch Pogba shielding and rolling the ball away from Laurent Koscielny in the Arsenal box with Manchester United already up 2-1. The defender lunged into a dumb tackle, and Pogba used the mistake as an opportunity to turn past him and create United’s third goal.

There is much to appreciate about the way that Pogba plays: His technical superiority over almost everyone he’s on the field with, the way that he uses his body as part of his skill rather than a crutch, his attitude regarding one-on-one duels that reveals his street-footballing background, his vision, and even the way he gallops like Homer Simpson running on a treadmill. He’s just very good at playing soccer and every team that he’s on is exponentially better with him on the field.

Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

The other thing that I really love about Pogba is that he seems himself at all times. It’s impossible to know what is done for the camera and what are his natural actions/reactions (and maybe this is even more true in a world where everything is recorded ... not to mention the fact that Pogba is a world famous athlete) but Pogba never seems to be playing a character.

The counterexample to Pogba would be someone like Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Zlatan was always very confident as well as being a tremendous player, but the internet turned him into soccer’s Chuck Norris. He was made a meme of the arrogant person and soon after began playing into that view of himself. To the point that a player who was once star-struck by meeting the Brazilian Ronaldo, his idol, became someone who congratulates his national team on making the World Cup by tweeting a team photo with the words “we are Zweden.”

Or even someone like Cristiano Ronaldo, who is so branded and distilled into the human form of a billboard that he’s a few years away from wearing Subway lapels.

Both Ronaldo and Zlatan are fine, and they should make as much money as possible from their talent and personalities, but they’re not fun or personable. Zlatan pretends to be the best thing ever made, but it’s not genuine. It’s a satirical look at what Eric Cantona was. Ronaldo used to be fun when he was at Manchester United, when he wasn’t the face of every sellable item in the world, but had to scale his personality back in order to appeal to a massive audience.

Pogba is still at the stage where his cool is natural. It’s not what he does that makes him cool, it’s who he is. The hair can change, the dabbing can stop, and even when his performances aren’t living up to his ability, he remains the same person who is in love with himself, his friends, and the world. That makes him attractive and extremely marketable. When the person is just that charismatic and has an aura that draws people in, everything that he touches becomes cool by association.

Pogba’s power is that he can take a bland slogan like #HereToCreate and make it feel genuine — which is why Adidas has chosen him as a spokesman for their brand. When your ad copy team can’t carry you, the coolest soccer player alive just might be able to.

There was a video during the last international break of Pogba visiting France’s facilities. He was injured at the time but still went to see and congratulate his international teammates. He stood inside as the players arrived and they all formed a line to greet him. Every single one. And he had a personal handshake for each person that he greeted. Antoine Griezmann was the last to see him and they hugged and joked about missing each other.

The video was amazing. I have never seen a player who is such a celebrity to even his own peers, to the point that they would stand in line and wait to shake his hand, and then he engages them as if they’re all his personal friends.

The video also shows his on-field importance. Pogba doesn’t gain that type of status in a team full of world-class players without each of those players knowing and appreciating how good he is.

Soccer has had many famous faces before. David Beckham especially was the standard of being more than the sport, but I’m not sure if it’s ever had someone who is such a force on the field and is as easily beloved off of it as Pogba. He could very well become the face of the sport for the younger generation.