Paul Pogba: The perils of pressure and unfair criticism

Let he who has the weight of a nation's football hopes and is without fault cast the first stone.

With France the pre-tournament favourite, its best player Paul Pogba has entered the quadrennial contest facing pressure to replicate the exploits of past Les Bleus heroes.

Lambasted in the press for his mediocre performance in the tournament opener against Romania, Pogba came off the bench against Albania at the half. The Juventus star made a good account of himself, and his incisive 50-yard ball for Dimitri Payet's 96th-minute finish elicited an exuberant reaction from the Le Havre academy product.

Like any player depended upon to be at all times both brilliant and stoic, Pogba was denounced in the media for his celebration after the goal. Sources, not the least of which was L'Equipe, contended that Pogba's alleged bras d’honneur display was directed at the press box.

There is no perfect median for one of the world's emerging football talents.

When a player gives formulaic responses, he is criticised by the media for being robotic, though when the same player exhibits spirited and vigorous displays in the face of critique, he is capricious.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

It's impossible to understand the motivations behind criticisms of Pogba without acknowledging the variables at play. France is a country fractured by racial division, where nationalism that verges on prejudice is at one end of the spectrum, inclusion and refugee admittance at the other.

When former French international Eric Cantona, and later out-of-favour Karim Benzema speculated that Didier Deschamps squad selections had xenophobic motivations, France entered the tournament under a cloud of controversy.

"One thing is for sure - Benzema and (Hatem) Ben Arfa are two of the best players in France and will not play the European Championship. And for sure, Benzema and Ben Arfa, their origins are North African. So, the debate is open," Cantona told the Guardian.

"But Deschamps, he has a really French name. Maybe he is the only one in France to have a truly French name. Nobody in his family mixed with anybody, you know. Like the Mormons in America."

Cantona's claims revolved around Deschamps' purported hatred of Arab players, and while Pogba is not North African, it's pointless to separate racism and classicism in France from the way its footballers are received.

Like Pogba, Samir Nasri was the scapegoat of France's last continental tournament, and before him, Nicolas Anelka. Benzema was once the focal point of the media's ire - and in his case, rightly so - but that narrative became too facile with his alleged involvement in the Mathieu Valbuena sex tape case.

Tension between the national team and the media in France has become a perennial plague. A Twitter user posted photos of L'Equipe covers from the past, showing that Pogba is just the latest of a long line of players to be chastised by the press.

Anelka has pledged his support for Pogba, saying, "The French press, are you not tired of creating controversy all the time? Seriously. In 2010 it was you, in 2012 one again, and 2016 too?"

It's hard to assess Pogba's treatment by the press without considering the colour of his skin. Like lightning rods of derision Anelka, Nasri, and Benzema before him, Pogba is not white.

The Guardian's Iman Amrani was succinct in identifying a growing cleavage that has become impossible to ignore. "The tension between the media and the players in the French national team has become more pronounced in recent years and questions have been raised about whether there is an element of racial discrimination behind the scrutiny that black and Arab players have faced both from the media and with Deschamps."

There's no avoiding the implications of this tournament - France has a lot riding on it.

When Michel Platini led France to its first continental conquest as hosts in 1984 on the heels of a record nine-goal performance, he was 29.

Similarly, when Zinedine Zidane emerged as a first-team regular as a cog of a star-littered squad in 1998, he was 26. It was France's first World Cup win and like this year's Euros, took place on home soil. It wasn't until two years later, when France won its second Euros, that Zidane became the focal point of Les Bleus.

Paul Pogba is 23.

Carrying the weight of a nation on his young shoulders, and inevitably dealing with the undercurrent of racial tension in the country - that manifests itself in scrutiny of his every action on the pitch - Pogba is bearing a burden heavier than that of his predecessors.

For those who are quick to ridicule the Juventus superstar, it would behoove them to remember this the next time he has the audacity to misplace a pass or fire a shot off target.