Paul Pogba: When Friendship and Questions Led to a Prayer That Changed His Search
Paul Pogba was born in France to a family of Guinean origin. His mother practised Islam, but he stated plainly that he was not raised as a Muslim. He first knew the religion at a distance, then encountered it more closely in early adulthood through Muslim friends whose conduct, prayers and Ramadan gatherings he observed. This was not the automatic continuation of an inherited identity, but the opening of a personal question.
Pogba went through a period he described as difficult and began questioning many things in his life. Conversations with friends opened a door without replacing his own choice. He started researching for himself, accompanied them to the mosque and joined discussions about religion. In a later interview he said he was drawn by their way of living and praying together, then by the conclusions of his own search.
He recalled a simple turning point: he prayed once with his friends and experienced a calm and difference that mattered to him. He did not offer that feeling as proof for anyone else; he described it as his own moment of recognition, after which he said that Islam was his religion. From then on he continued praying and learning, connecting worship with gratitude and seeking forgiveness rather than appearance alone.
In 2019 he said Islam opened his mind, made him more peaceful within and more conscious of the hereafter and of respect for other people. In a 2023 interview he returned to the same themes: belief in one God and obedience gave him a larger account of life’s purpose and shaped how he viewed family, work, hardship and success.
In May 2017, Pogba shared a photograph of himself beside the Kaaba during umrah. [CNN, 2017]