Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba has left the club with a hefty loyalty bonus.
United confirmed that the Frenchman was leaving the club for a second time on a free transfer following the expiry of his contract with reports rife that he is set to rejoin Serie A giants Juventus on a three-year deal.
The Daily Mail says Pogba will walk away with a £3.78million loyalty bonus when he quits Manchester as a free agent at the end of the month.
The report claims that the payment was part of the terms United offered to Pogba to entice him back from Juventus for a then world-record fee of £89m in 2016, having initially lost him to the Italians for compensation of just £1.5m in 2012.
As well to the huge transfer fee, United also paid £39.27m to the player’s agent Mino Raiola, who passed away in April, to clinch the deal.
Initially, the midfielder was paid a basic salary of £8.61m – dropping to £7.75m once the annual loyalty bonus kicked in at the end of his first year – as well as image rights payments totaling £2.87m-a-year and a £1.875 bonus for each of the four occasions United qualified for the Champions League while he was there.
The total bill United thus paid for the player in his second stint at the club totaled £218.93m – £968,716 for each of his 226 games or £5.613m for each of his 39 goals.
