Euro 2016: Paul Pogba has transformed from a 'great talent to a great player,' says France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris

There is a deep national longing for Pogba to flourish at the European Championship

Paul Pogba warms up for France's Euro 2016 opener this weekend (Getty)

France feels like a country waiting for a football saviour, waiting for the team to give them that unifying spirit that they had in 1998. The final in the Stade de France is a long way off, not for another month, and until then they just need a hero. Everyone in France hopes that Paul Pogba can be that man.

‘Iconic’ is a worn-out adjective but the sporting and symbolic potential of Pogba is immense. He is a young man on the brink of being the next great global player, a position he has held for the last few years. He has just won his fourth consecutive Serie A title, in his fourth senior season, and has been growing in importance in every one.

This year he dragged Juventus there almost by himself, rescuing a side stuck in neutral for months, imposing his will on the whole season and taking them past Napoli on the final straight.

As his France captain Hugo Lloris said at his press conference last night, “he has changed his status, from a great talent to a great player.”

That is why everyone in Europe wants him and why Real Madrid are hoping to build their next side around him. Florentino Perez paid €100million for Gareth Bale three years ago but is now open to paying as much as €120m for Pogba this summer. That would make him the most expensive player of all time and, as much as Manchester United and Manchester United would love to sign him, the player himself only wants to end up at the Bernabeu. His main ambition in the game is to win the Ballon d’Or and there is no better platform for him than that.

In that sense Pogba is already a global star, recognised everywhere, a titan of social media, having spent his whole senior career in England and France. He has never played a Ligue 1 game and has no intention of doing so any time soon.

And yet his Frenchness, and his importance to France, cannot be overstated. He is the son of Guinean immigrants who grew up in the tough Parisian banlieu of Roissy-en-Brie. In a nation still agonising over issues of immigration, inclusion and racial unity, he is a figure of immense potential importance.

This explains a deep national longing for Pogba to flourish at the European Championships and provide the same emblematic power that Zinedine Zidane, Lilian Thuram, Youri Djorkaeff and the rest did 18 years ago.

This feeling also stems from the fact that while Pogba has done almost everything he could have hoped for at club level – despite losing the 2015 Champions League final – he has not yet shown the same quality in his 31 caps for the national side. International football, ultimately, is harder, playing with team-mates of varying standards and training with them for less time. Pogba has dominated the environment at Juventus, but has not yet done it with Les Bleus.

The headline in French paper Direct Matin yesterday was “Time to shine for Paul Pogba” and there is a sense that he will never have a better platform than this to make himself a historical figure, not just to his game but to his country.

While at Juventus a young Pogba came into a team that was full of winners – Gianluigi Buffon, Giorgio Chiellini, Andrea Pirlo and so forth– for France he must take control and show them how to win, imposing himself not just behind the scenes but on the pitch. It almost feels as if his older team-mates are waiting for him.

“He needs to get his bearings in the team,” said Laurent Koscielny, “but he is showing potential.” The highlight of France’s friendlies before this tournament was a defeat of Cameroon in which Pogba produced his greatest moment in a France shirt, producing a curled cross from the right for Olivier Giroud to score which few other midfielders in the world game would have been able to spot, never mind execute. It was a marker not just of intent but of capacity to deliver on it.

Paul clearly has a role to play in this completion, and he has matured a great deal, changing his status from a great talent to great player.

&#13; <p>Hugo Lloris</p>&#13;

But two years ago the whole of Brazil was waiting for Neymar to save them and it emotionally distorted the team so much that they buckled when he was not there and lost 7-1 to Germany. So there is a feeling that this France team, as much as they need Pogba, cannot say so too much, or let the public pressure get to him.

So when captain Lloris was asked about Pogba at his Stade de France press conference on Thursday night, he talked him up, but kept the burden from his back.

“Paul clearly has a role to play in this completion, and he has matured a great deal, changing his status from a great talent to great player, including at Juventus,” Lloris said. “He had a terrific season despite a tricky start for the team. Of course he will have significant influence on our results and performance, but our strength has to be as a unit. If we want to have our talented players working in the best conditions, we have to make sure everyone will sacrifice themselves for the team ethic.”

When Didier Deschamps was asked about whether Pogba could handle the pressure of being the subject of a €120m bid, he shrugged it off. “Paul is very focused on what we should expect, there have not been any consequences of the speculation on his mindset” he said. “Paul is a Juventus player and a France player, things will be said but he is able to manage these situations.” Friday night, though, at the Stade de France, with 66million needing him to succeed, will be another type of situation, and another type of pressure.