Friday 19 August 2016 06:16, UK
Jose Mourinho says Paul Pogba is currently one of the best, if not the best, midfield player in world football.
The £89m Frenchman, who has only trained with United for 11 days, has been declared fit for selection by Mourinho for the Friday Night Football clash against Southampton, live on Sky Sports 1.
But the United boss does not expect to see Pogba breaking Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's domination of the Ballon d'Or because his goal haul, which never exceeded 10 in a season at Juve, is not eye-catching enough.
"First of all, when you speak about the best players in the world you go immediately to the ones that score a lot of goals," Mourinho said.
"You don't give a gold ball to a goalkeeper. They gave a gold ball to [Fabio] Cannavaro once but because in that season he was captain of Italy, they were world champions, and there were not too many top players.
"[Paolo] Maldini never got a gold ball, [Javier] Zanetti never got a gold ball, top goalkeepers over history don't get a gold ball. You look immediately to the ones that score a lot of goals.
"Can Paul score Ronaldo and Messi goals? Not even 25 per cent. I believe in a season he cannot score 20 goals. If to be the best player in the world means to score a lot of goals, that's not the point.
"He is one of the best midfield players, maybe I could say the best midfield player in the world."
Much has been made of United breaking the world transfer record to sign a player they let walk away for virtually nothing when Sir Alex Ferguson was in charge.
Mourinho expects Pogba would have developed into the star he is now had he remained at Old Trafford, though he praised the club for having the gumption to re-sign him.
"I know Sir Alex tried everything to give him a new contract," Mourinho added.
"The decision was made between the player, his entourage, his agent. The way it works for them was a great decision.
"But I think it's very important for the club not to be afraid to do what the club did. You lose a player, it doesn't mean if you have the chance to recover him, you don't recover him.
"Chelsea did the same mistake with [Nemanja] Matic and a few years later I pushed the club to do the deal. You did one mistake, why are you going to do the second mistake? You do the mistake only once."
