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Paul Pogba makes pilgrimage to Mecca at start of Ramadan and ahead of 2018 World Cup

The Manchester United player is performing the optional Muslim pilgrimage known as ‘Umrah’ for the second year in a row

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Paul Pogba in Mecca in 2017. Photo: Handout
Nazvi Careem

Manchester United star Paul Pogba has gone to Mecca in Saudi Arabia to perform the optional Muslim pilgrimage known as ‘Umrah’.

The Frenchman, who is preparing to represent much-fancied France at the 2018 World Cup in Russia starting on June 15, just completed an arduous season in the English Premier League with United finishing second in the league and reaching the FA Cup final, where they lost 1-0 to Chelsea on Saturday.

“Only the person who comes here, that can understand the feeling. So I hope the people that never been here yet, they all will one day,” Pogba said in a 30-second video taken at the main Haram Mosque in Mecca.

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“This a beautiful place. I cannot explain my feeling here. Inshallah [God willing] you all will come here one day. Salam.”

The Umrah is the smaller of the two pilgrimages in the Islamic religion. The main “Hajj” is performed during the first part of the 12th month of the Islamic calendar and is compulsory for all Muslims to undertake at least once in their lifetime if they can afford it and are in good health.

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