Sources were at pains to insist on Monday that the €105 million fee is comparable, therefore, to the amounts paid for Bale and Ronaldo.

The only add-on that is known about in Pogba’s contract is a payment of €5 million (£4.25 million) which the player will receive should he agree a new deal within the five years of the initial contract.

Significantly, though, the fee is not thought to include a payment to Pogba’s agent Mino Raiola – who also brought Ibrahimovic and Mkhitaryan to Old Trafford – and who has been demanding a minimum of €10 million (£8.5 million) commission in negotiations.

Pogba’s salary is believed to be around €12 million (£10 million) a season. The exact scale of the fee received by Juventus will eventually be known given the club are a publicly-traded company but, whatever the finer detail, they will receive an astonishing return on a player for whom they paid just 280,000 euros (£238,000) in development fees to United when he left for Italy in 2012 after turning down a new contract.