Maria Zulay Salaues: Pogba's Wife, Age, Origin, Religion

Maria Zulay Salaues, known on Instagram as Zulay Pogba, is the Bolivian wife of Paul Pogba, the French midfielder who won the 2018 World Cup. They met in 2017, married around 2019 and have three sons. As of November 2026, Pogba is a free agent: he left AS Monaco by mutual agreement in August 2026, and we have found no confirmed new club since.

Zulay keeps a lower profile than many footballers' partners, which is why so many people search for her age, her origins, her religion and whether she has a Wikipedia page. In this article, OhMyFootball separates what is documented about Maria Zulay Salaues from what copy-paste biographies keep repeating, with everything updated for November 2026.

Who is Paul Pogba's wife?

Paul Pogba is married to Maria Zulay Salaues. The couple never publicly announced their wedding, as far as we could find, which is why you will find dates from 2018 to 2019 online. What is certain is that Zulay calls him her husband: in The Pogmentary, the Prime Video documentary about Pogba released in June 2022, she described him as her husband, a normal person and an attentive father at home, according to L'Équipe's account of the first episode. In a February 2026 Instagram Q&A, reported by Pulse Sports, she again spoke of the time "after Paul and I got married". Most reports place the marriage in 2019.

How did Pogba and Zulay meet?

They met in Florida in the summer of 2017. In The Pogmentary, Zulay said she did not know who Paul Pogba was when they met. She had been living in Miami for several years at the time, according to the Argentine newspaper La Nación.

The relationship became public during the 2018 World Cup in Russia, when Zulay was seen in the stands supporting him, including at France's group game against Denmark. She has also been photographed cheering on Pogba next to his mother, Yeo Moriba, as the Bolivian site Eju! noted in 2019.

The beach photo above, tagged in Bora Bora, French Polynesia, is from Zulay's own account. Her caption is in Spanish: "Contando las horas para verte", which means "counting the hours until I see you".

Are they still together?

Yes, as far as is publicly known. No separation has ever been reported. In May 2026 the couple attended the WIBA Awards in Cannes together, where Zulay received the Lifestyle Influencer Award, according to Riviera Radio, and in mid-August 2026 Zulay publicly defended her husband against people telling him to retire (more on that below).

Who is Maria Zulay Salaues?

Maria Zulay Salaues is a Bolivian model and Instagram personality, best known as Paul Pogba's wife and the mother of his three sons. Los Tiempos described her in 2018 as a model building her career in Miami, and said she had studied business administration in Bolivia without finishing the degree. In May 2025 she and Paul launched a jewellery collection, Unbreakable, with the Swiss jeweller Elke Berr, as Goal reported, with a private preview during the Cannes Film Festival.

Many biographies also say she worked in real estate and then as an interior designer. We could not confirm those jobs in reputable media, so treat them as unverified. We also found no reliable report that she manages Paul Pogba's career or business: his professional affairs have been handled by agents, and at the time of the 2022 extortion case his agent was Rafaela Pimenta, who took over Mino Raiola's agency.

She has given at least one real interview. On 3 August 2025, the Nice-Matin newspaper published a rare interview in which she looked back on the previous four years. As summarised by Voici and StarMag, she described those years as very hard and said the attempted extortion inside the family and the doping ban had affected the couple.

Maria Zulay Salaues age and birthday

Maria Zulay Salaues was born in November 1993, so she is 32 years old in early November 2026 and turns 33 in mid-November 2026.

We know the year because she celebrated her 31st birthday on Instagram in November 2024, writing "Welcome my 31!!!", as Goal reported. Her birthday falls in mid-November: Pogba's birthday message to her, which called her "Queen Z", was reported on 15 November 2022. Many websites give 16 November 1994 as her birth date, but her own post shows that 1994 is wrong. Pogba was born on 15 March 1993, so they were born in the same year, Paul about eight months before her.

Maria Zulay Salaues origin and nationality

Zulay is Bolivian. Her family comes from the Santa Cruz region in eastern Bolivia: Eju! described her as being from Santa Cruz, and Los Tiempos reported in 2018 that her family roots are in Roboré, a town in Santa Cruz department. Some profiles give Roboré as her birthplace, but we could not confirm that.

Her link with Roboré made headlines in Bolivia in August 2018, when the town's mayor, Iván Quezada, sent Pogba an invitation to visit, according to Los Tiempos. We found no report that the visit took place.

Pogba himself was born in Lagny-sur-Marne, near Paris, to parents from Guinea. In a 2019 interview with The Times podcast LifeTimes, he listed the cultures around him, mentioning his Bolivian partner among them, as Eju! reported.

Who are Maria Zulay Salaues's parents?

Several websites name her parents and sisters (searches for "Ricardo Salaues" and "Salaues Antelo" come from those pages). We could not find those names in any reputable media or in Zulay's own public posts, so we do not repeat them here. Her family is private.

Maria Zulay Salaues religion: did she convert to Islam?

Yes, by her own account. In an Instagram Stories Q&A on 9 February 2026, reported by Pulse Sports, Zulay said she was a Christian before and converted to Islam about seven years earlier. She explained that she started reading and learning about the religion after she and Paul married, and decided to convert after their first son was born. She also said she was preparing for Ramadan.

Paul Pogba is a practising Muslim; he has said he was not raised Muslim and converted, and he has spoken many times about his faith. Zulay has shared Ramadan and Eid messages on Instagram for years, sometimes wearing a headscarf, like in the post below with the caption "Ramadan Kareem".

Paul Pogba and Zulay's children

Paul Pogba and Maria Zulay Salaues have three sons:

Their first son was born in January 2019. Zulay marked his second birthday in January 2021 with the Instagram post below, calling him "our firstborn".
Their second son was born in early September 2020. Zulay celebrated his second birthday on Instagram in early September 2022.
Their third son was born in May 2023. Pogba announced the birth on Instagram on 24 May 2023 with photos from the hospital, as Goal reported. As with his brothers, we do not publish his name.

The post above, tagged in Manchester, shows Zulay with the two older boys during the family's years in England.

The extortion case and the hard years

Zulay had no role in the extortion case, but she has said it marked the family. Here is what the French courts established.

In March 2022, Pogba told investigators, he was confronted by armed men, including childhood friends, who demanded 13 million euros from him. He said he paid them 100,000 euros. The case became public in August 2022, when his older brother, Mathias Pogba, posted threats on social media promising "explosive" revelations about Paul, Kylian Mbappé and the agent Rafaela Pimenta. According to reports on the case, the group also wanted to discredit Paul with a claim that he had asked a witch doctor to curse Mbappé, which Pogba denied.

The trial opened at the Paris criminal court on 26 November 2024. Paul Pogba did not attend. On 19 December 2024, the court convicted all six defendants. Mathias Pogba was sentenced to three years in prison, two of them suspended, with the remaining year to be served at home under an electronic tag, and fined 20,000 euros. The other five received sentences of four to eight years, some of them partly suspended. Mathias's lawyer said he would appeal; we have not found a report of an appeal ruling as of November 2026.

During the same period, Pogba was banned for doping (see the timeline below). Zulay backed him in public throughout, and Pogba has said she kept telling him he would play again, as Goal reported in October 2024. In her Nice-Matin interview in August 2025, she described those years as very hard for the couple.

In mid-August 2026, as Monaco moved to end his contract, she answered people calling for her husband to retire. According to the Mirror, she said "the only one who knows when he will retire is God" and rejected the idea that he had come back for money.

Who is Paul Pogba?

Paul Pogba is a French midfielder, born on 15 March 1993, which makes him 33 in November 2026. He won the 2018 World Cup with France, scoring in the 4-2 final against Croatia, and earned 91 caps for his country. His career, year by year:

2009: joins Manchester United's academy from Le Havre.
August 2012: leaves for Juventus, where he wins four Serie A titles and the 2013 Golden Boy award.
August 2016: returns to Manchester United for a fee reported at the time as a world record. He wins the League Cup and the Europa League in 2017.
July 2018: world champion with France in Russia.
July 2022: rejoins Juventus on a free transfer, but a knee injury rules him out of the 2022 World Cup.
September 2023: provisionally suspended after testing positive for DHEA, a substance that raises testosterone, following a Serie A match in August 2023. His last match for Juventus was on 3 September 2023.
29 February 2024: banned for four years by Italy's anti-doping tribunal.
October 2024: the Court of Arbitration for Sport reduces the ban to 18 months, so he can play again from March 2025.
30 November 2024: his Juventus contract ends by mutual agreement.
28 June 2025: signs a two-year contract with AS Monaco, until June 2027.
22 November 2025: makes his Monaco debut as a late substitute at Rennes, 811 days after his previous competitive match.
19 August 2026: Monaco and Pogba end his contract a year early, after six appearances. The club said the objectives had only been partly achieved.
November 2026: a free agent. Some reports in October 2026 linked him with a move to MLS, but we have found no confirmed signing.

In his first interview for AS Monaco's YouTube channel, published in French on 29 June 2025, Pogba said it was an honour to join a historic club, and that the move ticked a lot of boxes for him, family included.

Pogba spent most of his peak years with France alongside players whose partners we have also written about, such as Raphaël Varane's wife Camille Tytgat and Antoine Griezmann's wife Erika Choperena.

Maria Zulay Salaues net worth

There is no reliable figure for Maria Zulay Salaues's net worth. The amounts on biography websites are guesses, and she has no documented business of her own. Pogba's wealth comes from his contracts with Manchester United and Juventus and his sponsorship deals; you can read more in our article on Paul Pogba's net worth.

Maria Zulay Salaues Instagram

Zulay is on Instagram as @zulaypogba, a verified account with about 1.4 million followers in November 2026. You can find Zulay Pogba's Instagram here. She posts family moments, holidays, fashion, religious holiday messages and support for her husband.

Does Maria Zulay Salaues have a Wikipedia page?

No. As of November 2026, we could not find a Wikipedia article about her in English, French or Spanish. Paul Pogba's English Wikipedia page covers his career and his faith, but most of what circulates about Zulay comes from biography websites, many of which repeat wrong details such as a 1994 birth year.

Quick facts about Maria Zulay Salaues

Full name: Maria Zulay Salaues, known as Zulay Pogba.
Born: November 1993 (32 in early November 2026).
Nationality: Bolivian, with family roots in Roboré, Santa Cruz department.
Husband: Paul Pogba, together since 2017, married around 2019.
Children: three sons, born in 2019, 2020 and 2023.
Religion: Muslim, a convert from Christianity by her own account.
Instagram: @zulaypogba.

Frequently asked questions about Maria Zulay Salaues

How old is Maria Zulay Salaues?

She was born in November 1993, so she is 32 in early November 2026 and turns 33 in mid-November 2026.

Where is Maria Zulay Salaues from?

She is Bolivian, from the Santa Cruz region, and her family has roots in the town of Roboré.

What is Maria Zulay Salaues's religion?

She is Muslim. In February 2026 she said she had been a Christian and converted to Islam after the birth of her first son in 2019.

Are Paul Pogba and Zulay married?

Yes. As far as we could find, the wedding was never publicly announced, but Zulay calls Pogba her husband, and most reports place the marriage in 2019.