The 24-year-old already earns millions of euros, but he bared his feelings in front of a group of teenage students and told them: “The most important thing is not a contract worth thousands of euros.” Sandro Tonali’s penance included several meetings with young people to be honest about an addiction that seems to have been overcome after several months of work, including a suspension from his profession. Tonali played for Milan and the Italian national team a little over a year ago and Newcastle signed him after paying 60 million euros. Shortly afterwards it was discovered that he was addicted to sports betting, an addiction incompatible with his work. The Italian Football Federation imposed a ten-month ban on him from playing football, during which he agreed to treat his gambling addiction and attend a series of talks in which he would have to tell his experience. That is why he appeared in front of students at a Bari high school last May. Shortly before that he had gone to a factory. “There I met people who work ten hours a day to bring home a salary. And if they make a mistake like mine, their whole family would pay the consequences. I consider myself lucky. I made a mistake and I didn’t pay anything.” Indeed, Newcastle have respected their relationship with the player, who nevertheless asked for a significant reduction in his salary (around 90% of a salary of around eight million euros a year) during the time he was out of action. Having served his sanction, he is expected to play in Wednesday’s League Cup match against Nottingham Forest.
“He is ready to play. He is a strong person and he has dealt with this matter with ups and downs, but with strength, dignity and integrity. He has not played an official match for some time, but he is fit,” said coach Eddie Howe about the Italian midfielder in the preview of the match against Forest. Tonali, a shy and withdrawn person, has apparently integrated into the team and the city, has learned English and, above all, has worked with professionals to leave his addiction to gambling behind. “Million-euro contracts don’t matter, but being surrounded by people who love you,” he explained to those boys in Bari. “You don’t have to hide behind problems, but seek help to solve them,” the footballer concluded on that visit.
Howe stresses that the work with Tonali is not over, even if he returns to his profession. “He will have to fight with this for the rest of his life,” he warns. That is the message conveyed by the footballer, a person of a withdrawn character who admits that his mistake was to close himself off in the face of an addiction that dates back to 2021. At least he has a reference on the path to follow. Nicolò Fagioli, Juventus midfielder, was investigated at the same time as him and served a seven-month suspension, played two games before the end of last year’s Serie A and received the call from Luciano Spalletti to join the Italian team at the European Championship. “First of all, above all, it is a technical choice because of his footballing quality. Regarding the rest of the issues, he deserves our support and understanding,” the coach concluded.
Tonali has followed a personalised training plan that included sessions on days when his team-mates had games. This summer there were reports that he took to the field in a friendly match against Burnley behind closed doors and without referees. Shortly afterwards he travelled with the team on the summer tour of Japan, although he was unable to play. The English FA, which documented up to fifty bets by the player and four of them on Newcastle games in which he put his team as the winner, had the power to prolong the ban. But it has declined that option. So Tonali now faces a new life as a footballer, but also as a symbol that it is possible to leave gambling addiction behind.
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