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After an almost white season, Sandro Tonali was able to take over after an extremely complicated period from a personal and professional point of view. This season, with Newcastle, the native of Brescia has played 31 games including 21 tenure all competitions. A regularity that is happy for a player who has gone through a very dark moment. As a reminder, in October 2023, Sandro Tonali was suspended ten months by the Italian Football Federation for having made illegal bets on football matches, some of which are AC Milan, his club at the time of the facts. In an exclusive interview published with our Italian colleagues from The RepubblicaSandro Tonali returned to all his troubles that disabled him last season. At an open heart, the Italian midfielder gives himself up and continues to repent with youth, but also professional football players who would suffer from the same ailments as him:
“”My teammates and the coach have always kept me inside, just like the staff and the direction. Newcastle fans and opposing supporters never judged me. Here, they respect everyone's problems, they don't push things too much and they try to help you. How did the first months of suspension go? The first month, I traveled between Italy and England. I never touched depression, because I immediately worked on myself. Three online interviews per week and one in person each month. I missed any. We always talked about the day before, with three specific works: one on me, another on the game and the last was the Compendium». After having served a one-year ban for betting and having found his central role in Newcastle and in the national team, the former AC Milan player is above all a boy who found peace with himself after having Faced with a difficult path to win the battle against addiction to the game.
Strong details of his problems
Quickly, the subject of sports betting was discussed. Sandro Tonali now wants to prevention for his colleagues and sisters from the world of football, but in general, to all the people affected by this dependence: “I don't remember the first bet. It has become a habit at 17-18 years. And normality when it has started to take as many time. The fact that it is online blinded me on everything, I locked myself in my shell. Did I already realize that it became an addiction? In fact, I don't think I ever had it. When a person finds himself in a situation like this, it is difficult to ask him if he is sick. He will always tell you no. Even if it feels like this is not the case. He cannot believe that he has this problem, so he tends to hide it. A compulsive player does not talk about it, but if he frees himself, he can get involved. Talking is the most difficult thing. You will never be able to pass for a loser, but the only real help is to open».
Subsequently, the Italian international largely explained the process of his rehabilitation: “During the months far from the field, I spent a lot of time with the psychologist. His job was to make me understand how I had fallen into it. We generally understand it when you lose something: your family, your job, your salary. In my case, my financial availability did not allow me to become aware of the seriousness of the situation. It was a difficult recovery work. I could not take specific drugs, because with 95% of them, I would have been tested positive for doping, so it was a whole mental journey: it lasted months, with a psychologist and a psychiatrist. The first two months, I was detached from everyone, then returning to life, training every day without having the match, I understood that I paid for what I had done. The biggest help was brought to me by Professor Gabriele Sani, head of the psychiatry department of the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, my family, Giulia, Andrea Romeo and her family who are here next to me, my agents Marianna Mecacci and Giuseppe Riso. This situation has strengthened the relationship».
In this interview, Sandro Tonali also explains that he had lived disconnecting without a cell phone for 6 months and its use today is minimal. He met many people in England who allowed him to open his eyes to the dangers of online games: “The most exciting meeting? In Newcastle, in a factory that manufactures lids for ocean gas pipes. I went there because the game is very popular in England. There are those who told me, several months after the suspension “I stopped bet thanks to what happened to you”. They have been compulsive players for years. An Italian told me that an employee wins £ 2,000 per month, but that he must sometimes work overtime to provide for his family: he throws too much money out the windows. is not an exaggeration to talk about a first and a second life. My lifestyle was negative. I was closed to everyone and it made me change my behavior: even with the people who loved me and that I loved. I was like that at the training camp as well as at home, with my friends and my family. Fortunately, I am different». While he is fully back, Sandro Tonali may well be an active player in the next summer transfer window. Several clubs have already contacted him.
