Monologue of Ajax goalie who missed 9 months due to сontroversial doping ban: “Football is not about humanity”
2021 seems to be the toughest period in the life of 25-year-old Ajax goalkeeper Andre Onana. Not long ago, he has been on the radar of some of Europe’s top clubs as he was on fire in the Dutch league and Champions League as well – but now he is out of football for the 9th month straight.
In early February 2021, he was banned for 12 months because of 40 milligrams of furosemide in his blood. Onana took a doping test back in October 2020 – and it caused an investigation took almost three months. Furosemide is one of the strongest and fastest-acting diuretics. It is usually prescribed for heart problems.
The drug itself is not considered a doping, but it is among the banned substances. This is because it masks traces of prohibited doping when it is no longer in the body. As the volume of urine increases, the concentration of the actual drug decreases. It becomes harder to find it.
One of the world’s best goalkeepers was banned for a year because of this, usage of furosemide. Onana says he took his girlfriend’s pill instead of aspirin because of head pains.
Back then, Ajax CEO Edwin van der Sar stood up for Andre:
“We were hoping for a suspended sentence or a shorter suspension than 12 months because the drug was not used to strengthen his body and improve his performance. This is wrong,” the former goalkeeper pointed out.
Ajax finally managed to push for FIFA to reduce the ban – but only to 9 months.
Six months later, sporting director Marc Overmars announced his desire to sell Andre. With that, in November, Onana was back in action – but after his redebut match against Besiktas in UCL, he said he would leave Ajax next summer:
“It’s just time for me to leave – like all the guys in our old squad who have left before.”
Onana recently spoke out again – there he frankly expressed his worries and what such injustice has cost him. Here is a transcript of his interview:
“A lot of people think they know what happened. They think they know me. They’ve seen the headlines. André Onana? Oh, he got banned for taking drugs, right?\ He’s a cheat.\ He’s an addict. Even after everything that came out — the statement from the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the rest — it’s a stain on my name. ‘André Onana banned for doping’ … how do you explain that s*** to your family? To your kids! Well, it wasn’t easy. But listen, there is an explanation. So if you want to hear, take a seat. This is the truth, for those who want to hear it.” he began his message.
“In one week of February 2021, I lost everything. I was at the Cameroon national team camp. A call from the Ajax doctor – they found some furosemide in my blood. And I said: “How? Is this a joke? You have definitely made a mistake. I know how all these tests go. I’ve never had a problem with them.”
“Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. And I’ve never touched drugs. No way. I hadn’t even heard of furosemide back then. The only pills I put in my body were prescribed by Ajax or national team doctors.”
Onana reveals this on the filming for The Players’ Tribune
“After talking to Ajax, I called my girlfriend Melanie. I laughed telling her about it. I believed it was just a mistake. And then she said: ‘Andre, it was in the pregnancy medication the doctors prescribed for me’ That’s when it dawned on me what had happened.”
“When I got back from Cameroon, the club doctor came with me to my house and went through everything I had in the cupboards to check. He confirmed it. I must’ve gone for a headache pill and got the boxes mixed up. I took the pill the doctor had prescribed Melanie. The boxes were basically identical.”
The following contained all the player’s pain, it seems to have been a real ordeal for him – a life without football:
“It was a stupid human mistake. S**t. A small pill. Only 40mg. I was expecting a yellow card and I was shown a red one. Twelve months without a life’s work. One year without football feels like 10 years. It’s an eternity.”
In the 2016/2017 season, Andre Onana became the main goalkeeper of the team and simply rocked with Ajax in the Champions League. It was all unbelievable!
“And then the same Onana got banned for using doping. Like some addict.. Everything’s suddenly gone. The law is the law. But sometimes I wonder: What did they want to achieve by that? Do they like to make people suffer?”.
he asked questions into the void.
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“Football is a ‘game’, but when there is so much at stake there’s not much humanity. Being banned is not a good thing but you learn so much, find out who really matters in your life. It helped me work on other aspects: more time to train, watch it back, make corrections. When I returned, I got on the scales, shirt off, and they said: ‘Bloody hell, you didn’t look like that when you went away.’ They’re happy for me. A lot said: ‘André, if that happened to me, I would have let myself go’. But when it gets tough you have to get even tougher.”
He elaborated his thoughts once in an interview with a reputable English publication.
- Quite recently, famous insider reported that the goalkeeper will soon play for Inter. The 25-year-old has signed a contract with the Nerazzurri after undergoing a successful medical in Milan, according to Fabrizio Romano. The agreement is set to run for 5 years and the Cameroonian will receive €3m a year after taxes. Onana will join his new club in July on a free agent basis.