Interview with Dino Baggio: “We took a lot of drugs, were they dangerous?”

Topic: Prohibited substances in football. That is: doping. Dino Baggio’s statements on the private Venetian television Tv7, in response to a question on the death of Gianluca Vialli, cause discussion: “There has always been doping, however strange things have never been taken because there is always a percentage that you have to keep it. But over time we need to see if certain supplements are good for you or not”. Where Baggio says “doping” you must however read “anti-doping”, and this is evident from the continuation of the speech: “Strange things have never been taken…”. However, Dinone’s words have a disruptive force which, in the fast pace of the internet and social networks, unleash a hurricane. There is no better way to clarify than to telephone the interested party and have him explain exactly what he intended (and intends to) support.

Good morning, Dino. Did he see the pandemonium after he declared that in his time in football “there was always doping”?

“My fault. I apologize to everyone. I meant ‘anti-doping’, and not ‘doping’. In fact, I added that we never took strange things, because it wasn’t possible: there were controls. We weren’t joking. It’s an error that arises from habit. We footballers, when we went to take the test in the room next to the locker room, said: ‘Once again I have to doping …’. And so I brought this way of saying with me.. .”.

Once the matter of doping has been eliminated, the substance of the discussion remains. Can you explain it to us?

“My reasoning is the result of the pain that I carry within me for the disappearance of Vialli, who I have always considered a friend and who helped me so much, of Mihajlovic and of other boys who, like me, played football in the nineties. There are many, too many, who have left. I think it is necessary to investigate the pharmacological substances taken in those periods. Maybe they have nothing to do with it, maybe something will be discovered…”.

It was always about legal substances, right?

“Yes. Supplements, for the most part. Imagine if the doctors gave us doping substances: we had checkups every three or four days. No, I simply would like to know from the scientists if the supplements we took, in the long run, can create problems in our body “.

What supplements are we talking about?

“The usual ones, the ones that are sold even now in pharmacies. Substances that help physical recovery after an effort. On the other hand, we couldn’t do without them: we played 60-70 games a year, between the league, various cups and the national team “Very high rhythms, close commitments that did not allow the body to return to regularity. Helping yourself with supplements was natural and necessary. Now, however, I would like to know if these supplements can cause damage in the long run”.

If you talk about supplements that are still sold today in pharmacies…

“Sure, but a normal person takes one or two a week, while we took a considerable amount every day. There is a bit of a difference. However, my intentions do not involve controversy, which is always sterile but the desire for knowledge”.

You were also on IVs, right?

“Yes, but it happens today too.”

And what was inside those drips?

“I never knew exactly. Certainly not doping substances, because anti-doping never stopped me. But they were drugs, which are things different from the natural substances that are perhaps used today. Those drugs, taken for a long time, are they still in my body, in my tissues? Who knows? I wish someone could answer me”.

“I’m worried, I admit it. So many deaths, still young people, are not normal. A serious investigation should be conducted”.

You also spoke of the grass of the fields.

“Oh yes, you know the smell you felt when you entered the field in the nineties? It was an acrid smell, sometimes even annoying. At that time, to keep the land in order, products were used that contained substances that today no longer allowed. Now, however, luckily everything is different. But those substances that I breathed in, stuck to my body. Will they hurt me? Will I have the right to know or not?”.

“I would like science to be able to provide answers on the drugs we were administered, to recover from an injury or to regain energy. And I would also like the whole world of football to seek the truth, which doesn’t necessarily have to be negative. It would be a Transparency Operation”.