Dino Baggio is worried. At 51, the former midfielder of Juventus, Parma and the Italian national team has just seen the departure of two friends and former teammates: Gianluca Vialli and Sinisa Mihajlovic. Vialli died on January 6, aged 58, from pancreatic cancer, and Mihajlovic died on December 16, aged 53, after battling leukemia for the past few years. Dino Baggio sees a possible link between these disappearances and the medicinal “substances” administered to footballers in the 1990s in Italy.
In an interview at the Gazzetta dello Sportthe one who was a professional player between 1990 and 2005 ensures not to mention possible doping practices, specifying comments granted the day before on Italian television, but the “supplements” and the drugs received during his career.
No doping, but legal supplements questioned
“Imagine that the doctors could give us doping substances: we had controls every three or four days… No, simply, I would like to know from the scientists if the supplements [légaux] that we take can, in the long term, create problems in our body, ”explains Dino Baggio, who notably won the Europa League three times, with Juventus and Parma.
“My reasoning stems from the pain I feel for the disappearance of Vialli, whom I have always considered a friend and who helped me so much, of Mihajlovic and other boys who, like me, played football in the 1990s (…). I think it is necessary to investigate the pharmacological substances taken at that time, ”adds the one who evolved with Vialli at Juve and with Mihajlovic at Lazio Rome.
“I would like science to be able to give us answers on the drugs that have been administered to us, to recover from an injury or regain energy”, affirms the ex-midfielder who wore the jersey of the club. sixty times, which also expressed its concerns about the products used to maintain lawns.