Via Newcastle’s official channels, Sandro Tonali spoke after the end of his suspension for the betting case. The former Milan midfielder also spoke at length about his recovery process in recent months:
On the path to redemption.
“I have been back to Italy sixteen times for sixteen meetings with the Federation, with the children. It is important for me and for the young players, because it is a life problem, even before it is for the football players. We are so lucky, we don’t have certain problems like those who get up in the morning and go to work. Life is so different and the people I have been in contact with have helped me, like my psychologist, the young people in Italy, I spoke to them and any person who wanted to help me. I want to help people in difficulty, because I am in a really lucky position, especially now that I am returning to play”.
On how to solve problems.
“Just talking, because talking helps a lot. In the first three months I met a lot of people with ordinary jobs, especially from Newcastle, who had this problem and had never talked about it. Then they did after the articles about me and my problem came out. They decided to get help, not keeping everything inside, I was happy about that. The first step, the biggest one, is to be able to say this thing that is inside you, you don’t have the courage to do it and you have a huge block, the first step to solve this problem is to talk about it”.