Article by Alexandru Barbu – published Tuesday, September 2, 2025, 00:31 / Updated Tuesday, September 2, 2025 00:38
Sorin Ghionea, 46, claims he could fall a doping test because of some neck medicines: “When the doctor from Steaua saw what pills I have on the table, he put his hands on his head. Then I left the national action.” At the first match at the incident, Ghionnea was just called on the Doping test. The result and the whole story below.
A year ago, Pompiliu Popescuformer national doctor, He was talking for the first time About how Romania and FCSB – at that time, the team was called Steaua – they fought a doping case:
Sorin Ghionea had a cold and had taken some pills for the neck. Doping … without knowing. Nor their doctor since then [nu știa]. It was at the beginning of 2000. I intervened because, after a while, to come to the national team.
At that moment, he was not in the national team, it was to be an action. The player announced me. He told me he had taken the drug, which contained a doping substance. I said directly: «Get out of training, because this is a doping substance! If it tests you, it will find you positive and suspend you! »
Exclusive video | How to get caught Dopat Sorin Ghiona: “I went to the pajamas to take a pharyngeal.” I give you something better “”
Invited to the GSP podcast “2 to 1”Ghionnea told the story of the head. It was the autumn of 2004.
“I was playing in Bacău. Zenga coach. I had come after the match with Parma in the European Cups, in which he played and said to them, a match that we lost with 0-1. I landed late at night, I had some pain in the throat … I knew of the pharyngosept, but being 1-2 at night, I went to a pharmacy, you believe me?, In pajamas!, By car. «Lady, give me, please, something throat. I know of pharyngeal, which I have taken. “I give you something better.”
And he gave me Oropivalone. This is called the drug, oropivalone. I don't know what substance he had, but he was on the Doping list. Not that he would have helped you with something, but that he would have masked something else. A throat pill doesn't help you with anything …
In the evening, the doctor who was at Steaua – God forgive Radu Paligora! – He was passing through the room to ask each one, what you do, how you feel. The moment he came to me, I had the foil on the bedside table. He asks me what's there. And I said, “Some throat pills.” He put his hands in his head! And he asks me, “How much did you take?!”. From the pharmacy he told me to take four in 24 hours. I took an eight, that my neck hurt, but it relieved my pain, “the former defender revealed.
Sorin Ghiononea, at Podcastul GSP “2 to 1”, photo: Ionuț Iordache (gsp.ro)
“I left the national team, I could not stay”
He did not play in the next championship stage, 2-2 away in Bacău.
“That's how I found out that drug was doping. Then we went to Zenga. At the match I was no longer in the lot. Because at the control of anti -doping, seven, eight players, either from the field or reserves are drawn.
You can only be in the lot, but if you are extracted, you have to go to the test. We did not play in Bacău, then we returned to Bucharest and received a summons from the national team ”, continues Ghionea.
Following the national match with Armenia, concluded 1-1, from the preliminaries for the 2006 World Championship.
“I was suffering from pubalgia then, I was hurting everything. I introduced myself to the national team and went straight to the doctor. I told him I took orctivalone. And then I agreed to leave the national team.
When I arrived at the national team, even on that day, it was Control Doping. To the whole team, not just one. And I left, I talked, I agreed that, having pubalgia and taking that pill without realizing it, without doing anything intentionally, I could not stay, ”says Ghionnea.
Then I had the broken nose, the first time I had a broken nose, when I wore that zorro mask. And a great title in the newspaper had appeared: “Ghionnea demented”. Oropivalone did not even help you run a meter more! They could mask other substances
– Sorin Ghiononea, at the GSP podcast “2 to 1”
“If I come out positive on the doping test, do you realize what's next?!”
How did the sling of the forbidden substance and the incredible event after the Beșiktaș game, 2-1, from the UEFA Cup:
“I come back to Steaua. I had a European match, I don't know who, at home (no – with Beșiktaș). I was talking to the doctor and I said, “What should we do, because this match comes?! I can not enter, that if there is a doping test and I come out positive, do you realize what comes out?!
I think 4-5 days I drank 8-10 liters of liquid a day: tea, water, to eliminate the substance. The day was still as it was, but at night I do not know if I was sleeping a quarter of an hour, 20 minutes, that you were waking up and you had to go to the bathroom.
Finally, after a few days, I made a personal request to the Doping Institute in us. I went, I paid, the result was confidential. I did the doping test, I repeat, with confidential result. My answer came to me, negative!, On the day before the match with Beșiktaș.
Only then did I enter the cantonment with the team. And who do you think was chosen at doping control after the match? I! It was doping test and I was selected. But I had come out negative. Divinity works! It had been two weeks since I had taken the pill. “
Video integral | Sorin Ghiononea, invited to the GSP podcast “2 to 1”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72Lnk57RT-4
About Sorin Ghionea:
- In Romania he played at the Danube Galați, Steelul Galați, Steaua/FCSB, Poli Timișoara, ASA Tg. Mureș, Chiajna and Viitorul;
- The best period lived at FCSB, along with the semifinals of the UEFA Cup and the Champions League groups;
- Two titles in the record, both conquered with FCSB;
- Outside it evolved only in Russia, in Rostov;
- It has 13 selections and a goal in the national team, played at Euro 2008;
- The largest career market share: 2.25 million euros (2009).
