The revolt of a world champion “” If you take cocaine you get rid of 6 months, and I stayed for 2 years for a cough syrup! “
Article by Daniel Scorpie – published on Friday, September 12, 2025, 20:04 / Updated on Friday, September 12, 2025:20
Alejandro “Papu” Gomez (37 years old), the Argentine midfielder arrived in Padua in Serie B, complains of the discriminatory treatment applied in current football in doping cases. The world champion at the last Qatar 2022 edition will return on October 18, after the expiration of the suspension received because it has positively tested at a B2-adrenergic drug, similar to salbutamol.
Over five weeks, Papu Gomez can recur on the lawn in Italy. Then the sanction received will be completed because it was detected positively. The doping case came to the surface in October 2023, when the former midfielder of FC Sevilla had started to play two matches in Monza.
Papu Gomez: “Why do I have to force me to withdraw from football in this way, if the time has not come?”
In its urine sample, a B2-adrenergic drug, similar to salbutamol, has been discovered. The Argentinian has always claimed that it was a mistake and that everything is drawn from a night to feel bad and, without consulting the club doctors, took the cough syrup of his children.
Papu Gomez became world champion with Argentina in December 2022 / Photo: Guliver / Gettyimages
In an interview with Corta Agency, Papu Gomez told how he lived the most difficult time in his career: “The first months were very difficult. I did not understand why this happened to me, at the top of my career, after I had won the World Cup. Why do I have to force me to withdraw from football in this way, if the moment has not yet come? ”
The midfielder revolted from the different way he was treatment compared to other cases: “If you take cocaine or smoke a joint, you get six months. But I took two years for a banal cough syrup.”
“For me, football was dead! I appealed to the psychologist”
Papu Gomez confessed that he lived in isolation and despair, and he could not watch a match anymore: “For me, football was dead. I had to start going to the psychologist to get out of this situation. ”
Alejandro Gomez, in Monza's shirt, after terminating with FC Sevilla (10 goals in 90 matches) / Photo: Imago
Padua granted a chance and offered a two -year contract, with the extension option for another season. Gomez wants to rediscover his enthusiasm and pleasure to play, which he has displayed seven years at Atalanta.
“I was surprised by how many people left me, while others stayed with me. I don't wear them, now I just want to come back and feel a footballer again,” Gomez promised.
