9 biggest footballers who failed drug tests: Pogba, Maradona, Onana…
Being an elite sport, football has a rigorous drug testing policy to ensure no team or player gains an unfair advantage by using performance enhancers.
It means players have to be extremely careful when fuelling their bodies and taking medicine. Injuries, illness, it all adds up over the course of a worryingly expanding football season, meaning footballers must take tremendous care in looking after themselves.
That means being wary of avoiding a lengthy list of banned substances. But by accident or intentionally, plenty of top players have been caught breaking the rules when it comes to drugs and had to face up to the punishment as a result. Here are eight of the biggest names to have failed a drug test.
Disclaimer – Rio Ferdinand doesn't feature in the list. The English defender served an eight-month ban in 2003, missing the 2003-04 season, Euro 2004 and the beginning of the 2004-5 campaign with Manchester United, for missing a drug test. He later took the test and passed, but appeals were unsuccessful.
Paul Pogba
Pogba could be banned from football for up to four years after testing positive for testosterone.
The Juventus midfielder has been provisionally suspended following a random drugs test taken after his club's 3-0 win at Udinese on 20 August
The test revealed elevated levels of testosterone, a hormone that can increase an athletes' endurance, meaning the 30-year-old's second sample will also need to be examined.
Pogba has three days to produce a counter-analysis of the result, according to reports in Italy. If found guilty of doping, the France international could be suspended for between two and four years.
Andre Onana
Onana explained that he had accidentally taken his pregnant wife's medicine by mistake and would appeal the decision. The ban was reduced from 12 to nine months, but it ultimately resulted in an unfortunate end to his Ajax career.
Mark Bosnich
The Australian was said to be at 'rock bottom' and was sacked by Chelsea, which led to an extended period away from the game as he battled addiction.
Bosnich eventually managed to recover from his addiction and mounted a footballing comeback in 2008.
Abel Xavier
He was hit with an 18-month ban from professional football as the first player in the Premier League to be banned for using performance-enhancing drugs and not recreational ones.
Xavier claimed that the substance came from an anti-virus medicine he had obtained from the United States. An appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport saw his ban reduced to 12 months in June 2006, allowing him to return that November.
Edgar Davids
After failing a second drugs test a few months after the initial incident in 2001, the Dutchman tested positive again, this time for anabolic steroids norandrosterone and noretiocolanolone following Juventus's match against Udinese on March 4.
A 16-month ban which was tipped at the time would've seen him miss the 2002 World Cup, if the Netherlands had qualified, but Davids eventually only sat out of the game for four months.
Adrian Mutu
It was an even greater shame when he received a seven-month ban from football in 2004 after testing positive for cocaine; the final nail in the coffin at Chelsea for a player tipped for big things in the Premier League.
Jaap Stam
He was also issued a five-month ban which reduced to four with an appeal, leaving a rather gaping hole in the Lazio backline.
Frank de Boer
However, that ban was chopped down to just 11 weeks when it was ruled that the Dutchman had unknowingly ingested it 'by means of contaminated food supplements'
Diego Maradona
The Argentine would bounce back, but was again embroiled in drug issues a few years later when he tested positive for ephedrine at the 1994 World Cup.
He was sent away from the tournament by Argentina as a result, bringing his international career to a disgraced end and marking the beginning of the end of his playing career altogether.
It means players have to be extremely careful when fuelling their bodies and taking medicine. Injuries, illness, it all adds up over the course of a worryingly expanding football season, meaning footballers must take tremendous care in looking after themselves.That means being wary of avoiding a lengthy list of banned substances. But by accident or intentionally, plenty of top players have been caught breaking the rules when it comes to drugs and had to face up to the punishment as a result. Here are eight of the biggest names to have failed a drug test.
Disclaimer – Rio Ferdinand doesn't feature in the list. The English defender served an eight-month ban in 2003, missing the 2003-04 season, Euro 2004 and the beginning of the 2004-5 campaign with Manchester United, for missing a drug test. He later took the test and passed, but appeals were unsuccessful.
Paul Pogba
Pogba could be banned from football for up to four years after testing positive for testosterone.The Juventus midfielder has been provisionally suspended following a random drugs test taken after his club's 3-0 win at Udinese on 20 August
The test revealed elevated levels of testosterone, a hormone that can increase an athletes' endurance, meaning the 30-year-old's second sample will also need to be examined.
Pogba has three days to produce a counter-analysis of the result, according to reports in Italy. If found guilty of doping, the France international could be suspended for between two and four years.
Andre Onana
Onana explained that he had accidentally taken his pregnant wife's medicine by mistake and would appeal the decision. The ban was reduced from 12 to nine months, but it ultimately resulted in an unfortunate end to his Ajax career.Mark Bosnich
The Australian was said to be at 'rock bottom' and was sacked by Chelsea, which led to an extended period away from the game as he battled addiction.Bosnich eventually managed to recover from his addiction and mounted a footballing comeback in 2008.
Abel Xavier
He was hit with an 18-month ban from professional football as the first player in the Premier League to be banned for using performance-enhancing drugs and not recreational ones.Xavier claimed that the substance came from an anti-virus medicine he had obtained from the United States. An appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport saw his ban reduced to 12 months in June 2006, allowing him to return that November.
Edgar Davids
After failing a second drugs test a few months after the initial incident in 2001, the Dutchman tested positive again, this time for anabolic steroids norandrosterone and noretiocolanolone following Juventus's match against Udinese on March 4.A 16-month ban which was tipped at the time would've seen him miss the 2002 World Cup, if the Netherlands had qualified, but Davids eventually only sat out of the game for four months.
Adrian Mutu
It was an even greater shame when he received a seven-month ban from football in 2004 after testing positive for cocaine; the final nail in the coffin at Chelsea for a player tipped for big things in the Premier League.Jaap Stam
He was also issued a five-month ban which reduced to four with an appeal, leaving a rather gaping hole in the Lazio backline.Frank de Boer
However, that ban was chopped down to just 11 weeks when it was ruled that the Dutchman had unknowingly ingested it 'by means of contaminated food supplements'Diego Maradona
The Argentine would bounce back, but was again embroiled in drug issues a few years later when he tested positive for ephedrine at the 1994 World Cup.He was sent away from the tournament by Argentina as a result, bringing his international career to a disgraced end and marking the beginning of the end of his playing career altogether.
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