Football is a game where the performance-enhancing drug is very rare. However, a string of footballers have been banned for drugs over the years.
Football is a very high-profile sport where players party, drink, and sometimes have recreational drugs. Those who caught in such a case, slip through due to insufficient evidence. But some players are caught instead of a strict curfew.
The latest case of Ukrainian striker Artem Blesiedin, who was banned by UEFA on May 11, has been the biggest doping scandal in football.
Footballers Banned For Drugs
1. Pep Guardiola
This Spanish former player saw his name cropped up in the doping list. He was banned for four months after testing positive for the Nandrolone drug in Italy in 2001. Many footballing companions came forward to defend him at that time. He fought along with his friend water polo player Manuel Estiarte for a long and retired as a player. It tops the doping scandals in football list.
2. Jake Livermore
Jake Livermore was suspended by his club Hull City for taking drugs. He was found positive for consuming cocaine in May 2015 and a test was conducted by FA. Unfortunately, a year after his son died. But taking into consideration special circumstances, FA decided not to ban him. He ‘got out of jail free card’ and came out to deal with the death of his son.
3. Diego Maradona
Diego Maradona, a world-famous player of football, attracted a lot of attention in 1990. He was a coach of the Argentina Team but unfortunately, he left us in 2020. He was in the limelight for more than two decades and mostly in the news for his cocaine addiction.
He was banned after testing positive for drugs and he was out of football for 15 months in 1991. Again in 1994, he was sent back home from the World Cup in the USA after being positive of ephedrine, a stimulant, he was banned by FIFA.
4. Jose Enrique Angulo
Jose signed a contract with La Liga Side Granada FC for five years. Immediately after signing, he got suspended for one year by the tribunal of South American organization CONMEBOL. He was found positive for cocaine.
He raised an alarm against this ban but FIFA and the court of Arbitration for Sport went opposite to him. Instead of one year ban, they changed it into a four-year ban when facts were submitted before the court. The club also canceled his contract and Jose’s carrier got a big full stop before his debut.
5. Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo was accused of interrupting a routine doping test with his teammate. The whole situation became unpleasant in the Doping Control station. This incident aroused a lot of attention and activated communication between UEFA and Real Madrid.
But there was no action taken against Real Madrid. In 2019, Ronaldo raised a red flag immediately after the match to avoid the dope tests. However, no kind of action was taken against him for this behavior by the officials.