Sidelined for Gambling Problem, Soccer Star Spends Probation Helping Fans Kick Theirs

February 28, 2025 journo

An Italian soccer star suspended for ten months after violating sports betting regulations spent that time helping natives to his new English city kick their gambling addictions.

The supporters of Newcastle United were buzzing with excitement when in the summer of 2023, the club signed Italian midfielder Sandro Tonali. The highly-rated midfield general was seen as another vital brick in a team structure that was fast becoming one of the most formidable in the English Premier League.

But just a few months after arriving in Newcastle, Tonali was found guilty by authorities in Italy and England of violating European rules against players engaging in sports betting. Having cost the club over $70 million, its star player was suddenly sidelined.

In a recent tell-all style interview with Italy’s La Republica Tonali opened up about his gambling addiction, and how it was assisting others with similar problems that helped lead him to kick his own.

Tonali, described as “a young man who smiles, who never lowers his gaze, who jokes freely, and who has been relieved of an enormous weight,” said he doesn’t remember when he made his first bet, but that it had become a habit even at the tender age of 17.

“The fact that it was online hid me from everyone,” the self-described introvert admitted. “When a person finds themself in a situation of this kind, it’s difficult to look inside and ask if it’s a sickness.”

That sickness followed him throughout his yet-brief life as a soccer player that saw him succeed enormously with the Italian teams Brescia and AC Milan. He had played just 12 games for Newcastle when it was discovered he was betting on the results of his former team, Milan.

His suspension included time with a psychologist and a strict no-smartphone policy. In the interview, Tonali praised the UK, and particularly Newcastle, as being a place that was supportive of him and non-judgemental, and it was in the city he was able to use his time outside the game to change lives.

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“In Newcastle, at a factory that produces covers for undersea gas pipelines, there were several men who said to me in different months, ‘I stopped betting on sports because of what happened to you,’” Tonali remembered. “They had been compulsive gamblers for years.”

Tonali explained that one of the reasons he visited the factory was because sports betting is extremely common in England. A worker told him about one of his colleagues who made about £2,000 per month, but said he occasionally needed to take extraordinary measures to provide for his family because he threw away too much gambling on sports.

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Sports betting companies make up more than half of the main jersey sponsorships for teams in the English Premier League, and the nation has a major problem with gambling addiction.

“Talking is the most difficult part,” Tonali said adamantly, “but it’s the only true help—to open up.”

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