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Dino Baggio on Vialli’s death: “There was doping... I’m scared”

The former midfielder commented on the death of his former team mate with concern: “In the ‘90s there was doping, they should investigate.”

Update:
9 Jul 1994:  Dino Baggio of Italy celebrates a 2-1 Quarter Final victory over Spain in the 1994 World Cup at Foxboro Stadium, Foxboro, Massachusetts.  Mandatory Credit: Rick Stewart/ALLSPORT
Rick StewartDiarioAS

Dino Baggio was one of the best Italian midfielders of the ‘90s. A European Under-21 champion in 1992, two years later he reached the World Cup final at 94 USA with the Azzurra, only to lose on penalties to Brazil. He wore the shirts of, among others, Torino, Inter, Juve, Parma and Lazio and it is just because of his great career that his latest comments have caused a stir in Italy.

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In an interview with ‘Tv7′, the former player, now 51 years old, spoke about his former team mate Gianluca Vialli, who died at the age of 59 on January 6. And he spoke with great concern: “Luca left our lives too soon. We should investigate the substances we took at that time. There has always been doping and it should be understood if some supplements did harm over time. I’m scared for myself, it’s happening to too many footballers”.

Dino Baggio, in addition to praising Vialli (“I have wonderful memories, he helped young people a lot”), was clearer about the substances to which he refers: “In my playing days, in the ‘90s, there was doping. You didn’t take strange things, they were normal things, but you have to see if, over time, the body knows how to expel them or if they stay inside you. A lot of people have also spoke about the chemicals used on the grass on the pitches, their toxins in those products...”

His comments understandably caused controversy. The debate on doping in football during those years was constant and it was back in the news again in recent weeks, in which Italian football mourned the deaths of Sinisa Mihajlovic and Gianluca Vialli.