Inter goalkeeping target Andre Onana has opened up on the nine months he spent banned from football for a doping violation, according to a report in the American media.
Speaking during an interview with The Players Tribune, Andre Onana explained how he discovered what it was he had taken by mistake that led to him returning a positive drugs test for a banned substance after a match with Ajax.
“When I got back from Cameroon, the doctor from the club came with me to my house and checked everything I had in the lockers. I must have taken a headache pill and mixed up the boxes.
“I took the pill that the doctor had prescribed to Melanie (the girlfriend at that moment pregnant). The boxes were essentially identical.”
The ruling from UEFA was that Andre Onana should be banned from all footballing activity for 12 months, which was later reduced to nine when UEFA admitted that he took the substance by accident and was not trying to gain any advantage on the pitch.
He received a lot of support from people in the game and his Ajax teammates at the time.
“My Ajax teammates wore shirts with my name on before the PSV game to show their support and I received a lot of messages on social media from all over the football world.
“It’s a good feeling. But still, I felt isolated. The sanction meant I couldn’t go to matches, I couldn’t train with the team, I couldn’t attend the title celebrations at the end season – even though I had played 60% of the games. How could that be right?!.”
Andre Onana looks set to join Inter on a free transfer for the 2022/23 season and he clearly wants to make up for the time that he has lost.
“Now I’m back to play again, my dreams are the same as when I was a kid sitting high in the Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo. I want to represent my country. I want to win AFCON and become a legend for eternity.
“And I want to become the best goalkeeper in the world. Everyone takes shots. Everyone falls. What I learned this year more than anything else is that this is not the point. The point is how you get up.”
