‘André Onana banned for doping … how do you explain that s*** to your family? To your kids?’
André Onana had opened up on the ‘truth’ about his drugs ban which saw him suspended from football for an initial 12 months.
In February this year, Ajax goalkeeper Onana was banned for 12 months by UEFA after testing positive for Furosemide – a banned substance within the game.
Ajax and Onana insisted that he had taken his wife’s medicine by mistake as he took what he thought was a paracetamol for a headache.
The Dutch side appealed the decision, with the ban later being reduced to nine months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in June.
The shot-stopper has missed a significant amount of football while serving his ban, but with Onana now back playing with Ajax and Cameroon, he is keen to tell his side of the story.
Speaking to The Players Tribune, the Cameroon international has explained that people think they know what happened, yet – even after serving his ban – it has put a ‘stain’ on his name.
“A lot of people think they know what happened,” he said. “They think they know me.
“They’ve seen the headlines ‘André Onana? Oh, he got banned for taking drugs, right?’ ‘
“‘He’s a cheat.’ ‘He’s an addict.'”
He added: “Even after everything that came out — the statement from the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the rest — it’s a stain on my name.
“André Onana banned for doping … how do you explain that s*** to your family? To your kids?”
‘How do you explain to your parents? You don’t drink, never had a drink, never smoked anything and now they are saying you’re a drug addict?'
This is the truth about @AndreyOnana.
https://t.co/8setO2wjOb pic.twitter.com/cXo21avxuX
— Players' Tribune Football (@TPTFootball) December 30, 2021
The 25-year-old admitted that he thought UEFA would understand that it was simply a human error and that they might give him a ‘yellow card’, however, he was shocked when he received a ‘red card’.
He said: “UEFA could see it was just human error, you know? They investigated and I told them my story. The question they asked the most was, ‘Why do you have this medicine in your house?’
“It was easy to answer: ‘Because of the little one. My partner is having a baby … These are her pills.’
“This was definitely not some crazy excuse I just made up. I didn’t invent anything. I wasn’t trying to cheat. All the evidence was there.
“To put it in football terms, I thought they would show me a yellow card. But nah, they went straight for the red.”
While almost a year out of the game was understandably frustrating for Onana, he does believe that, in some ways, it helped him refocus.
He was training in Spain with amateur goalkeepers, and it quickly became clear to him that taking a step back wasn’t necessarily the worst thing for his career.
“In a way, I needed this year to get that focus back … listen, I’m not gonna get down on my knees and say thanks for the ban — f*** that — but it helped me to take a step back and see what’s really important. I trained like I’ve never trained before. Like a machine. Anyone who saw me then would not have thought, This is a guy who is suspended.” said Onana.
“In the summer, when the Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced the ban from 12 months to nine, I celebrated like I’d won the Champions League! They even put a line in their report that said there was no “significant fault” on my part. That was something. They can’t take the stain away, but they cleaned it a little.
“But more than that, the reduction was a big victory for me because after everything I’d gone through, it meant that I could play at the Africa Cup of Nations in January … in Cameroon.”
After a year of lows, the Cameroonian shot-stopper is back on a high – hoping to lead Cameroon into the Africa Cup of Nations on home soil.
Having only made two appearances for Ajax this campaign, he is expected to join another European side at the end of the season – hoping to make up for the time spent on the sidelines.
Related links:
- Ajax goalkeeper Andre Onana gets one-year doping ban
- Jack Wilshere could be set for South America switch after seven months without a club
- Christian Eriksen trains with new team ahead of return to football
