He always said he wanted a place among the stars of Italy’s Serie A. Yesterday he got it.
Saadi al-Gadaffi’s name was up there alongside Jaap Stam of Lazio and Edgar Davids of Juventus. Unfortunately for the sporting son of Libya’s leader, his sole similarity with the others was that he too had tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone.
A terse note from Italy’s top sporting body revealed that the Libyan midfielder, who joined Perugia in June, had failed a doping test without having ever taken to the field in a Serie A match. As the news agency Ansa remarked: ”He wanted to be a midfielder, but became an outfielder.”
Gadaffi (30) was hired at a ceremony at a castle north of Rome owned by Perugia’s chairman, Luciano Gaucci. Club officials ridiculed claims that Muammar Gadaffi’s son was not up to the standards required for one of the world’s top competitions, and that the signing was a stunt or a favour to the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. Italy gets a quarter of its oil from Libya.
Along with his squad mates, Gadaffi was given intensive pre-season fitness training by none other than Ben Johnson, the Canadian who was stripped of his 100 metres Olympic gold medal for using drugs at the 1988 Seoul games. But when the Serie A began in earnest, there was no sign of him in the Perugia line-up.
First, it was a problem with registration. Then it was a ban imposed because of his membership of the board of Juventus (in which the Libyan government has a 7,5% stake). Finally, it was his back.
The nearest the captain of the Libyan national team has so far come to a Serie A game this season is the substitutes’ bench — and it was from there, on October 5, that he was led away for a random urine test.
Gaucci said Gadaffi had no doubt tested positive because of drugs he took in Germany for his back problems. But Perugia’s spokesperson, Paolo Giovagnoni, said: ”This is the first I’ve heard of him going to Germany.” – Guardian Unlimited