A Long-Awaited Return

On October 18, Papu Gómez will finally feel like a footballer again at 37, after serving the two-year suspension that took him off the pitch. The 2022 World Cup winner with Argentina explained in an interview on De Visitante, a YouTube channel, later picked up by Marca, how he experienced the blow that changed his career.

The former Sevilla player revealed it all began when he took his children’s cough syrup without consulting the club doctors. The medicine contained a B2-adrenergic substance, similar to salbutamol, which led to a positive doping test. Sevilla, aware of the case, terminated his contract, and shortly after he had a brief spell at Monza before joining Padova in Serie B.

“Football Was Dead to Me”

In the interview, Papu was blunt about what he considers an excessive punishment: “You take cocaine or smoke weed and you get six months. I got two years for taking my son’s cough syrup. Who can make sense of that?”

He confessed the early months were devastating: “I couldn’t watch football, I would turn off the TV. For me, football was dead. I isolated myself and started working with a psychologist because it was a loop I couldn’t escape.”

Renewed Hope in Italy

Despite the setback, the Argentine found the strength to keep going: “What kept me going was the fire inside saying, why should I be forced to retire if it’s not my moment? Why should two or three men in suits, who have never played sports, decide when I retire?”

Now, with a two-year contract at Padova, Papu is determined to recover his passion for the game. He admitted the ban showed him who was really by his side: “A lot of people disappeared, but others showed up in a good way.”

Football has given him another chance, and Gómez is determined to seize it to prove his career is far from over.