'I suffered a lot': Sandro Tonali gives insight into what led him to gambling in latest candid interview

Newcastle United paid £55 million to bring Sandro Tonali from AC Milan in 2023 but before his career on Tyneside could really get going he was found guilty of breaching betting rules as an AC Milan player and was subsequently slapped with a 10-month ban.

The Italian made his return to action early this season and has gone on to become a massive part of Newcastle United's success this season, converting that club form to top performances at international level too.

A boyhood AC Milan fan, Tonali was living his dream playing for the club he loves before moving to the Premier League which led a lot of Milan fans to believe that Tonali didn't want the move.

Indeed, the 24-year-old has been consistently linked with a return to Italy ever since he arrived at Newcastle.

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Sandro Tonali felt he had no goals left in life when he joined Milan

However, as much as Tonali loved being at AC Milan, it sounds like it wasn't actually a good move for him as playing for his boyhood club left a void in his life as he told Cronache di Spogliatoio.

“If we have to talk very honestly when Milan bought me, I was coming from the last year of Brescia where I had a contract for €200,000.

“And in the end, I found myself at Milan, which is the team I always supported as a child, with a contract worth about €2.5m. I said: ‘Okay, I did it, I’ve arrived, that’s it. What do I have to do? What more than that is there?’. Then for me, who didn’t come from a city, I didn’t come from a rich family, I said to myself: ‘Okay, that’s it, now I’m having fun, I don’t think about anything anymore’.

“And so, I was a 20-year-old who was in Milan with his girlfriend, who earned a lot of money, played for his favourite team, I no longer had goals in my life. And I had difficulties because these reasonings and thoughts that I had off the field were then reflected on the field.”

Tonali practically admits to being lazy at Milan

It's easy to see how thinking like that would lead down a darker path and how he could become addicted to gambling. Tonali also admitted that he struggled with the workload at Milan, too.

“Then I had the period in between, which was the most difficult because of the many games, which I wasn’t used to.

“We played once a week at Brescia, and I found myself playing the Europa League qualifiers, Coppa Italia, Serie A. I was exhausted, so I suffered a lot.

“Sometimes, in that season, I preferred not to play, so this makes you understand what moment I was in. If I don’t play a game today, my girlfriend knows, it’s crazy!”

It's good to see that all of that is behind him now, you can tell by the way he plays that he's all about football again and that can only benefit Newcastle.