Nicolò Fagioli is in turmoil with Sandro Tonali and Nicolo Zaniolo. While the Juventus midfielder was under a heavy suspension from the FIGC (Italian Football Federation), the 22-year-old player finally decided to cooperate with the authorities and the transalpine prosecutor’s office decided to sentence the player to a twelve-month suspension (including seven from all sporting activities), knowing that the native of Piacenza could have been suspended for up to three years for having made sports bets on illegal platforms. His cooperation with the Italian justice system therefore enabled him to obtain a significant reorganization of his sentence. Especially since the player trained at the Old Lady made shocking revelations, which were also made public, during his interview with the prosecutors of the Turin Prosecutor’s Office and the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. “I started betting in Tirrenia when the national under-21 team retired. I started playing because I saw that other people were doing it. In the national team, betting amused me. I was stressed about debt. There are bets on mistakes and warnings: it was offered to me, but I did not accept because it was against my ethics”, rightly confided the player who passed through Cremonese. Nicolò Fagioli then gave several details on the involvement of Sandro Tonali. It is also the former AC Milan player who even suggested that his compatriot play on the illegal site Icebet.
“It was he who suggested I play on the illegal site Icebet and who made me open an account on the site in question. I am not able to say whether he bet on football events. In the environment, I heard that he had a lot of gambling debts”said the Juventus player before returning to his own addiction problems: “I first bet on tennis, then on football, but I never bet on Cremonese and/or Juventus. Among the matches in which he played, he mentions Turin-Milan on October 30, 2022, then matches of the 2021-22 Champions League such as Porto-Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid-Inter. To conclude, the very young Italian international (a selection) gave sordid details about these numerous debts to his teammates, like a certain Federico Gatti. “I asked Gatti for 40,000 euros, but I told him I needed it to buy a watch. Even today, I have to repay them. My checking accounts were controlled by my mother. Dragusin lent me an additional 40,000 euros in October 2022 and I also have to pay them back to him. The loans were credited to me by bank transfer to the jewelry store in Milan where I purchased luxury watches to be delivered to the platform operators. They are around three million. I increased my debts and I received increasingly serious physical threats, such as: “I’m going to break your legs.” I thought I was only playing to collect the debt. During the Sassuolo-Juventus match (April 2023, editor’s note), I made a technical error and I was replaced. I burst into tears on the bench thinking about my betting debts”recognized Fagioli.
