Tonali reborn: ‘Running his b***s off’ and vanquishing demons – HOPE

It was in May and by the shore of southern Italy’s Adriatic Sea – far from the comfort of Milan and even further from Newcastle – that Sandro Tonali, as part of his gambling addiction rehab, spoke to students at a science school in Bari. His words belonged in more literary surrounds.

‘Hiding behind the barriers of a problem is never the solution,’ he said. ‘You have to talk about it, instead. Get help. My true wealth is not the millionaire contracts, but being surrounded by people who love me and continue to show it to me every day.’

On Tyneside, during a 10-month ban for illegal betting that expires on Tuesday, Tonali found that love. 

There is Andrea Romeo, the father figure who was his team liaison manager at AC Milan. The former Serie A referee moved here with Tonali last summer and lives close by amid the tree-lined avenues of Gosforth. They talk, cook pasta, watch films and play Monopoly. The player has picked and carved pumpkins with Romeo’s children. When Newcastle beat Blackburn on penalties in the EFL Cup in February, Tonali watched the shootout on his compatriot’s mobile phone via FaceTime from the away end. Fans nearby enjoyed that as much as the victory.

There is Dr Ian Mitchell, Newcastle’s head of psychology who, insiders say, has done more than anyone to combat the 24-year-old’s demons and keep him focused on his ultimate goal. On Wednesday, in the EFL Cup at Nottingham Forest, that target is within striking distance.

There is Bruno Guimaraes, the team captain who routinely gives Tonali a hug and is part of a friendship group including Joelinton and Miguel Almiron. There are coaches such as Graeme Jones, Stephen Purches and Nick Grantham, who have worked one-on-one with the midfielder on an almost daily basis.

And then there is Eddie Howe, the manager who has shielded his player in public and shepherded him in private. Howe chose love not hate when losing his £52million marquee signing for self-inflicted reasons in October. 

Tonali, it transpired, had bet hundreds of thousands of pounds on matches involving Milan and later Newcastle. A cynic would say Howe was skilfully protecting a club asset, the reality is that he was protecting a young man he had persuaded to start a new life 1,000 miles from the only home he had known.

Newcastle chiefs have privately confessed that the whole affair derailed their season. But it felt genuine when, at the time of the ban, Howe said: ‘I see the person. I see the human. I see the pain and distress. He is devastated. That’s why my thoughts are always with the player and making sure we look after him.’

And that, Newcastle have done. It helps when the player looks after himself, too. Tonali, I am told, has been just about the most low maintenance squad member in the period he has been out, even allowing for the extra effort required to cater for the needs of a footballer who cannot play football.

But boy can he play, they say. The club have been very careful not to ‘lionise’ him – they have learnt lessons from Brentford’s handling of Ivan Toney – but there is excitement around the type of player who will return. They have not ‘wasted’ the past 10 months, sources insist. 

The Italy international appeared just 12 times for Newcastle before his ban, but Howe and his staff identified key areas for improvement. His physical speed and his application of the team’s marking system were chief among them. At Milan, they were man-to-man in their own half, whereas Howe’s style is more fluid. 

He understands better now the workings of the team – he has had time to download the playbook. There has been the odd occasion, after a practice match in which he has shone, that Howe has instinctively considered his selection for the next game. Alas, that was not possible.

Much of Tonali’s training, however, has been individual sessions, given last season’s Champions League schedule meant the team sometimes worked just twice a week at their Benton base. Not once did Tonali complain. Those sessions were complemented by personal meetings, with Romeo the interpreter. Over time, Tonali’s English became good enough to do away with translation. Staff began to see a ‘cheeky’ side.

A by-product of tailored coaching has been shooting practice, often the reward at the end of a demanding exercise. Because of that, plus additional gym work, it is said that he now has the hardest shot at the club, as Newcastle’s younger goalkeepers will testify. 

Not just that, so pumped are his arms, he has the hardest handshake, too. Staff and team-mates joke about the strength of his grasp during their customary morning greeting. ‘He nearly breaks your hand,’ quipped one colleague.

But is he fit? He needs time to regain peak sharpness – he has not been able to play in friendlies as part of the sanction handed down by Italian authorities – and there were a couple of minor injuries last season that were not reported. But, right now, he is as close to fit as his situation has allowed. Just recently, during a small group drill, Tonali chose to use the 60 seconds afforded for recovery to run shuttles instead. ‘He’s running his b***s off,’ said one observer.

In Germany, at the club’s pre-season training camp last month, he swam as hard and fast as he has been running. In between sessions, he could be found playing tennis or padel. 

His attitude to his work and the emergence of a personality that had seemed locked behind a macho facade has made him popular in the dressing-room. In June, as he holidayed in Ibiza, he bumped into a group of his team-mates in a nightclub. They were there celebrating back-up goalkeeper Mark Gillespie’s stag-do, but celebrated the chance meeting with Tonali even more. 

‘He’s just a bit of a dude,’ remarked one of those present. ‘We love him,’ says another source. ‘You can tell he has a good nature.’ Be it Howe or the kitchen staff, he is said to take time and care with each interaction, even if folk are left nursing a tender palm afterwards.

But the best insight to his character has perhaps been away from the training ground. While not seen on a football pitch, he has been visible on the streets of Newcastle and beyond. There was a Halloween trip to a pumpkin festival at Adventure Valley in Durham with Romeo and his family. Staff say he even helped to make his own pizza at the Italian café and accommodated every request for pictures and autographs.

He has explored the region and his palate, dining at Dabbawal, an Indian street food outlet in Jesmond. He has not been back to the Gosforth branch of Wetherspoons, where he ate last summer after mischievous team-mates recommended it as the suburb’s best restaurant. But he has been seduced by the smell of the North Sea and fish and chips. 

Growing up in the town of Sant’Angelo Lodigiano near Milan, some two hours from the Mediterranean, Tonali has fallen in love with coastal hamlets such as Tynemouth and Bamburgh, and the ease with which his Audi SQ8 can take him to the beach in just 20 minutes.

He also has his favourite coffee shop in Gosforth. Post midday, he occasionally enjoys a glass of wine at the trendy Traders eatery, the Italians having a more sophisticated relationship with food and alcohol than we do. Espresso or something stronger, he is always perfectly charming with the locals. Even Gosforth’s pooches get a Tonali tickle, if taking an interest in his own French bulldog, Margot.

He would walk his dog with girlfriend Juliette Pastore – their strolls took them past the homes of Alan Shearer, Steve Harper and team-mates Fabian Schar and Emil Krafth – but we understand the model and clothes designer has recently returned to live in Italy. It has allowed Tonali to focus on football. He trains, has a massage, eats, sleeps and goes again.

There is simplicity now, and a floodlight at the end of the tunnel. But there have been dark days. In the run-up to Christmas, staff noticed he was beginning to struggle. The realisation of his suspension – ruling him out of Euro 2024, too – had set in. 

Newcastle had recently exited the Champions League after a defeat by Milan, of all clubs, and the fixture stirred coverage around Tonali. Did Milan know of his addiction before suddenly selling their captain to Newcastle? Was the player aware of an Italian investigation taking place? Were there more revelations to come (this was before the Football Association had concluded their own probe)?

Tonali needed a break, it was decided, and he returned to Italy to be with his parents and older brother and sister, before holidaying with Pastore in Dubai. Time in his home country has also taken him closer to Professor Gabriele Sani, the psychiatrist who has treated his addiction. There is an acceptance that it will never be truly beaten, but it can be managed and lived with.

The turn of the year started a countdown – eight months to go, at least that was what he and Newcastle hoped. May brought belated confirmation that the FA investigation would not result in an extended absence. After admitting to gambling on Newcastle to win four matches, he was given a suspended two-month ban.

It was around this time that his rehab and education programme took him to a factory in the North-East, where employees broke off from 10-hour shifts to chat with him. It was not publicised. There were no pictures or press releases. Rather, it was intended to provide Tonali with perspective. It was successful. He left with a sense of good fortune, appreciating more a personal fortune that has remained. 

If a factory worker lost his job, he reasoned, his entire family would suffer. Tonali has taken a pay cut during his ban, yet he is still a very wealthy man – he wears a Richard Mille watch worth around £400,000 – and, it is thought, he has not been burdened by a legacy of financial issues arising from his addiction.

Rather, the one debt he must now pay is to Howe, his team-mates and Newcastle United.