A game of sport has always been a display of personal strength and stamina along with skills, but everytime a player reaches to the height of a game or even if a game becomes immensely popular, there are many accusations start leveling against it. Some of them are true while most of them just ended as a publicity stunt. Likewise, there is a stunning revelation made by none other than a retired cyclist Oscar Pereiro, 2006 Tour de France winner, who says many iconic footballers have been taking drugs or other banned substances to increases their physical strength throughout their careers. The revelation came after a cyclist Lance Armstrong who admitted recently to have taken performance enhancing drugs during his career. Oscar Pereiro is known for his 2006 Tour de France title which was awarded to him retrospectively when the original winner could not pass the dope test. Even Lance Armstrong’s admission is vital considering his achievements in cycling; perhaps he has been the winner of Tour de France for seven consecutive times, and if he admits to have taken drugs, everyone else could also fall under his category, especially when another prominent cyclist blames footballers of being doped.
Though, the Spanish cyclist, who retired from cycling back in 2010, did not mention the name of any footballer, but he clearly mentioned many of them are idolized today. He recently gave an interview to a Spanish online radio COPE Network where he said, “There was a player who had transfusions to improve their performance and is idolised today. There was also a player who used a growth hormone and is idolised today.
“If we give the same treatment to cyclists and to those in other sports, one is doped up to their eyeballs and the other is someone who works for their club.
“It’s not about defending cycling and throwing s**t at other sports, but I wish you would give the same treatment to other sports when you recognize certain things.
“Every age is regulated by certain rules. At the time, Armstrong raced under UCI rules.
“The day I’m paid €1 million, like many have been paid, I’ll say yes or no.”
His statement speaks larger than words, particularly when he says if the same treatment would have been given to cyclists their lives would have been different. However, he refused to name any of the big soccer names during his interview but what he hinted about is performance enhancing drugs have become a part of life of every sport’s person today, hence there has to be unified rules to control this growing epidemic.