It's a sad story, at least from my point of view. Italian footballer Andrea Masiello was arrested yesterday night as part of an ample investigation concerning match fixing for betting profits. Masiello, currently contracted to top flight club Atalanta, was suspected to have been involved in fixed matches last season while playing for another Serie A club, Bari.
The most obvious charge was for the local derby Bari vs Lecce, won by Lecce 2-0. Masiello supposedly received 300.000 euro for making sure that his team would lose. And he did that with this absolutely stunning own goal:
When I first saw the news on an Italian website this morning there were no additional details. Now I have checked the story again and it appears that the player has admitted before the judge that he had scored that own goal intentionally.
A professional top flight soccer player in Italy easily makes a few hundred thousand euro each year. So my question is, why did he need to do that for 300K? Greed? Or maybe he was threatened by the betting mafia?
What do you make of all this?
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