Saadi Gaddafi is Free to continue his Italian Soccer Adventure

By: Bob | June 22nd, 2007

When you are the son of a dictator you have a couple of choices. You can wait your turn and eventually become a dictator yourself or you can do something completely unrelated to the family biz like become a professional soccer player. That is the path the son of Libya’s leader Muammar Gaddafi has kind of taken and what a path it has been.

An Italian court has ruled that Saadi Gaddafi will not be punished for his alleged doping back in 2003. For those scoring at home, Gaddafi played in part of one game for Perugia that year before subsequently being suspended for steroids. One game, one suspension. That is an impressive track record.

Gaddafi’s career did not end there. He joined Udinese in 2005-06 and played 10 minutes during their final game of the season against Cagliari before being released. Those 10 minutes, and some oil dollars, were enough to convince Sampdoria to sign him in January of this year.

In addition to being a quasi Serie A player, he was at one time on the board of Juventus, he is the captain of the Libyan national team and he is the president of the Libyan Football Federation.

Does he have politics in his future?

In an interview a couple years back he said:

“My father wants me to come back to Libya, to give me some positions,” he said. “He doesn’t want me to play football. He says, ‘You are bigger than that; you have to be something more than a player.’ But this is my passion. I say, ‘OK, just let me finish my contract.’ Maybe then I can be Libyan ambassador in the United States, or have some other kind of very sensitive position.

“Or am I going to play for another two or three years? To retire from football is a very big decision for me, because I love it so much. I want to play forever. It is in my heart.”