This is one of the main reasons I like watching soccer. The smallest dude can dominate the world and it doesn't feel like I'm watching people destroy their health for a chance at making it big.
Basketball is like that too. Shoot up with whatever you like, it will have no effect on your 3 point percentage. You want to shoot like Steph Curry? Then you'll need to be just as good an artist. You want to handle the ball as well as Kyrie Irving? You'll have to be just as good an artist.
I know people might disagree with this one, but I think some hockey positions are like that. People should try this experiment, go to your local ice rink, and try weaving through traffic at top speed on skates and putting the puck in that 6 inch window that a keeper might give you to the back of the net. Steroids aren't gonna help with that.
Those are all sports where a little guy can come in and just dominate through sheer asymmetry of skill. It's a beautiful thing to watch.
> Soccer is more of an art.
True, skill is paramount versus other more physical sports, but the main purpose of PEDs is to recover from injury not to bulk up or make guys bigger or stronger.
Interestingly, Messi was given HGH before reaching adulthood in order to overcome a growth hormone disorder[1] (completely legal). Without HGH it's unlikely he'd be half the player he is.
Pep Guardiola tested positive for a banned substance during his playing career, although he was later exonerated.
Arsene Wenger has publicly stated in the past that he reckons the sport is full of drug cheats.[2]
Operation Puerto in Spain[3] involved a lot of blood samples, including those from footballers, being destroyed. Around that time, Barcelona and the Spanish national team were absolutely ripping it up.
There was a doctor filmed in the UK[4] who allegedly supplied Arsenal, Chelsea and Leicester City with PEDs. Leicester went from relegation fodder in 2014-2015 (bottom of the league for quite some time), to winning the premier league in 2015-2016 season. They were 5000-1 odds to win the league, played a high intensity counter attacking football, with more or less the same 11 every week.
I wouldn't swear in court that any of the above examples are definitely doping, but it's incredible that none of this is seriously being investigated.
[1] https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1492546-lionel-messi-and...
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/nov/14/footba...
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operaci%C3%B3n_Puerto_doping_c...
[4] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/03/cyclist-at-centr...
According to a statement of one of UK Sport's Independent Sampling Officers (ISO), "If a club knows in advance we're coming, and the club suspects one of their players, they keep him off training and his name doesn't appear on the list I am given." In the 1999–2000 season, testers were present at just 32 of the over 3,500 league matches, taking samples from two players of each side. Compared to other sports in the UK, like cricket, cycling or athletics, footballers are far less likely to be tested.[13] A case of high-profile was the one of Rio Ferdinand, who missed a drug test in September 2003 and found himself punished for it, being banned for eight months.[14] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doping_in_association_footba...
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/feb/08/arsenal-ars...
The problem is that soccer/FIFA is so lucrative and corrupt that there is very little testing or it's simply ignored.