Anxiety, despair, in short, a tremendous emptiness. That’s how Guillermo Celis, ex-Benfica and Vitória de Guimarães, felt, who stopped playing due to depression. The midfielder decided to open his heart and explain what led him to stop his career at the age of 28.
“I reached an agreement with Tolima, but many things have happened since my arrival. I felt at my best in pre-season and I proved it, but I started to feel that I wasn’t important and that the team didn’t make me feel important. And I started to get desperate. The football player is happy when he plays and he likes to feel important. I started to get anxious and desperate because I felt like I had done what was necessary to play. It was something I didn’t control”, he began by telling journalist Juan Felipe Cadavid, on the YouTube channel “Hablemos del juego”.
“I have had difficult days since I made the decision to leave. I didn’t feel like I had the mental capacity to help and collaborate. I heard about depression and anxiety that people felt, I experienced it with my wife at one point, but when it’s you… That’s when you know the reality of things. It was very complicated to have to take medication every day. Days go by and you don’t see a solution for what is happening», he added.
Celis has no qualms about pointing to her profession as the reason for depression, an illness she says is “normal”.
“People give you advice, talk to you and put their hand on your shoulder to say that you are going to get out of this situation. But I’m the one feeling things. I know they do it for my own good, but this is a very personal thing and I’m leaning on doctors. Before, they talked to you about depression and said you were crazy. It’s a very normal disease. This came about because of my work, which is what I love to do the most», he pointed out.
Celis, 28, arrived in Portugal in 2016 through Benfica’s door. After seven games for the team, the midfielder moved to Vitória, but he also didn’t make a statement: he played 29 games and left, first on loan, and then on a permanent basis.
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