Cicinho, a former Brazilian winger who played for Real Madrid’s Galacticos, has now confessed, on an EPTV television program, that he had serious problems with alcohol throughout his career and even admitted that he trained drunk when he represented the Spanish club. The former international now reveals how he sought to hide his old addiction when he was a professional.
«If you ask me if I ever went to training drunk at Real: yes. And I drank coffee to remove the breath, bathed in perfume. Speaking of my profession, as a former professional football player, it was easy, I didn’t need money to get (drink). People were happy to give you everything in a restaurant”, says the former fullback who represented Real Madrid from 2016 to 2017 and played alongside Figo, Beckham, Zidane and Ronaldo.
An addiction that the former defender says started early, when he was still a minor. “At 13 years old, when I tasted alcohol for the first time, I never stopped. I lived in the countryside, in Pradópolis, near Ribeirão Preto, and on weekends we would gather with friends and used to go out to the squares, to the clubs. There was a bar close by, because he was a minor, he tried to hide it, asked whoever was older to buy it and kept drinking hidden from his parents, from the police”, he says.
In addition to Real Madrid, Cicinho also played for Roma where he went through the lowest moment of his career, sinking into alcohol after a serious knee injury. “I started drinking after training. He did his physical therapy work, came home at 2:00 pm, 2:30 pm and didn’t stop drinking until 4 am. Every time he arrived in Rome drunk, the leaders saw him and that made me fall into disrepute”, he said.
Currently, Cicinho, aged 41, is recovered and is a football commentator.
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