Former Real Madrid and Roma defender Cicinho has revealed he would drink for 14 hours and turn up to training intoxicated in an honest interview about his alcohol problems.
The Brazilian full-back spent two seasons with Los Blancos, making a total of 32 appearances and winning La Liga in the 2006/07 season.
But during his time at the Santiago Bernabeu, Cicinho became addicted to alcohol and attended train sessions while in the middle of heavy binges.
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He then had methods to hide his drunkenness and the smell of alcohol from his teammates. This continued at Roma, who he joined in an €11 million move and made 91 appearances for.
“If you ask me whether I trained drunk while at Real, yes," he told EPTV show Ressaca, as per Football Italia.
"I would drink coffee to hide my breath and soak myself in cologne.
"As a professional footballer, it was easy. I didn’t need money to get it [alcohol]. People were happy to give you whatever you wanted in a restaurant.
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“I would start drinking after training. I would do work with the physiotherapist, I’d go home for 2pm., 2.30pm and would only stop drink at 4am. Every time I turned up drunk at Roma, the directors lost more faith in me.”
In previous interviews, Cicinho had said he used to smoke two packets of cigarettes and would have "more or less 10 beers a day.
The right-back, who had two serious knee injuries, also claimed he would have also took drugs had it not been for mandatory doping tests footballers must partake in.
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The 41-year-old's first experience with alcohol came when he was 13 and he was hooked from the first sip.
Cicinho is constantly apologising to his son, now 15, for the state he used to get himself in and how his routine involved alcohol.
He continued: “Ever since I first tried alcohol at 13, I have never stopped. I lived in the countryside and at the weekends people would get together to go to the squares, club. There was a bar there and I would hide as I was young and would ask someone of age to buy for me and I would hide from my parents and the police while drinking.
"Alcohol surrounds you with people who like that lifestyle, and the people who really love you are left out.
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"When they hit a wall and tell you it's not okay, you don't want to hear it.
"I have a 15-year-old son and I'm always apologising to him.
"At that time he was two-years-old and he didn't even understand it well, but that was recorded in my head."
Cicinho played for the likes of Sao Paulo, Villarreal, Sport Recife, Sivasspor and Brasiliense, who he ended his career with in 2018. He also played internationally for Brazil.
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Now maintaining sobriety, Cicinho is on a mission to help others dealing with issues with alcoholism.
"Football was a phase in my life. Now my phase is to show my testimony and help people so that they don't fall down the road where I fell.
"I give motivational conferences. I'm not in a condition to play, my mind is that of an ex-soccer player, my body is used to it."
Topics: Real Madrid, La Liga, Brazil
Josh Lawless