Former Italian footballer Antonio Cassano has detailed the poor life he lived before his rise to prominence.
The 35-year old, who announced his retirement last year, was capped 39 times by Italy in his career and turned out for Roma, Real Madrid and both Milan clubs.
He burst onto the scene as a 17-year old for Bari when he scored a stunning last-gasp winner to sink Inter Milan in 1999 and was once the most expensive teenager in football history when he earned a mega-move to Roma in 2001.
But prior to all that, Cassano was living in poverty and revealed he starved for the first 17 years of his life, with his mother, working as a cleaner struggling to provide.
To earn a bit of extra cash, he used to play football on the streets and it all paid off for him in the end.
"For 17 years, I knew what it was like to starve. Really," he told former France midfielder Olivier Dacourt on Canal Football FC.
My mother was a cleaner, and with the little money she earned, we'd eat on 3,000-4,000 lire [between €1 and €2 euros].
"My mother made so many sacrifices. She never went to school and doesn't speak Italian well.
"I played on the streets, in the alleyways. I'd play for whoever gave me the most money. That 4,000-5,000 [between €2 and €3 euros] was used to help the family.
"That match against Inter made me become rich and famous. Football works wonders."
Though Cassano's career was packed controversy, and there's an overriding feeling that he never quite lived up to his full potential despite showing flashes of his talent, he clearly still did very, very well for himself to say he had nothing as a youngster.
Cassano's last club was Hellas Verona - and he didn't make a single competitive appearance for them after joining in the summer.
He announced he was retiring due to becoming homesick, but in next-to-no time had retracted his statement and said he was continuing his playing career, before performing another u-turn by packing football in for good.
Knowing Cassano though, him returning to football in the near future is definitely still within the realms of possibility so don't rule it out just yet.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Football, Serie A, AS Roma, AC Milan, Real Madrid, Italy, Inter Milan
