Former Real Madrid and Roma defender Cicinho opened up on his issues with alcohol and said he would train while drunk, then drink coffee to remove the smell from his breath.

Prior to joining the Giallorossi, the former Brazil international spent two seasons at the Bernabeu, where he claimed a LaLiga title.

Cicinho has suffered with alcohol problems, which he opened up on with an interview on EPTV show Ressaca. He said: “If you ask me whether I trained drunk while at Real, yes. I would drink coffee to hide my breath and soak myself in cologne.

“As an ex-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.”

Cicinho said his issues continued when he joined Roma in 2007 and continued to worsen when he suffered a second serious knee injury of his career.

He added: “I would start drinking after training. I would do work with the physiotherapist, I’d go home for 2 p.m., 2.30 p.m. and would only stop drink at 4 a.m.

“Every time I turned up drunk at Roma, the directors lost more faith in me.”

Cicinho said he has struggled with alcohol since his early teens: “Ever since I first tried alcohol at 13, I have never stopped.

“I lived in the countryside and that 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.”

Cicinho said he is now determined to make up for lost time and asks his son for forgiveness: “Alcohol draws you closer to people who like that lifestyle and people who truly love you are excluded, and when they put you up against a wall and tell you their lives are not great, you don’t want to listen.

“I have a 15-year-old son and I want to say sorry to him. He was two years old and didn’t understand but it is ingrained in my memory.”

Cicinho spent five seasons as a Roma player and played in the 2008 Coppa Italia Final win over Inter – their last major trophy prior to this year’s Europa Conference League success. 

7 thought on “Ex-Roma, Real Madrid defender Cicinho opens up on alcohol problems: I trained drunk”
  1. Disgraceful.

    Fans working 5 days a week to buy tickets to watch you play and pay your wages, and this is how he repaid them. If one isn’t aware of an addiction or hasn’t the means to get help, then there is sympathy. But this invalid was representing top clubs, and instead of maybe using his wages to go to therapy, he cowardly decided to hide it and carry on. it isn’t just his son he needs to apologise to, but the fans of all of the clubs he represented whilst intoxicated.

  2. @Rosario

    Football after all is a work like others and people has flaws there too. Good for him to finally try to put his life in order and specially for his son. Hopefully he can recovers

  3. @Putuco.

    We all have flaws, yes. But whilst most people work 8-9 hours days minimum, footballers usually finish training by early afternoon, and then 90 minutes at the weekend. A club like Real Madrid would’ve not only been able to provide him with physical therapy, but access to the best addiction clinics. Instead he was OK to take the money, drink. and lie about it too.

  4. Rosario

    And most people doesn’t have thousand of people watching them work with millions watching on tv.
    Can’t imagine you have that pressure at your work.
    Addiction what ever you are addicted to are an illness so if you haven’t beaten an addiction yourself I think you should show some respect instead of critisise .
    In the end it’s himself that have lost the most with a career that could have been greater as well as hurting family a d people he loves.

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