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.