The story of the Brazilian hero who failed at Real Madrid

DBasia.news – Alcohol addiction is indeed harmful, especially for a sportsman, including footballers. Many of their their careers have been destroyed by alcohol. One of them is Cicero Joao de Cezare or Cicinho.

For Real Madrid fans, Cicinho was once a phenomenal figure. Considered Cafu’s successor in the Brazilian right-back post, he came to Spain in 2006 from Sao Paulo. At that time, Los Blancos were coached by Vanderlei Luxemburgo.

Cicinho became the next Brazilian player to be collected by Madrid after Ronaldo Luis Nazario de Lima, Roberto Carlos, Robinho and Julio Baptista. Together with his compatriots, Cicinho had to become a star as many people praised at the time, including Sir Alex Ferguson.

Unfortunately, the fans’ desire to see Cicinho become like Cafu never materialized. It failed miserably. He only lasted one season before moving to AS Roma in 2007. Then, he disappeared and retired in 2018.

Years later, the man who is now 41 years old recounts how alcohol derailed his career while playing at the Santiago Bernabeu. Cicinho admitted, the level of alcohol addiction is already at an alarming level.

Cicinho revealed that at that time he had to take a shower and ended up spraying a lot of perfume to cover the smell of alcohol on him. He also had to drink a lot of coffee to cover up bad breath. In fact, he often came to Los Blancos’ training ground with a stagger.

“It [alcohol] has to do with my profession. As a professional footballer who was quite famous at that time, it was easy to do so. I don’t need money to get it. People are happy to give me everything,” said Cicinho.

This bad habit continued while defending AS Roma, especially after he was out for quite a while due to a severe knee injury.

“I started drinking after training. Then I did physiotherapy, then came home around 2 pm. After half an hour when I got home, I drank, and only stopped at 4 am,” said the man who was born on June 24, 1980.

“Every time I arrive in Rome [training ground] drunk, the club directors see it and it makes me fall into disrepute,” he added.

Cicinho admits that he started consuming alcohol in his early teens. Since then, he became addicted, and could never give up alcohol.

“At the age of 13, when I tasted alcohol for the first time, I couldn’t stop. I live in the countryside, in Pradopolis, close to Ribeirao Preto, [Brazil]. On weekends, we gather with friends and go to the city center,” Cicinho added.

“There’s a bar nearby. Since I was underage, I tried to hide it. I asked anyone who was older to buy it and I kept drinking. I hid it from my parents and the police,” said the owner of 15 caps for the Brazilian national team.

“My father and sister are guarding my property, and they are trying to file an intervention request on my property. I can’t manage whatever I have,” added the player who retired in 2018.

“Alcohol leaves you surrounded by people who like the same lifestyle. People who truly love you will be ostracized. It’s because they’ll put you on the wall, and say that your life isn’t cool. But you won’t listen to it.”