When it comes to remembering a disastrous signing in the last decades of Real Madrid, a name almost always comes out, that of Cicinho. He had an important poster. In fact, the Brazilian Press compared him with Cafu. At Real Madrid the position of the right-back needed to be strengthened and Cicinho, with his poster, seemed like he was the perfect player. He arrived in January 2006 as one of the last signings that Florentino Pérez would make in his first stage as white president, but it ended up becoming a fiasco. Real Madrid paid 7.8 million euros for him to his home club, São Paulo. His alcohol problems kept him from doing his best. Now, Cicinho (Pradópolis, Brazil, June 24, 1980), aged 41 and already retired as a professional footballer, He has shone again, but in the spotlight of a Brazilian television studio, as a successful sportscaster.
cinch He arrived at the Madrid of the Galacticos (Ronaldo, Figo, Zidane, Raúl, Beckham …) with a painful and difficult backpack to release: his addiction to alcohol. He began to emerge in Brazil with the São Paulo shirt, with which he won the 2005 Copa Libertadores and the Club World Cup that year. His good performance caught the attention of Real Madrid, but a year and a half later he transferred him to Roma.
His time at Real Madrid was a disaster. The injuries did not let him get his best version and his love of alcohol did the rest. He even confessed that he drank so much that he had hallucinations: “I saw Jesus Christ after drinking 18 caipirinhas and 14 beers.”
He would also confess years later that his addiction was uncontrollable: “I started drinking when I was 13 years old, when I went to Botafogo de Ribeirao Preto. They told me that the beer was good and I started drinking. It all started with the first drink. I stopped at 30. I have been drinking for almost 20 years. I got to drink about ten cases of beer a day. Until the signing for Atlético Mineiro, I only drank beer because I had no money, then I started drinking everything. And he also smoked. I did it for 11 years, from 1999 to 2010. I only smoked when I drank, but look what I drank… All day long. “Fabio Capello suffered Cicinho’s ravings in his flesh. Because of his drunkenness he did not rest and then fell asleep in the technical talks.
In the summer of 2007 he was transferred to Roma for 15 million, a club to which he belonged until 2012, with loans in between to São Paulo and Villarreal. Later, at the age of 31, he returned to Brazil, to play for Sport Recife and would go abroad again, to Turkey, to play for Turkish Sivasspor in the final stretch of his career. He ended up retiring in Brazil, at Brasiliense FC, more than three years ago.
Marry, your savior ‘angel’
From seeing Jesus Christ to meeting his flesh and blood saving ‘angel’. Because It was Marry, Cicinho’s wife, whom he met in Italy in 2012 during his time in Rome, the person who helped him detoxify from alcohol: “She encouraged me to know the principles I had, which were oriented to the word of God, and that is how I got my rehabilitation.” Then he found his way as a communicator. First giving motivational talks and helping others who were struggling to overcome their problems with alcohol addictions. “I have not had a problem with alcohol and cigarettes for eight years. I do not betray my wife, I live the principles that God asks of me. I hope that people look at it from the aid side because it is sad to see great players in Brazilian and world football with the power to influence from the good side, and that they do it from the bad side, “he said after disengaging.
Now, already an example, Cicinho has also discovered his talents as a soccer communicator. After a trial period with the Brazilian television station SBT, as a commentator on the Arena SBT program, Presented by Benjamin Back and airing on Monday nights, it has now just been renewed for one more year. Cicinho’s irruption on Brazilian television has turned out to be a success. It is the other Cicinho, the relaxed and reconciled with football and with himself, the one who has gone from drinking until he lost control, hooked by his addictions, to hooking the public and the fans with their vision of soccer and their many stories lived in soccer. Like the one he witnessed at Real Madrid in the fight between Robinho and Gravesen. “I was going to kill him,” he confessed to the audience. Or like the confession about Dani Alves, whom, according to what he has recently told, Real Madrid was going to sign, a signing that the white club gave up for hiring him.