Cicinho’s football career is among many under the “what if?” banner after he rejected Manchester United for Real Madrid in 2005. Since retirement, the Brazilian right-back has publicly opened up about his alcoholism struggles. The problems, which resulted in him showing up to Real training drunk, contributed to his promising career fizzling out after snubbing Sir Alex Ferguson 20 years ago.
In 2021, Cicinho revealed that legendary left-back Roberto Carlos convinced him to reject United’s interest and move to Madrid in the 11th hour. He wrote on Instagram: “Today marks the 16th anniversary of my introduction to @realmadrid.
“Sorry, Sir Alex Ferguson, but in 2005, @officialrc3 [Roberto Carlos] called Cicinho and, in the moment, I had to answer. He asked me if I wanted to come and play with him for the Galacticos.
“It was almost all right for me to go to Manchester United, but how could I say no to the chance to be friends with Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, [Zinedine] Zidane, [Luis] Figo, [David] Beckham, Robinho, Raul, Julio Baptista, [Iker] Casillas, Sergio Ramos and so on?”
However, Cicinho’s dream £3.5million move from Sao Paulo didn’t go as planned. He lasted just 18 months at the Santiago Bernabeu, lifting a La Liga title but only making 32 appearances for Real.
The 44-year-old joined Roma, but his five-year spell at the Serie A giants included loan escapes to Sao Paulo and Villarreal.
In 2012, he returned to Brazil at Sport Recife and ended his career with a very brief stint at Brasiliense after three years at Turkish club Sivasspor.
Cicinho’s career was partly derailed by his battle against alcoholism, which he claims would consist of him drinking 10 beers a day.
“If you ask me if I’ve ever been to training drunk at Real, yes. And I drank coffee to remove the smell from my breath and bathed in perfume,” Cicinho previously told EPTV show Ressaca.
“Speaking of my profession, as a former professional football player, it was easy. I didn’t need money to get [drink]. People were happy to give you everything in restaurants.”
His drinking habits continued in Rome, where he would consume alcohol for longer than 12 hours after finishing work for the day.
Cicinho added: “I started drinking after training. I did the physiotherapy work, came home around 2pm, 2.30pm, and only stopped drinking at 4am.
“Every time I arrived at Roma drunk, the leaders saw it, and that made me fall into disrepute.”
Cicinho earned 15 caps for Brazil but didn’t achieve close to what he would have hoped for when he made the switch to Real in 2005.
Content Source: www.express.co.uk