Sporting full-back: Before Lisbon, life was a mess | OneFootball

Cristiano Piccini ended his career last September. The former Sporting player revealed he went through a period of deep depression, which began while he was at Betis and affected his arrival at Alvalade in the 2017/18 season.

"I thought it was the same as Spezia, Carrarese, Livorno... But it wasn't. I was a kid. A drink here, a cigarette there... And it all ended up on Twitter. I was slammed [by the fans] because I wasn't seen as a professional - and they were right. Physically, I was a prodigy, I didn't need to eat or train well. I didn't even sleep and trained twice as much as the others. But then the time came to pay the price, I had problems with the fans", he told La Gazetta dello Sport.

Piccini also recalled the tumultuous relationship with Betis fans: "I tore my cruciate ligament after 18 games as a starter, when I was one of the best full-backs in La Liga. I returned 6 months later and with every small mistake, they lynched me. They wrote horrible things about me on Instagram and Twitter. I read them and felt bad. I came back from injury, scored three goals and made three assists, and they kept attacking me. Against Leganés, I scored the 2-1 and shouted: 'Shut up, you sons of b****'. They read my lips and that was it".

"I would go on Twitter, type 'Piccini' and my day was ruined. Five people could say good things and three bad things, but I focused on those three. For a long time, I couldn't handle it. Then I signed with Sporting and, even before arriving in Lisbon, I was already a lousy player. Betis fans wrote that and Sporting fans read it", he admitted, although he managed to turn things around with the lion on his chest, under Jorge Jesus: "That's when I said enough. I was going to play in the Champions League and couldn't have that poison in my head, generated by people who didn't know me. I disconnected everything and had a great season. Valencia bought me afterward".

In Valencia, Piccini got injured again and everything fell apart once more: "Depression, mistakes, pain, despair. It was very difficult. I spent many months not being myself. Super aggressive, angry with the world, no one could stand me because of the nervousness and negativity I showed. I was sad and depressed, I'm not ashamed to say it. When I was at Sporting, I started doing yoga and found a teacher to talk to. I felt good, and that made me feel better. I started from there. When you enter this cycle of crap, you don't want to do anything, you don't want to talk to anyone, you don't want to seem weak. We think we're superheroes, but we're not. We don't want to show weakness, but it's essential. You have to be honest with yourself, you have to let go of the crap inside you", he admitted.

To conclude, Piccini mentioned that footballers should have more psychological support: "Forget about making a lot of money and the rest, beautiful houses, beautiful cars, beautiful watches... When you leave someone alone with pain, they suffer. The club, just as it does with a physiotherapist when there's an injury, should have someone who can help assimilate this process and then overcome it. 'Why did this happen to me? What did I do to deserve this? Now that I'm great, that I have everything, even recently married, I have to be like this, alone, and I don't know how to deal with this situation.' I don't know what's right and what's wrong. Clubs should help players not to feel so alone. We are not a contract that weighs when we get injured, we are an asset to the club".

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.