“Alcohol has devastated my life”, a former Inter and Saint-Etienne player opens up about his terrible addiction

“I had no limits”

“Alcohol devastated my life, but I overcame it and I was born again,” Fredy Guarin confessed to the Italian media. “I work every day to chase away these ghosts, but I’m back to the same as before. After I stopped playing in 2021, I took the wrong paths and consumed myself with alcohol. I had no limits.”

During his career, Fredy Guarin won the Europa League in 2011 with FC Porto. Between 2012 and 2016, he played for Inter Milan. He then went into exile in China and Brazil, before hanging up his boots in Colombia. “For a long time, I was exhausted,” the former footballer shared again about his alcoholism. “But when I realised I was losing control, I said ‘enough is enough’. Addiction is a thing of the past, but it’s still hidden around the corner.”

Fredy Guarin is well aware that if he thinks he has managed to get away with it now, “alcoholism will always be a difficult rival to negotiate”. “I’m working on myself, on my new life and on my health,” he says. “For my children and for those around me.”