For some period of time, especially there around 2009, Alexandre Pato was the emerging star of world football. The Brazilian striker seemed capable of reaching the very plethora of accolades and individual awards, including Ballon d’Or, in a few years. However, various injuries and the life outside the pitch embellished with partying and other sins took Pato to obscurity and oblivion. Now, aged 33, he wrote a sort of confession at ‘The Players Tribune’, talking about his life and career, straight from the beginning up to this day.We present you with the most interesting parts…”The first thing you have to understand is that I left home very early. Maybe too early. When you are 11, you’re not ready for the world. You go out there chasing this dream, but you’re alone, and it’s very easy to get lost on the way.Pato vs Iniesta in 2006 (©Getty images)”So I got a trial with Internacional. That’s when we ended up at the sex hotel. Hahaha. So let me explain. We didn’t have much money, right? My mom couldn’t work due to a bad back, so my dad had to provide for my older brother, my sister and me. He was out all day building motorways.”I was definitely not ready for the Internacional academy. The youngest ones had to do everything for the older boys: Wash their underpants, clean their boots, get crisps at the petrol station. They had a game called Tag the Cattle, in which they’d call out the kids, grab a piece of wood and smack it against your leg! It was total horror.La Finalissima – Europe and South America clash after 29 years”I cried a lot. I hid in my room. I couldn’t tell my mom, because I knew she’d turn up the next day to take me home. So I just told her, “Ohhh, things are grrrrreeeat!””After that, I could have gone to Barcelona, Ajax, Real Madrid. Why Milan? Well, let me ask you a question back. Did you ever play with that Milan team on the PlayStation? They were unreal! Kaká, Seedorf, Pirlo, Maldini, Nesta, Gattuso, Shevchenko … Sheva was unplayable! O Fenômeno, the REAL Ronaldo. I had to play with that guy. What a line-up, man. They had just won the Champions League. Milan were the team back then. I was like, When’s the next flight?El recordado Milan de Pirlo, Alexandre Pato, Seedorf, Maldini, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Inzaghi, Shevchenko, Viudez y Cardacio. pic.twitter.com/gARz3Qpfby— daniel (@labandadelbrazo) August 6, 2017 “Ancelotti became like a father to me. He even named his dog Pato. You saw that picture of him on the bus parade in Madrid, with the sunglasses and the cigar? Well, at Milan he’d turn up to training in a helicopter. He lived in Parma and his wife knew how to fly one. He’d step out like James Bond. If anyone lived with style, it was Carlo. 🗣️ Alexandre Pato: “You saw that picture of Carlo on the bus parade in Madrid, with the sunglasses and the cigar? Well, at Milan he’d turn up to training in a helicopter. He’d step out like James Bond. If anyone lived with style, it was Carlo.” @TPTFootball pic.twitter.com/itO00Dbyfc— Infinite Madrid (@InfiniteMadrid) May 31, 2022 “One day in my second season, I arrived to practice free kicks. Who was there shooting? Pirlo. Seedorf. Ronaldinho. Beckham. I was like, You know what? Today I’ll just watch.”That goal at the Camp Nou… I was in the middle, I spotted a huge gap, kicked it and ran. When Valdés came out I was like, S***, what do I do? Dribble? Chip? I tried to shoot to his left, but the ball went between his legs. Wow. Blind luck. I think even God wanted that to be a goal. Wow, some team that was… (©Getty images)”Deep down, I was like, Is Guardiola watching this? I admired him a lot. He said that not even Usain Bolt could catch that boy. How cool is that? It was the best goal I ever scored. Even the commentary was beautiful. People still come up to me and say, “Twenty-four seconds! Ventiquattro secondi!” Man … those were the days I thought I’d make it to the very top. In the UCL action against Tottenham (©Getty images)”The expectations were so great, you know? I was the supertalent, the sure thing. I was already playing for Brazil. The press writes about you, the fans talk about you, even other players hype you up. “Pato will be the best in the world. Pato will win the Ballon d’Or. I loved the attention. I wanted to be talked about. But you know what happened? “I began dreaming too much. Even though I was still working hard, my imagination was taking me all kinds of places. In my head, I was already holding the Ballon d’Or. You can’t help it, man. It’s very hard not to get affected. Also, I had suffered like hell to get there. Why should I not enjoy it? But my head got stuck in the future. War-affected WC playoffs with Zinchenko’s tears and utter madness of Graeme Souness”Then, in 2010, I started to get injured all the time. I lost confidence in my own body. I got scared of what people would say about me. I’d go into training thinking, I can’t get injured. If I did get hurt, I wouldn’t tell anyone. I’d be recovering from a muscle problem, then I’d twist my ankle and play on. It was swollen like a ball, but I didn’t want to let the team down. I wanted to please everyone. That was one of my flaws.”When the press wrote lies about me, I had no PR guy. I should have clarified things, but I never understood the importance of communicating well and building relationships. I was told that only the results on the pitch matter. This is simply not true.##EDITORS_CHOICE##”Did I party a lot? Not as much as they would have you believe. Did I lack desire? They were saying that because of the way I ran. But come on. Who really knows that? God made me the way I am. I can’t change that.”They wanted me to fly into tackles. They wanted blood, sweat and tears. They got the tears alright. I paid a heavy price.”I was seeing doctor number 6, 7, 8 … every one of them was saying something different. I was like, Damn, what do I have??? I cried and cried and cried. I feared I would never play football again. WED: 19.00: (1.79) POLAND (3.60) WALES (5.60)”When you earn big money in Brazil, where the inequality is bad, the fans demand a lot. So when I missed that panenka against Grêmio in the quarterfinal of the Copa do Brasil, I got all the blame. Yes, it was a terrible penalty, but it’s not true that my teammates punched me. Nobody did a thing. The fans wanted to kill me, though. I was travelling around São Paulo with armed bodyguards and a bulletproof car with tear gas bombs. The fans who broke into our training ground had bats and knives. It was scary. Things happened that have no place in football.”I thought that Chelsea would loan me for six months and then I’d sign for three years. I didn’t realise that they could say no after the loan. Had I known? I would have gone elsewhere. It was a pity, because I was training really well, and the coach only played me twice. I never understood why.Alexandre Pato hasn’t given up on his World Cup dreams 🙏 pic.twitter.com/N11Zw8f9tS— GOAL (@goal) May 31, 2022 “In China, I began to focus on mental health and relationships. I saw a therapist. I learned how to find happiness in hard work. I was still having fun, but I was treating football as a job, you know? I took responsibility for every aspect of my career. In Milan, I had gone the first year without speaking Italian. In China, I learned about the food and the culture straight away. I was even dishing up rice and noodles in my flat. “But then I went the wrong way. After China, I was still single, so I decided to enjoy my freedom. I went to Los Angeles. I wanted the best hotel, the best car, the best parties. I ended up at this place where a girl was snorting coke right next to me. Suddenly I was like, What am I doing here? “Could my career have gone differently? For sure. But it’s easy to look back and say what I should have done. When you are there, you don’t see the big picture. So, no regrets. Look at the bright side, man. I’m fit. My mental health is great. I’m still in love with football.”
