He played in Serie A, in the Premier League, and wore the shirt of the Italian national team. Dani Osvaldo, now 38 years old, wore the shirts of Fiorentina, Bologna, Roma, Juventus and Inter, before retiring in 2020. In the meantime he began a career as a singer, and also participated in Dancing with the Stars. In his latest message on social media, a long outburst on video, the naturalized Italian Argentinian reveals that he uses drugs and is dependent on alcohol due to a bad depression that he is facing with all his energy through a psychiatric path. «It’s very difficult for me to talk about it, it’s very difficult for me to open up. I have trouble distinguishing what’s real from what’s in my head. If anyone is experiencing something similar, ask for help, because you can’t get out of it alone. I know that I will get out of this”, he said with a broken but sustained voice, “if I tell all this it is not to play the victim but to let those interested know that the things I do and the wrong decisions I make, and the anger I feel towards the world and towards many people has to do with this disease and my lack of self-esteem. I am in treatment and take drugs, but it is difficult to get out of it and I fall back into addictions and isolate myself from the people I love.” The former center forward lays himself bare and talks about the spiral from which he struggles to escape: «I live practically alone, locked up in the house. I’m not going anywhere, I’m not doing anything productive with my life. Sometimes I don’t want to get out of bed. For a long time I have suffered from very serious depression, which has made me fall into some addictions: alcohol and drugs. I’m in a moment where my life is getting out of hand. And I wanted to tell it and share it with you. I am undergoing psychiatric treatment. I have a very particular disease. Lack of self-esteem, depression. Many times I fall back into my addictions out of anger. I fall into self-destruction and this also harms the people around me.” Psychological suffering and addictions have distanced him from his loved ones: «It makes me want not to see my family, to share things with my children. I was an elite player and a completely different person, full of confidence and security. Today I am a person I don’t recognize. I’m having a hard time getting out of this situation. I still don’t understand how I ended up like this, what hurts me most is that I’m impoverishing my soul.” Finally, he addresses his family directly: “I wanted to say this and ask forgiveness from my family, my friends, my children.”
