Walter Casagrande

Casagrande
Personal information
Full nameWálter Casagrande Jr.
Date of birth15 April 1963
Place of birthSão Paulo, Brazil
Height1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Playing positionForward
Youth career
Corinthians
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps†(Gls)†
1980–1981Corinthians0(0)
1981Caldense8+(11)
1982–1984Corinthians46(11)
1984São Paulo23(11)
1985–1986Corinthians36(15)
1986–1987FC Porto6(1)
1987–1991Ascoli96(38)
1991–1993Torino47(10)
1993Flamengo13(5)
1994–1995Corinthians14(3)
1995Paulista F.C.2(2)
1996São Francisco1(1)
National team
1985–1986Brazil19(8)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Wálter Casagrande Júnior (born 15 April 1963) is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward. He is currently the commentator for Brazilian TV station Rede Globo.

Club career

During his career from 1980 to 1996, Casagrande has played for a number of clubs. He has represented Corinthians, Caldense, São Paulo, Flamengo, Paulista F.C., Portuguese club FC Porto (with whom he won a European Cup in 1987) and Italian clubs Ascoli and Torino F.C., winning the Coppa Italia in 1993. He helped Torino to the 1992 UEFA Cup Final but his two goals were unable to prevent them from losing to Ajax on away goals. He won also two São Paulo State Championships, in 1982 and 1983. In 1993, he was Supercopa Sudamericana runner-up with Flamengo, losing in a penalty shootout to another Brazilian team, São Paulo FC. He played 256 games and scored 102 goals for Corinthians. In this club, alongside Sócrates, has formed one of the greatests strikers partnerships from Brazilian football.

International career

For the Brazil national football team he played in 19 matches, April 1985 to June 1986, scoring nine goals. He played in three games during the 1986 FIFA World Cup.[1]

Personal life

In September 2007, Casagrande was involved in a weekend traffic accident, and was briefly in a coma after his car rolled and hit parked cars. He was subsequently able to leave the intensive care unit and was breathing on his own.

After the crash he described how he had become addicted to drugs since retiring, and that he had been undergoing drug treatment for the past seven months (since September 2007). In an interview with Radio Jovem Pan, Casagrande said he has been in a private drug-treatment clinic in São Paulo since last September. "When I retired, I felt a sensation of emptiness. I missed the adrenaline of the matches and practices and that led me to the compulsive use of drugs," Casagrande said, adding that he became "addicted to heroin." Casagrande, who played for Brazil at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, said he overdosed four times from 2005–07 and once almost went into a coma after using drugs. He is finishing in April 2008 his treatment. On 22 April 2013, Casagrande confessed on Programa do Jô that he was ashamed for using doping four times while playing for F.C. Porto, in 1986/1987 season.[2][3]

Honours

Club

Individual

References

  1. ↑ Walter Casagrande Statistics FIFA. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
  2. ↑ http://www.record.xl.pt/Futebol/Internacional/interior.aspx?content_id=817327
  3. ↑ http://abola.pt/nnh/ver.aspx?id=397057

External links