Antonio Cassano spoke about his spell at Real Madrid and what caused him to put on so much weight in so little time.
Former Italy international Antonio Cassano was one of the most controversial players of the last two decades. The striker had a few newsworthy brawls with the people he worked with, including teammate Totti and manager Capelo. In fact, it was Cassano’s explosive personality that stopped him from ever reaching his full potential on the pitch.
After a few well-known spats at Roma, Real Madrid decided to take Cassano of the Serie A side’s hands as he joined the Merengues for a €5.5 million fee. For a player with the amount of talent he had, the Italian striker definitely had a sale discount tag on him at that point. In fact, Roma had signed the player for a whopping amount of €31 million when he was just 19 years of age.
However, his time at Real Madrid didn’t have a happy ending. Cassano spent two years with the Merengues and only managed to score four goals at the club. His lack of physical form and constant partying led to the lowest period of the player’s career. Consequently, the Madridistas handed him the nickname of ‘El Gordito’, meaning ‘the little fatty’.
Now 38-years-old, Cassano engages in regular video chats on Christian Vieri’s Twitch channel. Recently, the former player decided to open up on his time at Madrid and what caused his dramatic weight gain.
“At Real Madrid I barely made it, I managed to lose about 12 kilos. Then Cannavaro arrived and I gained them again,” said Cassano via Daily Mail. “Nutella was one of the sponsors of the club and each month they gave us five kilos of product. In seven months I gained 14 kilos. I ate Nutella directly from the bottle and I didn’t care. I was ashamed.”
Antonio Cassano retired from professional football in 2018, although he had announced his retirement twice before already. In fact, the player terminated his contract with Hellas Verona just a week after signing with the Italian side back in 2017.
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