Chinedu Ede, a former Germany player of Nigerian descent, has disclosed that he played football under the influence of drugs and developed a strong dislike for the sport.
The 33-year-old Ede, who was previously a teammate of Germany stars Manuel Neuer, Mesut Ozil, and Mats Hummels, had represented Germany at various youth levels from U-17 to U-21 but never made it to the senior team.
Ede, a native of Berlin, began his career at Hertha and went on to play for Duisberg, Union Berlin, Mainz, and Kaiserslautern.
He later moved to play for Cypriot side Anorthosis Famagusta, FC Twente in Holland, and Bangkok United, before returning to Berlin with lower division club VSG Altglienicke.
Ede, who has now officially retired from football and ventured into music, incorporated the lyrics ‘I hated football’ and ‘In front of 60,000 in the Bundesliga, sometimes wasted’ in his recently released music video titled ‘Reflection’. He has now clarified the meaning behind those lines.
Speaking with T-Online, Ede explained that his ‘hate’ was directed towards the football industry and that he initially started playing football because it was ‘fun’ for him.
“I started because it was fun,” he said.
“In this industry, and football really is an industry, they simply want adaptable robots, who keep telling the same sh*t over and over again. Everything around it, with all these officials – it, disgusted me.
“99 per cent of the players who spoke openly and honestly were replaced very quickly. Everything made me feel so disgusted.
“It had nothing to do with the original sport anymore. Anybody with rough edges was chiselled down until they fit into this world.
“Sure, you got a lot of money for it, but in the end no money in the world justifies not being able to be yourself.”
When asked to explain whether the aforementioned line was truly about drugs, Ede confirmed: “It’s basically the way it’s understood.
“Sometimes you lose touch with reality so much and want to make it right, so it was like medicine. Then you play and you still have a residual effect from the drugs.
“But on the other hand, I also mean the fact that I was playing on painkillers all the time.
“When you had an injury, you were encouraged to start [training] again earlier than was really good for your body.”