Chinedu Ede, a former Germany player of Nigerian descent, has disclosed that he played football while on drugs and developed a disdain for the sport.
At 33 years old, Ede, who was once a teammate of Germany stars Manuel Neuer, Mesut Ozil, and Mats Hummels, represented Germany at every youth level from U-17 to U-21 but never earned a call-up to the senior team.
Edu, born in Berlin, commenced his career at Hertha and later played for Duisberg, Union Berlin, Mainz, and Kaiserslautern.
He then became a journeyman, plying his trade for Cypriot side Anorthosis Famagusta, Holland’s FC Twente, and Bangkok United, before returning to Berlin with lower division club VSG Altglienicke.
Having officially retired from football, Edu has transitioned to a career in music. He included lyrics expressing his dislike for football, such as ‘I hated football’ and ‘In front of 60,000 in the Bundesliga, sometimes wasted,’ in his recently released music video titled ‘Reflection’. He has since clarified the meaning behind these lines.
Speaking with T-Online, Edu explained that his ‘hatred’ was directed towards the football industry and that initially, he started playing football because it was ‘fun’.
“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 truly referred to 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.”