Mauricio Viana reveals 20-year struggle with alcoholism

Former Santiago Wanderers goalkeeper Mauricio Viana has revealed that he struggled with alcoholism for 20 years during his professional football career. Speaking on the podcast ‘Cooling Break’, Viana described using alcohol as a mechanism to cope with the pressures and demands of high-performance sports.

Viana explained that he would maintain discipline from Monday to Friday to meet training requirements, but would consume alcohol heavily on weekends to ‘reset’ for the following week. He noted that he felt he lacked the necessary psychological tools at the time, stating that ‘nobody was prepared’ to provide the integral support needed for athletes.

He further suggested that his situation is not an isolated case within the football community, emphasizing the urgent need for better psychological accompaniment for young players to prevent them from facing such struggles alone.