" I don't drink. I don't get high. I think I've never been to a disco in my life. And yet I lost 46,000 pounds with just one click on my cell phone, I didn't even have to leave my room. I'm probably the only uncle in history he has lost 46,000 pounds lying in bed on a Wednesday night in Blackpool. "

The beginning of the letter of Andros Townsend, player of the Crystal Palace of the Premier League , in The Players Tribune speaks for itself.

In this writing, the player tells his life, the death of his brother, hell in many clubs in England, how he did not enjoy playing football, how he lost himself in the world of betting between so much assignment to different cities.

"My brother Kurtis was eight years older than me, he was my idol. He was very good at playing football. When I was seven, I played at the Tottenham Academy and my brother Wimbledon. One day, when he was 18, he was driving towards a match in Luton when he suffered an accident. All the occupants survived, except him, " he says :" I hate when someone writes a story about an athlete who lost someone close and makes it look like that death is what propelled his success. Losing my brother didn't make me work harder. He didn't make me score more goals. It was just pain and misery, constantly. That was it. I missed him every day and I keep doing it. "

Then, the midfielder starts talking about football, about his assignments from Tottenham to several teams from the lower divisions: "In Yeovil, in League One, we were in the relegation zone. My teammates were playing for their lives, their cars, their I didn't have that perspective, I wasn't mature, I wasn't living a real life, I lived in a motel near a pub, every meal was from there because we didn't have a kitchen or a car, you can't play 90 minutes in professional football eating meat with potatoes every night. "

"I don't know if it is a record," he continues, "but since I was 17, I ended up on nine different teams in four years. I spent my life in hotels and buses , stuck to my phone or playing FIFA. I was alone, and bored. ".

And the Tottenham arrived. "It was surreal. They called me after Christmas and I played the FA Cup in White Hart Line. Everything happened very fast. I had spent my whole life waiting for that moment. I did not dream of playing in Madrid or United, it was always the Spurs. I scored a goal, I was chosen man of the game and I saw my name in all the newspapers I went back home and was on the computer reading every article, every tweet, every video, over and over again ... 10 days later I went on loan to Watford After Millwall, Leeds, Birmingham, QPR ... five more teams until returning to Tottenham, there the problems began . "

"I don't remember exactly when I made my first bet. I was bored in a hotel room one night before a game, I saw an advertisement for an app, I downloaded it and bet to hang out. After a few months, I was out of my " Most people can bet £ 10 on a weekend and not think about it. But everything I do consumes me completely . If you beat FIFA, I'm going to play FIFA without stopping to run over you. And so with all the games "It was the same in betting, except it didn't work that way. I just lost. When I realized, I was an addict. I remember one night in Birmingham resting for a semifinal of the Playoffs. The biggest game of the season, and I couldn't sleep." I had to check my phone for more bets. That night I lost 46,000 pounds in one game . I think I lost 3,000 per week. That was the worst time for me. You supposedly have to be focused on football, what you love and the only thing that makes Yes, and I just thought about how to get my money back. "

And the federation sanction came: "I was sanctioned by the FA for the issue of gambling and I came back to reality. It was a twelve month penalty and I feared for my career. I appreciate the sanction, it was a stupid boy who had committed a error, that saved my career and surely saved me as a human being because it gave me the chance to talk to someone about what was happening2.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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