Article by Maria Olteanu – Published Wednesday, December 24, 2025, 10:34 / Updated Wednesday, December 24, 2025 10:36
Brazilian Eric de Oliveira (40 years old), the best foreign scorer in the history of League 1, one of the players who left his mark on football in Romania, had an extremely difficult childhood. He recalled the extremely complicated moments he went through, when he was proposed to become a drug dealer.
Arriving in the summer of 2007 at Gaz Metan, Eric also played in Romania for Pandurii, Viitorul and FC Voluntari, retiring in 2021. This after the year before he had become the best foreign scorer in Romanian football, with 66 goals.
Although extremely small, he was proposed to sell drugs. In addition to the extremely complicated living conditions, he also experienced a terrible drama, when one of his cousins was shot as a result of an altercation related to drug trafficking.
“It was difficult for me as a child to behave, because I had some deviations on my way. (…) For example, I received the offer to sell drugs.
Around 9, 10, 11 years old. I was determined from a young age that I wanted to play football, I had nothing else in mind. But friends of mine were shot as kids for going down this road. In 2002, I had the biggest loss of my life.
I had two twin cousins, with whom I lived in the same house. We were 18 people in the same house! I was sleeping on the floor with my mother and sister. I didn't have a bed until I was 21. The grandparents had beds, everyone else slept on the floor. And my cousin was shot 200 meters from the house.
I had the closest connection with him, like he was my older brother. I was fighting with the other one”, recalled Eric, quoted by golazo.ro.
Eric de Oliveira, marked by a difficult childhood
Later, he told how he himself was proposed to become a drug dealer, even though he was only 9-10 years old.
“It's the easiest with children, because the police don't come to take 10-12 year olds to… You give them the envelopes and send them to sell them.
I got along well with one cousin and I used to fight with the other. Because they were working, being 5 years older than me, they would buy some slippers and I would go to town with their slippers. I was wearing 38, the slippers were 42. And I was walking like that with them, I didn't care that they were big. Because I had no conditions. And they already had, because they were working. That's how we grew up.
After that, I told my wife, when I was playing football and I started buying all kinds of sneakers… I was buying because I didn't have any when I was little. And I told him “me, you can interfere in everything in my life, but when it comes to sneakers, please don't interfere!”. And he understood.
Childhood trauma, yes. Well, if I used my cousins' sneakers… Because I didn't have them all! (…) That's why I then bought many pairs of sneakers, I invested the hard money. And after 6 months I collected them and when I went on vacation in Brazil, I took a bag full of sneakers and gave them to my cousins. The reward!”, said Eric, for the source quoted above.
