Article by Alexandru Stanciu – Published Thursday, April 16, 2026, 1:47 p.m. / Updated Thursday, April 16, 2026, 1:52 p.m.
Ezequiel Lavezzi (40 years old), former footballer at Naples and PSGhas spoken openly about the rough patch she went through recently, which culminated in her being hospitalized for depression.
Ezequeil Lavezzi, a former Argentina international with 51 caps, started his career in his native country at Estudiantes. He later played for Genoa, San Lorenzo, Napoli and PSG and ended his career in 2019 at Hebei China Fortune.
Ezequiel Lavezzi: “I left myself in the hands of psychologists and other specialists in a clinic”
“El Pocho” confessed in an extensive interview for Corriere della Sera: “I was admitted to a clinic and now I'm fine, but my journey is not over. I want to live for my children. Pocho? That was the name of my dog that died: he was called Pocholo.”
Ezequiuel Lavezzi faced depression in recent years and chose to ask for help from his loved ones. Thus, the former striker of Napoli and PSG chose to enter a clinic.
“Thanks to the support of my wife and family, I put myself in the hands of psychologists and other specialists in a clinic. My journey is not over. To those who suffer the same I say: Ask for help!
I have known darkness. I was hurting myself. To me and to those around me. I alternate depression with anxiety attacks. I was never lucid, my head was full of negative thoughts”.
A situation from which he also comes out thanks to the birth of his second son: “He came at a difficult moment in my life, he helped save me. He teaches me a new way of being a father.”
From Punta del Este, where his recovery began, Lavezzi assures: “I went through a difficult time, but now I'm fine. I'm a more aware and mature person. I feel gratitude: being so bad has changed me as a person.”
Around him, at his worst moment, voices speculated about his condition: “Did they hurt me? Yes, but there were things I couldn't control. I was the only one who really knew what I was going through.”
Ezequiel Lavezzi // photo: Imago Images
Ezequiel Lavezzi on early retirement: “It was a gesture of respect for football”
Meanwhile, football remains in the background. “He was and always will be my best friend. But now I'm fine like this,” he says, without nostalgia. Even the decision to retire at 34 came from this realization: “I was tired, I felt it was time to stop and I wanted to do it while I was still at a high level. It was a gesture of respect for football. The ball saved me.”
For Lavezzi, football was, before it was a career, an escape. A complicated childhood, separated parents, a mother always at work and the street as an alternative: “Drugs were sold in my neighborhood, people walked around with guns. Without football, I don't know where I would have ended up.”
However, there was also a moment when he had given up: “From the age of 13 to 15, I started working as an electrician. Football bored me, as it happened to me at other times in my career. One day, however, I played a match with my friends, and some managers noticed me and proposed that I come back: “But you have to start leading a professional life”. I accepted.”
The offer from Italy appeared immediately. Lavezzi was wanted by Atalanta, who were willing to offer a higher sum, but: “Then Naples appeared. For us Argentinians, it was Maradona's city. I gave up the money, but I felt I had to choose the azzurro shirt“.
“I was overwhelmed by the affection and passion of the Neapolitans,” he recounts, describing everyday scenes out of the ordinary, such as “50 fans under the house every morning.” Under that shirt, “El Pocho” was born – a nickname linked to a personal memory: “it was the name of my dog that died, he was called Pocholo” – and an important sporting story was born: Napoli's return to the Champions League.
“At the time, it was crazy. It was an incredible love story and a bond that will not be broken. In Italy, for me there is only Naples“.
The transfer to Paris Saint-Germain was another chapter, in a project at the beginning of the road that would later become a successful one: “I felt good. Nothing will beat Napoli, the place I loved the most.”
In his life now, football is a distant presence, reduced to a few matches watched on television. What matters now for Lavezzi is the present, his family: “I want to be a person who does not forget what he has been through, who manages to embrace simplicity and enjoy family. I want to live, I am lucky to have two children, the greatest gift of life.”
