It is the dream come true of a soccer star who went from living surrounded by fame and money to falling into the dark side of drugs in a process of personal ruin.
“Everyone deserves a second chance like I’ve had.” No one better than the author of the sentence, the ex-soccer player Julio Alberto Moreno, to certify a sentence that he pronounced yesterday in the Auditorium 1899 of the Camp Nou. The former international player of Barça and Atlético de Madrid wants it put into practice with the Relife foundation, that he presented at the venue for the great occasions of FC Barcelona, which was created with the intention of helping and preventing addictions.
Relife, under the slogan of Recover lives, is the dream come true of a football star who passed from living surrounded by fame and money to falling into the darker side of drugs. He spent two years in a rehabilitation program of Proyecto Hombre, from which he left in 2002, completely broke and without any support, neither emotional nor professional, for that second chance that he now wants to support and promote with Relife. Julio Alberto recalled some features of a personal trajectory of the harshness that they have the stories of fallen heroes who manage to take flight. “I never threw in the towel and, furthermore, I am a believer,” he recalled in that review of the darkest days.
Breakfast with Laporta
Desperation led him one day to call Joan Laporta, in his first stage in the presidency of Barça. There he changed everything. “It was a good breakfast, and I needed it at that time, in which he told me: ‘I want you to get you back to Barça’“. They were not just words, the leader promised to pay him a salary. Rafa Yuste, today sports vice president, specified the functions. “I have something for you that you will like a lot: the management of the international schools of Barça”, He told the man who promised to throw himself into the Camp Nou pit if he scored in a match against Juventus, only completing the second half, the goal.
From there, Julio Alberto began to turn his life around, also with those schools of the Barça foundation. “Martha [Segú, presidenta de la Fundació] it was like a mother who took me by the hand.” This step allowed her to regain stability and also reestablish family ties, with her mother and daughters, broken when drugs dominated her life. Traveling around the world also opened Julio Alberto’s eyes. “When I was in Brazil, in Senegal or in Burkina Faso, where I saw people who had nothing, nothing, I was realizing that my problem was shit.” Trips and talks, also in Barça supporters clubs and all kinds of auditoriums, which have made him an excellent lecturer, by the way.
“I have learned much more about life by helping other people. We need to be more generous with people who make mistakes”
Marta Segú, who opened the Relife presentation, corroborated those skills as a speaker. “Memory how she explained her life story in Wad-Ras women’s prison, naturally, without prejudice, or filters. The inmates were excited”. The tenacity of the ex-soccer player has led him to build a foundation that he had been talking about for a long time, for example when he presented his autobiographical book ‘I will never remember having died’ almost seven years ago.
The Life Angels Formula
This idea has materialized in an organization that will diversify its activity, for example with an annual event with speakers and specialists in addictions (Relife Summit), with healthy habits programs and talks in educational centers (Relife Academy), with a video library with contents of quality on the issue (Relife Talks) or a direct help service (Relife Help)
Julio Alberto stated in the presentation at the Auditori 1899 his idea of recovering the match against drugs at the Camp Nou
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Actions, events and products will be the traditional ways of financing to which the Life Angels contribution formula will be added, which will create a community of companies, individuals and organizations involved in the project. And Julio Alberto already warned, addressing Rafa Yuste, his intention to recover the match against drugs at the Camp Nou. “I have learned much more about life by helping other people. We need to be more generous with people who are wrong“.
These were other phrases from a former soccer player who arrived from Asturias to Madrid at the age of 14, after spending seven years in an orphanage, and who wanted to be a firefighter, a priest or an athlete, a cyclist in particular. “I didn’t like football, but football chose me. I read in a newspaper that they were doing tests at Atlético and Madrid, I signed up for both and Atlético called me first. Thank God, because then I was able to come here“. Here was yesterday the Camp Nou Auditorium and the presentation of the Relife foundation, “my final project”.