{"id":3916,"date":"2026-03-03T11:18:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/?p=3916"},"modified":"2026-03-03T11:18:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:18:38","slug":"former-premier-league-star-speaks-on-cocaine-addiction-with-damage-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/?p=3916","title":{"rendered":"Former Premier League star speaks on cocaine addiction with &#8216;damage done&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Former Premier League star speaks on cocaine addiction with \u2018damage done\u2019\" width=\"620\" height=\"500\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"w-full object-cover rounded-md\" style=\"color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url(&quot;data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg' viewBox='0 0 620 500'%3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'\/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'\/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'\/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'\/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'\/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'\/%3E%3C\/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAQAAACEN3D\/AAAAL0lEQVR42mP4z8DAwMiAARgZGJhY+P\/\/PwMDAwPDfwYGBgaGhgYGhgYGAAD9Hwlr5xRngAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg=='\/%3E%3C\/svg%3E&quot;)\" src=\"https:\/\/cms.joe.co.uk\/uploads\/2026\/01\/breaking-news-2.webp?height=1024&amp;width=1024\"\/><!--$--><\/p>\n<p><h2>He has opened up on his problems after retirement. <\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose drop-cap \">\n<p>Former Premier League defender Daryl Janmaat has spoken out on the &#8220;damage&#8221; that a cocaine addiction has done to his life after his career as a professional footballer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>Playing a large part of his career at Newcastle United and Watford, he also enjoyed spells in his native Netherlands.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>Earning 34 caps for the national team, he spent two years at The Toon Army before moving to Vicarage Road in 2016.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>Eventually leaving The Hornets in 2020, he returned to his homeland with ADO Den Haag, who now play their trade in the second tier of Dutch football.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>After retiring, Janmaat has now spoken out about &#8220;damage&#8221; caused by an addiction to cocaine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>&#8220;I have three children who also hear and read things,&#8221; Janmaat said, via Dutch newspaper AD. &#8220;I can&#8217;t and don&#8217;t want to go into all the details, but my cocaine addiction has caused a lot of damage.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>&#8220;I was supposed to get help from everyone and everything, but I was left to fend for myself. It was nothing,&#8221; Janmaat added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>&#8220;Suddenly, I lost the structure I&#8217;d had for years as a footballer. That was difficult. The cocaine addiction gradually crept in. You start lying to the people you love. That&#8217;s terrible; I hurt a lot of people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>He further added: &#8220;The problems only started after I retired. As a player, everything is manageable: you go from training to training. From match to match.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>&#8220;When all that disappeared and I felt completely out of place as technical manager at ADO, things went wrong. Very much so.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>He also added how it has affected his personal life:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m still officially married, but we&#8217;re no longer together,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>&#8220;The relationship wasn&#8217;t going well, you know, but the addiction obviously didn&#8217;t help. A lot of damage has been done, although we&#8217;re on good terms again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>Janmaat is now running his own gym called High Power Gym and how he overcame being in a &#8220;really, really bad&#8221; place to turn things around.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>&#8220;Cocaine destroys a lot. My family and friends were there for me, but I let a lot of people down,&#8221; Janmaat admits. &#8220;You start lying and distorting things. That&#8217;s exhausting, but above all, very painful.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>&#8220;Was it life-threatening? Well, I was in deep, very deep. There were times when I was really, really bad, let&#8217;s just say that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>&#8220;I had everything as a player, and I still do, actually. But a lot has happened in the meantime. Too much.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>&#8220;Addiction is truly a battle, where you&#8217;re at your wits&#8217; end. Literally. You&#8217;re in a struggle; it really destroys a lot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><!--$--><!--\/$--><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-prose  \">\n<p>&#8220;In a clinic like that, you have therapy and counselling. After that, I went in a different direction. Yes, the right direction. Fortunately.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><\/div>\n<p>#Premier #League #star #speaks #cocaine #addiction #damage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>He has opened up on his problems after retirement. Former Premier League defender Daryl Janmaat has spoken out on the &#8220;damage&#8221; that a cocaine addiction has done to his life after his career as a professional footballer. Playing a large part of his career at Newcastle United and Watford, he also enjoyed spells in his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3863,3159,162,785,1427,2586,1435],"class_list":{"0":"post-3916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"tag-addiction","9":"tag-cocaine","10":"tag-damage","11":"tag-league","12":"tag-premier","13":"tag-speaks","14":"tag-star"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}