Walter Casagrande

Wálter Casagrande Júnior (born 15 April 1963) is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward.

During his career from 1980 to 1996, Casagrande has played for a number of clubs. He has represented Corinthians, Caldense, São Paulo, Flamengo, Paulista F.C., Portuguese club FC Porto (with whom he won a European Cup in 1987) and Italian clubs Ascoli and Torino F.C., winning the Coppa Italia in 1993. He helped Torino to the 1992 UEFA Cup Final but his two goals were unable to prevent them from losing to Ajax on away goals. He won also two São Paulo State Championships, in 1982 and 1983. In 1993, he was Supercopa Sudamericana runner-up with Flamengo, losing in a penalty shootout to another Brazilian team, São Paulo FC. He played 256 games and scored 102 goals for Corinthians. In this club, alongside Sócrates, has formed one of the greatests strikers partnerships from Brazilian football.

For the Brazil national football team he played in 19 matches, April 1985 to June 1986, scoring nine goals. He played in three games during the 1986 FIFA World Cup.

• Casagrande e Seus Demônios (Casagrande and His Demons). Globo. 2013. ISBN 9788525053800. 
• Sócrates & Casagrande – Uma história de amor (Sócrates & Casagrande – A love story). Globo. 2016. ISBN 9788525061768. 

In September 2007, Casagrande was involved in a weekend traffic accident, and was briefly in a coma after his car rolled and hit parked cars. He was subsequently able to leave the intensive care unit and was breathing on his own.

After the crash he described how he had become addicted to drugs since retiring, and that he had been undergoing drug treatment for the past seven months (since September 2007). In an interview with Radio Jovem Pan, Casagrande said he has been in a private drug-treatment clinic in São Paulo since last September. "When I retired, I felt a sensation of emptiness. I missed the adrenaline of the matches and practices and that led me to the compulsive use of drugs," Casagrande said, adding that he became "addicted to heroin."

Casagrande, who played for Brazil at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, said he overdosed four times from 2005–07 and once almost went into a coma after using drugs. He is finishing in April 2008 his treatment. On 22 April 2013, Casagrande confessed on Programa do Jô that he was ashamed for using doping four times while playing for F.C. Porto, in 1986/1987 season. Casagrande, suffered a heart attack on the morning of Friday, May 29, 2015. He has been sent to the ICU of TotalCor hospital in São Paulo. Casagrande made angioplasty, surgical intervention to unblock arteries. The hospital did not say whether he had to put a stent, a device that facilitates the flow of blood in the arteries.

Club

• Campeonato Paulista; 1982,1983
• European Cup; 1986–87
• UEFA Cup; 1991–92 runner-up
• Coppa Italia; 1992–93
• Supercopa Sudamericana; 1993 runner-up

Individual

• 1982 Campeonato Paulista's top scorer: 28 goals