The sports stars who became addicted to cocaine as former Premier League star reveals all on his drug battle

This week, former Premier League defender Daryl Janmaat revealed he has been battling a cocaine addiction, which contributed to the breakdown of his marriage following his retirement from playing.

Janmaat, 36, made 77 appearances during two seasons at Newcastle between 2014 and 2016, also lining up for Watford and the Netherlands national team during his career.

Since, though, he has opened up on how he struggled with drugs after he called it a day, reportedly entering rehab in South Africa to help after his marriage fell apart.
Speaking to Dutch newspaper AD, Janmaat explained that he had become addicted to cocaine having struggled to come to terms with retirement from the game.

He said: ‘I cannot and do not want to mention all the details, but my cocaine addiction has caused a lot of misery. I wanted to do so much, but a knee injury threw a spanner in the works.’

But it’s a problem that a number of sports stars have struggled with through the years, chasing the high they experienced through football after it’s gone. 

Here, Daily Mail Sport takes a look at how the drug has impacted the lives of a number of sports stars.

Cycling legend Sir Bradley Wiggins has made no secret of his cocaine addiction following his retirement 

Bradley Wiggins

Cycling legend Sir Bradley Wiggins made no secret of his addiction to cocaine following his Olympic and Tour de France success. 

Wiggins has now admitted he had become a ‘functioning addict’ and had been doing ‘s***loads of cocaine.’

The 45-year-old explained how his children Isabella and Ben, who is part of the British Cycling set-up, had tried to put him into rehab having become concerned over his addiction.

He told The Times last year that he lived in a hotel for two weeks taking cocaine, potentially as much as 120 grams, and responded when asked how he didn’t die: ‘I don’t know. I don’t like to think about it.’

‘I raged as I smashed up my 2012 trophy for Sports Personality of the Year and my knighthood,’ he added. ‘This isn’t success. I did that in front of my kids. No wonder there were times when they talked about trying to put me in rehab.

‘The desecration of my Olympic medal might have happened away from their gaze but it’s equally sad to reflect on.

‘Hundreds of thousands of people roaring me on, millions more watching at home. One of the great moments of London 2012, and there I am in a wardrobe, snorting cocaine [off my gold medal], mocking my achievement, hating it for what I believed it had brought me.

‘It was the equivalent of p***ing on someone’s grave, and in that moment I was p***ing on my own.

‘The gold medal, the Tour de France, all of it was dead to me. The person I’d been in Paris and London was dead to me too.’ Last year, Wiggins revealed he quit his addiction over a year ago without receiving external assistance.

The 45-year-old had risen to the peak of his fame in 2012 when he became the first British rider to win the Tour de France, and also enjoyed success at London 2012 in the Olympic Games, winning five gold medals across five Games between 2004 and 2016.

Wiggins won five Olympic gold medals during across five Games from 2004 through to 2016

Mike Tyson

The 54-year-old has spoken up about his past problems with drink and drugs during his time at the top of boxing. 

‘That must of been my cocaine days,’ he told Below the Belt host Brendan Schaub in 2021 of their last meeting in 2016. ‘That was probably just a day I zoned out.

‘I stopped doing cocaine and drinking, I’m serious man, everything changed, my whole life.’

During his prime years, Tyson suffered from addictions and his substance abuse carried on after he retired in 2005.

In his autobiography The Undisputed Truth, Tyson said he had taken marijuana and cocaine before his fight against Lou Savarese in 2000, and also said he took drugs prior to his defeat by Danny Williams in 2004.

But Tyson has since revealed  that he stopped drinking and taking cocaine before the successful launch of his Hotboxin podcast in early 2019.

Paul Merson

Much-loved pundit Paul Merson has had a number of issues with gambling and alcohol throughout his life, including being involved in a car crash with a lorry on the M40 and being arrested for drink-driving in 2011.

He has opened up on his struggles with gambling and his drink and drug habits on more than once occasion, and admits he still struggles to this day.

In 1994, he admitted to having addictions to alcohol, cocaine and gambling and the FA arranged a three-month rehabilitation programme.

In 2004, meanwhile, he admitted himself to the Sierra Tucson Clinic in Arizona for help with his gambling issue under advice and financial backing from the PFA.

Much-loved football pundit Paul Merson was checked into a three-month rehabilitation programme in 1994 due to cocaine

Diego Maradona

The football world mourned in November 2020 when Diego Maradona, famous for the Hand of God goal against England in 1986 as well as being a genius on the pitch, passed away.

The World Cup winning star died aged 60 at his home in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on November 25, 2020 after suffering a fatal heart attack in the aftermath of major brain surgery.

A report by medical examiner Pablo Ferrari claimed in 2024 that Maradona’s rapid and erratic heartbeat was either of natural origin or stemmed from an ‘external’ factor, possibly a drug like cocaine.

Maradona had battled alcohol and drug addiction for many years and had undergone brain surgery in November 2020.

He had previously stated that taking drugs while he played for Barcelona was ‘the biggest mistake’ he made in his life.

‘Drugs were the biggest problem – drugs kill,’ he said of his struggles. ‘I’m very fortunate to be here speaking to you. If I had continued I would have died. No doubt.’

It has been considered whether Diego Maradona’s death was caused by cocaine consumption

Danny Murphy

In 2024, former Liverpool and Tottenham defender Danny Murphy revealed he suffered with a cocaine addiction after retiring from football.

After retiring following a spell with Blackburn Rovers in the Championship in 2013, the former midfielder has since moved into punditry, regularly impressing on Match of the Day.

However, things weren’t always so smooth. ‘I initially dabbled in certain things to get the odd buzz and high,’ he told the Ben Heath Podcast. ‘I think it was an accumulation of things so I needed some escapism from reality. And reality was facing up to problems.

‘This financial problem, tax bill, relationship. How do I deal with problems when I don’t play football? When you play football, the adrenaline and dopamine keep you forward thinking and energetic, irrelevant of the other issues. These issues become huge without football.

‘I had a spell on cocaine and smoking some weed. The drink, I could live without it. I wasn’t an alcoholic. I could sit in a house with alcohol and not drink it.

‘For a while I was (addicted to cocaine), yeah. I got to the point where I thought I couldn’t do things without it. Which was nonsense, of course I could.

‘You manage it initially, you do it once a week, twice a week, do it an extra third day and eventually it builds up and grabs hold of you.’

After the brave confession, Murphy went onto explain how going to individual and group therapy, coupled with finding a purpose in punditry, helped him to overcome his problems.

Danny Murphy has also revealed that he struggled with cocaine after retiring from football

Adrian Mutu, meanwhile, suggested he would have won the Ballon d’Or were it not for the drug

Adrian Mutu

In March 2025, former Chelsea star Adrian Mutu suggested he could have won the Ballon d’Or were it not for cocaine. 

Mutu spent just one year in west London after falling out with Jose Mourinho and being banned from football for eight months after testing positive for cocaine use, having joined the club in 2003.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Mutu said: ‘Taking cocaine during my time at Chelsea was the worst decision I could have made in my career.

‘I was alone and sad, but neither depression nor anything else justified my actions. Zero tolerance – that was Chelsea’s policy regarding drugs. And I think that’s fair.

‘I made a mistake, strayed from the path, and paid the price for it. I was caught off guard. I wasn’t used to that life. I was unprepared.

‘I arrived at Chelsea during a turbulent time in my personal life, and I found myself caught up in too many excuses and lies. I was too young and too alone.

‘I’ve reflected on that many times. I believe that for more than a season, I was amongst the best players in the world, so I could have won it (the Ballon d’Or) easily. But bad decisions prevented me from doing so. I try not to beat myself up about it.’