Soldado: When I was at Real Madrid, I was a child, I ate a lot, drank and went out Real Madrid Spoke about his past

Real Madrid put a lot of faith in Roberto Soldado's development as a young footballer, yet the Spaniard never truly found his place with Los Blancos, and he has admitted that during his time in the Spanish capital he was childish, eating a lot, drinking and going out partying.

Goals have never been hard to find for the former Fenerbahce forward, but his most successful times have come in Spain, and not his ill-fated spell with Tottenham Hotspur.

"I was a kid when I was at Real Madrid, I didn't take care of myself, I ate a lot and I drank a lot and I was always ready to go out," Soldado explained in an interview with The Guardian.

"There were players like Figo, Zidane or Raul who were very professional, but I looked at others, I followed people who I shouldn't have followed.

"I see photos of how much I weighed then and I'm ashamed, if I had taken better care and had more maturity, maybe I could have had more opportunities, someone should have taken me aside and slapped me."

Soldado's time with Los Blancos coincided with a period where the club wasn't especially successful on the pitch, particularly in the Champions League, and many have put that down to some negative characters in the dressing room, but he believes he got taken in by the life of a footballer too much.

"I met a lot of people in Madrid when I was leaving," he added.

"They could live a certain life because they weren't professional football players, they didn't have to play at Real Madrid.

"In the end, you understand if they want to go out, they go out, but I had to do other things, I am very thankful to my parents and my wife for putting me back on the right track."

Zinedine Zidane is now the coach at Real Madrid and has enjoyed incredible success, somewhat surpassing what he achieved as a player in the Spanish capital.

"My son never saw him [Zidane] play," he confirmed.

"When we see him as a coach I tell him that I was once his teammate, and he asks if Zidane was good.

"If he was good? So we go to YouTube and we type Zidane."