A painful ‘nightmare’ that begins to transform into a happy dream. That is the one that has been living since 2019 Leigh Nicol, Scottish player who belongs to the English Crystal Palace records.
And it is that the life of the crack changed radically the mentioned year, when it was considered one of the great sports promises of its country: it was the victim of a hack of its iCloud account and quickly videos and intimate images of her went viral.
From then on there would be no peace again, at least for a couple of years. In an interview with Sky Sports, Nicol stated that after this episode “I can understand why people commit suicide for things like this. “
“The fact that I played soccer made the images spread quickly without my being able to control it,” he added.
The situation would also affect his sports life. Despite being selected as a youth team from her country, no one wanted to sign her because “they didn’t want my name to be identified with their club and with their brand.”
“I still get comments, at least one a night”
This difficult scenario caused a deep depression in the player, from which she has been able to escape, little by little, despite the daily harassment of some misfits.
“I still get comments. At least one per night. The sad thing is that I have been normalizing it. It’s frustrating to be recognized just for that, “he lamented.
Even his good present in the English women’s league has played against him on some occasions. “I have nieces and nephews who are now reaching 18 years old, who are proud of me and who want to Google me, but it is impossible to do so without my name being stuck to the dirt …”, he said.
With everything mentioned against, Leigh highlights his progress and even gives the recipe for those who face a similar problem: “It took a change of perspective and surround myself with the right people. Without them I am sure that everything would be different ”.
Without going any further, he confirmed that he has in his locker room the photograph of the tree where he thought to kill himself: “Now I smile when I look at it. It doesn’t make me sad. He has no negative memories for me … Even on a game day when there are many nerves I just look at the tree and it reminds me that I have overcome worse things, “he concluded.
