Adriano’s unfulfilled potential: The sorry tale of the Brazlian’s decline – The Debate
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Updated 05/05/2020 at 22:27 GMT
After Wayne Rooney’s comments about Ravel Morrison went global, four writers pick the most striking examples of unfulfilled potential in football – and then have their arguments picked apart in a podcast on Friday. Next up, Michael Hincks with the sorry demise of Adriano.
Adriano
Image credit: Getty Images
When it comes to Brazilian footballers, there is rarely ever a middle ground.
You are either celebrated as one of the greatest of all time, like Pele or Ronaldo, or find yourself criticised for failing to follow in their footsteps.
Admittedly, Ronaldo’s own career is a tale of ‘What if?’, but despite being hampered by numerous injuries, the striker is still able to reflect on a glittering career featuring two World Cups and plenty of individual prizes including three World Footballer of the Year awards.
Meanwhile, Adriano – once viewed as a potential successor to Ronaldo’s throne – carries the unfortunate tag of being remembered mainly for his Pro Evolution Soccer stats.
That 99 shot power was evident all too rarely in real life.
He never scored more than 20 league goals in a campaign, while on the international scene he suffered disappointment when Brazil were knocked out of the 2006 World Cup in the quarter-finals – having mustered just five shots on target all tournament – before failing to make the 2010 squad.
On the surface, his record of 27 goals in 48 games for Brazil is incredible, but the fact 19 of those goals were in 2004 and 2005 tells its own story.
This was Adriano at his peak, but it was a spell that did not last long enough. After playing an integral role in securing Inter the 2005-06 Serie A title, their first since 1989, his influence soon dwindled, and he had left the club by the time of their treble success in 2010.
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2008-2009 Serie A Inter Adriano
Image credit: Getty Images
There is a good reason for this decline, and it is nothing short of sad.
Adriano lost his father in 2004, a devastating moment which explains his fading quality on the pitch, and deterioration off it.
“Adriano had a father who looked after him a lot and kept him in line,” Javier Zanetti recalled in an interview, per FourFourTwo. “But then something unimaginable happened: he got a call from Brazil and was told that his father had died.
"I saw him cry. He threw the phone down and started screaming. From that day on, [Inter chairman Massimo] Moratti and I decided to take him in like a brother and protect him.
"He kept playing football, scoring goals and pointing to the sky, dedicating them to his father.
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Adriano points to the sky
Image credit: Getty Images
But after that phone call, nothing was the same. Ivan Cordoba spent one night with him and said, ‘Adri, you’re a mix of Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Are you aware that you could become the best player ever?’ But we didn’t ever succeed in pulling him out of depression.
When it comes to unfulfilled potential, Adriano’s story is one of the more difficult to stomach.
Distractions beyond the pitch often features heavily when talking about players who did not live up to the hype, and while Adriano was no exception – turning to drink and the party lifestyle – the catalyst for why he chose that path is different to almost any other footballer.
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FOOTBALL 2006 World Cup Brazil Ronaldinho Adriano
Image credit: Reuters
The streets will never forget has become a popular phrase on social media in recent years, and though I'm hesitant to use it here, it undoubtedly applies, sadly, to Adriano. The streets will never forget the Brazilian at his peak, but a younger generation will hardly know the name.
Who knows where he would stand in the echelon of 21st century strikers, had tragedy not struck at 22.
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