Adriano, once considered the successor to Ronaldo, has claimed, ‘I’m obsessed with wasting my life. I'm fine like this, in frantic waste. I enjoy this stigma.’
Now aged 42, he made his full international debut for Brazil at 18 and led the Selecao to the 2004 Copa America. He finished in the top 10 of the Ballon d’Or that year and the year after that. Between 2003 and 2007 he had four prolific seasons with Parma and Inter Milan.
Adriano, who FourFourTwo named as the 32nd best Brazilian footballer of all-time, also immortalised himself into video game folklore thanks a 99-shot power attribute he was given in the popular video game Pro Evolution Soccer which he co-starred on the front cover with John Terry. But life today seems far removed from this glory.
A pure animal
If you pressed shoot as Adriano on PlayStation, it invariably went in the net. Real life wasn’t too dissimilar. “He could shoot from every angle, nobody could tackle him, nobody could take the ball, he was a pure animal," said team-mate Zlatan Ibrahimovic of Adriano’s talent.
After this period, however, inconsistencies crept in triggered by the death of his father in 2004. He lost focus and began to experience problems with alcohol and struggled with his weight.
In November 2007 he was loaned to Sao Paulo and remained there until the end of the season. Returning to Inter for 2008-09, his season started promisingly, but fizzled out and his contract was rescinded.
He would play the rest of his career in Brazil, save for one season in Europe with Roma who gave him a €5m contract in June 2010, but he played just eight games, never scored and left the following March.
Brazilian football expert Tim Vickery wrote of the departure: “His great motivations to play football were to make his father happy and, of course, to make money. Now, with his father gone and his bank balance bulging, what was the point? The sacrifices of the life of an athlete, once part of his routine, were now an unbearable limitation. Why bother with training when he could drink, either to mourn the loss of his dad or to celebrate the fact that he could buy all the drinks that he wanted.”
In 2014 he was cleared of drug trafficking charges alleged in 2010, due to lack of evidence. He kicked his final ball as a professional two years later.
Adriano has stayed largely out of public consciousness until October when a video of him apparently drunk in the favela surfaced online. Shortly after, a first-person article appeared via Players’ Tribune, which quoted the former striker as he journeyed around his home town of Vila Cruzeiro in northern Brazil.
“I drink every other day, yes. (And the other days, too.) How does a person like me get to the point of drinking almost every day? I don’t like giving explanations to others. But here’s one. I drink because it’s not easy to be a promise that remains in debt. And it gets even worse at my age.”
In the interview he commented on the homesickness he experienced while playing in Italy, referencing Clarence Seedorf as a source of support. “Seedorf was an amazing friend. He and his wife made supper for those closest to them on Christmas Eve and invited me. Everything was very beautiful and delicious, but truth to be told, I wanted to be in Rio de Janeiro. I didn’t even spend much time with them. I apologised, said goodbye quickly and went back to my apartment.”
There he drank a bottle of vodka and cried. His trouble with alcohol intensified and despite the efforts of his club Inter Milan, they couldn’t be resolved.
“I tried to do what they wanted. I bargained with Roberto Mancini. I tried hard with Jose Mourinho. I cried on Moratti’s shoulder. But I couldn’t do what they asked. I stayed well for a few weeks, avoided the booze, trained like a horse, but there was always a relapse. Over and over again. Everyone blasted me. I couldn’t take it anymore.”
Today he claims to have found peace back in his neighbourhood, where he now enjoys a simpler life. “I walk barefoot and shirtless, just wearing shorts. I play dominoes, sit on the curb, remember my childhood stories, listen to music, dance with my friends, and sleep on the floor.”
It’s a far cry from his standing 20 years ago, which was right at the peak of world football.
