1 week Ago By [email protected] (Scott Trotter)
Few players shone as brightly as former Inter Milan star Adriano, but the sharpshooter's flame also burned twice as fast. The ex-Brazil international has now declared himself 'football's biggest waste'. Adriano's career endured for 16 years before he retired following a spell with Miami United but scarcely could he capture the magic he found with Parma and Inter .
A four-season spell saw the striker score 61 goals in 113 games in Serie A and, after retiring at 34, his career ended with 27 goals in 48 outings wearing Brazil colours. Touted as Ronaldo's successor, Adriano admits he now drinks every other day 'because it’s not easy to be a promise that remains in debt'. The 42-year-old hails from the Vila Cruzeiro favela and currently owns a house in the upmarket Barra da Tijuca.
Adriano concedes he has 'abandoned the glory of the stadiums to sit in my old neighbourhood, drinking to oblivion' however. "Do you know what it feels like to be a promise? I know," he explained to the Players' Tribune . "Including an unfulfilled promise.
Football ’s biggest waste: Me. "I like that word, waste . Not only because of how it sounds, but because I’m obsessed with wasting my life.
I'm fine like this, in frantic waste. I enjoy this stigma. "I don’t do drugs, as they try to prove.
I’m not into crime, but, of course, I could have been. I don’t like clubbing. I always go to the same place in my neighbourhood, the Naná’s kiosk.
If you want to meet me, stop by. I drink every other day, yes. (And the other days, too.
)" While Adriano's career in Europe started well on the pitch, off it, he found difficulty being separated from his family. "When I went to Inter, I felt a very strong blow in the first winter," he admitted. The Brazilian was filled with homesickness despite the efforts of Clarence Seedorf, 'an amazing friend', to support him over the Christmas period.
A phone call home simply made things worse. "I was broken. I grabbed a bottle of vodka.
I’m not exaggerating, bro. I drank all that shit alone. I filled my ass with vodka.
I cried all night. I passed out on the couch because I drank so much and cried." After his father died , Adriano's ability to deal with playing in Europe only got worse.
The striker would turn up drunk for training and the likes of Roberto Mancini, Jose Mourinho and Massimo Moratti were unable to help him. Eventually in 2009, Adriano did not return from international duty and ultimately saw his contract cancelled. "When I 'fled' Inter and left Italy, I came to hide here.
I went all over the complex for three days, explained Adriano. "Nobody found me. There is no way to.
Rule number one of the favela. Keep your mouth shut. Do you think someone would snitch me? No f***ing rats here, bro.
The Italian press went crazy. The Rio police even carried out an operation to rescue me. They said I had been kidnapped.
You’re kidding me, right? Imagine that someone is going to do me any harm here ...
me, a favela child. "They didn’t understand why I went to the favela," he added. "It wasn’t because of drinking, or women, much less because of drugs.
It was for freedom. It was because I wanted peace. I wanted to live.
I wanted to be human again. Just a little bit. That’s the damn truth.
So what? "I tried to do what they wanted. I bargained with Roberto Mancini. I tried hard with José 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.
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