What if…? The rise and tragic fall of Adriano

Everyone who played the video game Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) a couple of decades ago knows that Adriano was the most powerful footballer in the world at that time. Not the best, but specifically the most powerful because it was impossible to tackle him, and the rocket in his left foot unleashed such powerful shots that they almost always found the back of the net.

The striker, who shone at Inter Milan back then, was supposed to become Ronaldo’s successor—the OG one, not Cristiano Ronaldo. Having caught the eye while playing for his boyhood club, Flamengo, Adriano was already excelling in Brazil’s youth teams, winning both the U17 World Cup and the South American U20 Championship. At 19, he arrived in Europe, signing with Inter.

Adriano was never a prolific goal-scorer during his time at various Italian clubs. His best season was 2004/05 when he scored 16 Serie A goals, but despite this, the Brazilian remains a cult legend. This is partly thanks to PES but more because his star faded quickly and tragically.

The Italian football media has determined that Adriano’s career peak lasted from July 11, 2004, to June 29, 2005, during which he scored 42 goals across all competitions. Twenty years ago, he finished sixth in the FIFA Player of the Year voting, losing only to true greats. He was bested by Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry, Andriy Shevchenko, Pavel Nedved, and Zinedine Zidane.

The tragedy that changed Adriano’s life

Adriano’s full potential remained unrealized due to his father’s death. Almir Leite Ribeiro had multiple health issues in 2004 and passed away from a heart attack in August of that year, aged 45. He died just a few days after his son led Brazil to the Copa America title. He was the tournament’s top scorer with seven goals and was named Copa’s best player.

The death plunged Adriano into depression, and although Inter did their best to support the striker, they couldn’t pull him out of the abyss. He hasn’t fully climbed out of it to this day, though at least the darkest times are behind him.

At this point, it’s worth giving the floor to Inter legend and longtime captain Javier Zanetti, who spoke to the club fan site Sempre Inter: “Adriano had a father he was very attached to. Something shocking happened before the season when we were playing at TIM Trofeo. He got a phone call from Brazil: ‘Adi, dad is dead’… I saw him in his room. He threw the phone and started screaming.

You couldn’t imagine that kind of scream. I get goosebumps even to this day. Since that day, [former Inter owner] Massimo Moratti and I watched over him as if he were our little brother.

Meanwhile, he kept playing football; he scored goals and watched towards the sky, dedicating them to him. Since that phone call, nothing was the same.

Ivan Cordoba (Inter’s centre-back) spent one night with him and said: ‘Adi, you’re a mix of Ronaldo and Ibrahimovic. Are you aware that you could become the best player ever?’

We failed in pulling him out of depression. And that is perhaps the biggest defeat of my whole career. It still hurts me I was so powerless.”

Adriano has told Portal R7 that no one but himself knows how much he suffered due to his father’s death. “The death of my father left a huge hole. I felt alone, and I isolated myself when he died. I was sad and depressed in Italy, and that was when I started to drink. I only felt happy drinking. I drank everything before me: wine, whisky, vodka, beer…  I could only sleep when I had been drinking.”

With the passing of his beloved father, Adriano’s love for football also vanished.

Going home didn’t help

By 2006, Adriano’s brilliance had faded. Alcoholism and depression had taken a firm grip on the once-mighty footballer, and due to his constant partying, he missed games for Brazil and Inter.

Moratti tried to revive his former jewel. Over the years, he sent Adriano home to Brazil several times, hoping the player would regain his form and at least a small part of his love for the game. Although there were occasional glimmers of hope, they parted ways for good in 2009.

A year later, Adriano was back in Italy. He joined AS Roma but lasted only seven months, during which he participated in five league matches without scoring a single goal. With that, his star had finally extinguished.

Tim Vickery, an English football journalist who has lived in Brazil for 30 years, wrote on the BBC after Adriano left Roma that the player feared taking on the head of the family after his father’s death. “His great motivations to play football were to make his father happy and, of course, to make money. What was the point now with his father gone and his bank balance bulging?

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. The tragedy, of course, is that their talent has a sell-by date.”

Adriano’s career is probably the biggest “what if…” question in football. Although it’s pointless to speculate whether he could have genuinely become Ronaldo’s successor, it’s clear that he was destined for a long and successful time in football.

But that time effectively ran out when Adriano was just 24 years old.