Saturday's Sporting Icon - Adriano

Welcome to Saturday's Sporting Icon! 

Every Saturday, this page will showcase some of history's most unappreciated sports superstars. From the winding streets of Monaco to the NBA hardcourt, I think it's time to shed some light on the greatness of some of the world's least treasured icons.

Saturday 30th January - Adriano 

The favelas of Rio have given birth to some truly undeniable talent. Born into abject poverty, Adriano remains one of the most skilled and accomplished football players to ever grace the football world stage. However, alongside this bountiful success sits one of the most significant falls from grace that any sport has ever seen and is sadly what this great Brazillian is most remembered for. 

Like many young men, Adriano grew up playing on the dirt pitches in the favelas of Rio, with nothing more than a smile on his face and a great dream in his head. However, unlike many others, Adriano made this dream a reality as he possessed a deadly combination of pace, power, and skill. As you can imagine, after watching the success of Ronaldo, many teams were eager to snap up what they believed was the next best thing in Adriano. In his rocketing rise to fame and glory, Adriano made himself into one of the best players in the world and produced electrifying performances at some of Europe's biggest clubs. 

He made his biggest splash in Italy's Serie A, wherein 180 appearances he scored 77 goals and assisted a further 19. This enabled him to become Serie A's top scorer on 3 separate occasions and was a major part of Inter Milan's league winning dominance from 2005-2009. He was also a great success for his country too, continuing his goal-scoring supremacy on the world stage and scoring 27 goals in 48 appearances for Brazil. During this 5 year period, I think it's fair to say that Adriano was the best striker on the planet and it only takes a quick search on YouTube to see why. 

So, at 23 years old, a price tag of £31.5 million (which is a big deal in 2005) and the footballing world at his feet, you'd only expect Adriano to go from strength to strength at this point. However, what followed was one of the most heartbreaking falls from the greatness that football has ever seen. 

Following the death of his father in 2004, Adriano plummeted into depression and with the help of alcohol addiction, boarded a train straight to the bottom of every subsequent team list throughout the rest of his career. People close Adriano attributed this abrupt descent in performance to a dying lack of interest in the game he once loved and instead spent his days partying and gambling. As you can imagine, this type of lifestyle did not sit well with Adriano's employers and after several unsuccessful loans, injury-prone seasons, and skipped training sessions, he retired in 2016 at the age of 32 with a value of £225,000, a drop of 99.3% in 12 years. Since then, Adriano has returned to the favelas of Rio and lives with his family under the protection of a local gang 'The Red Command', to whom he gave a motorbike in exchange for his own safety. 

Everyone who reads this article will more than likely come out with a different opinion of this Brazillian legend. Some will remember a great footballer. Others will remember a terrific failure. But what you cannot deny is the raw talent and skill that this young man possessed and no one can question his impact on the world stage and his inclusion in footballing legend. Every king must fall, but for Adriano, his reign was cut too short.