The primary assignment of every football clubs is to get results on the field of play through their players in other for them to move up top in the league, while it seems that mental health awareness is been taken seriously gradually in other professions, but same can’t be said of the soccer world as it seems the profession is lagging behind in paying attention to mental health or the health of the players generally, however, this is equally debatable though.
Furthermore, the fans are always concerned with their players getting results for them anytime they’re on the field and ready to hit the ground running, but when results are not forthcoming, more often than not the fans are always out with the sticks booing and criticizing both the players and the manager. Then one thing that many of the fans failed to understand is the fact when a player underperforms it’s either the player is going through a torrid time despite all the money and fame, as money is not even equal to happiness when the players ain’t happy due to depression.
In this piece, Cheapgoals will take a look at the rise and fall of a Prince from Favela, who gave up football for his happiness having faced depression due to his father’s death.
Talent is one special gift given to mankind by God, yet it is of utmost necessity and secondary to note that every player must balance their talents with dedication, hard work, and professionalism, as such when a professional footballer lacks dedication and hard work his talent may not be enough to take such player to higher height in his career.
All over the world, Brazil is one country that is synonymous with providing and nurturing great talents in terms of soccer, despite the poor surroundings, drugs and gangster violence, high state of corruption, and raping, yet football, as the case may be, is one beautiful thing that the Brazilian take solace in to take them out of poverty and hardship just like it did for the likes of Rivaldo, Dani Alves, Ronaldo, and many more who had use football as a stepping stone to luxury and fame while still in the slum of Rio De Janeiro or Sao Paulo.
The dusty pitch of Vila Cruzeiro is more often than not usually play a part in the success stories of many Brazilian football stars who have found their way down to the European leagues, and among these great talents who have found their way down to some of the biggest leagues in the world is Ronaldinho who played for Paris Saint Germain, Barcelona, and AC Milan at the tail end of his career, Ronaldo Luiz Nazario De Lima played for PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona, Inter Milan, and Real Madrid, among other great Brazilian players who emerged from the highly corrupt and horrible city of Rio.
According to Sandra Vieira who runs the community center which includes the soccer field, she said “There is so much talent in Vila Cruzeiro that could even be enough to field a national team” as such if the statement of Sandra were anything to go by then the rise of Leite Adriano to stardom from the slum of Favela and the Vila Cruzeiro pitch is one unique thing that makes the Brazilian football stars to stand out, but then that doesn’t mean they usually don’t have or face difficulties in their rosy careers.
The Rise Of Leite Adriano
Leite Adriano was born in 1982 in Brazil, and he was synonymous with a powerful strike with his left foot anytime he’s on the pitch, but his career was marred by inconsistency and lack of hunger for the game which brought about a great decline in his onfield performances which coincided with the death of his father.
Adriano started his football career in 1999 with the Flamengo youth team, having impressed the team hierarchy he was promoted to the senior team a year later, and in 2000 he made his senior debut for Flamengo against Botafogo, following his impressive performance in Flamengo, Adriano secured a move to Italy to play for one of the best team in the land Inter Milan in 2001-02 season in a deal believed to worth €13.189million, he scored his first goal against Real Madrid in a friendly match as a substitute.
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Getting to Inter Milan and having played just eight matches and scored one goal, Adriano was loaned out to Fiorentina for the 2001-02 season, thereafter Inter Milan agreed a two year co-ownership deal with Parma in other for them to sign one of the hottest talents in the league Fabio Cannavaro for €8.8million which also included another player in Matteo Ferrari. Adriano loan away from Inter Milan didn’t discourage his morale as he went on to form a formidable partnership with then Romania forward Adrian Mutu scoring over 22 goals in 36 appearances for the Viola.
Adriano’s impressive performances caught the eyes of Inter Milan board and he was asked to return back after his loan spell with Fiorentina ended, returning to Inter in 2004 he signed a four and half year contract worth around €23.4million and as such he went on to scored 12 goals towards the concluding part of the season. The following season Adriano picked up from where he stopped in the previous season and hit the ground running with goals scoring an impressive 42 goals in both domestic and international tournaments and he was rewarded with a new contract for having done well in 2005 which runs until 2010.
Prior to signing a new deal with the Nerazzurri, unfortunately for Adriano, his form and scoring prowess suffered a strange decline due to the death of his father back in Brazil. While some were of the opinion that his late partying at the night clubs also contributed to his decline which even played a part in him not getting called by then Brazil manager the legend Dunga, who later admonished him to focus on his football and do away with indecent behaviors, over the course of his stay with Inter Milan he played over 115 matches and scored over 47 goals for the blue and black side of Milan.
The Fall Of Leite Adriano
On August 4th, 2004, Adriano was preparing for the first competitive game of the season against FC Basel in a Champions League qualifier, the Brazilian receives a heart-shattering call that his father has passed away. Almir Leite Ribeiro had come down with a sudden illness and at the young age of 44, passed away in the night. Almir and Adriano were always very close. The news was simply devastating for a young man who only minutes ago, had a burning passion and ready to break any defensive barrier with his talent.
For many who saw Adriano good days at Inter Milan will definitely agree to the fact that the Brazilian is one great talent that will surely achieve a lot in his football career, unfortunately for the Brazilian, the story changed towards the negative side, as many were of the opinion that he lost form due to his father’s death and most importantly the drinking of alcohol, smoking and nightclubbing which made him adding extra weight.
“The death of my father left a huge void in me,” he later admitted to Brazilian magazine R7. “I was alone, sad and depressed in Italy and that’s when I started drinking.”
“I did not know how to hide it because I was drunk even at training,” he said of the beer, wine, whiskey and vodka binges that took over his life. “I was completely drunk. They took me to the infirmary to sleep and then the club told the press that I had muscular problems.”
In 2007, the fall started due to the loss of form and most importantly when then Inter Milan owner Massimo Moratti sent him on unpaid leave to his country Brazil, as such the Brazilian used that as an opportunity to attend Sao Paulo training center which he intended using to get back on his feet following his poor physical condition and a battle with drinking. His agent denied the fact that the Brazilian wasn’t sent on leave to Brazil that there is an imminent transfer looming for him to move down to his native land and among other clubs interested in signing the forward.
However Moratti later claimed that Adriano would remain with the Nerazzurri, then later on the club’s technical director then Marco Bianca said that he was expected to rejoin the team at the start of the new season, hearing the statement was nice to the ears of Adriano but unfortunately Inter Milan later finalized a loan deal with Sao Paulo for the forward to join them for the remainder of 2007-08 season which coincided with the 2008 Copa Libertadores.
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When he moved to Sao Paulo, Adriano was shown a lot of affection by the fans, as fans were seen standing in a long queue to purchase his new number 10 jersey at the team’s official merchandise shop after the Brazilian was unveiled at the team press conference to the Sao Paulo faithful, after his unveiling and he hit the ground running with a brace against Guaratingueta on the opening day of the Paulista competition.
Despite being in the good books of the Sao Paulo, his bad behavior raised his ugly head first when he headbutted Santos fullback Domingos which led to his suspension for two matches, after initially risking a suspension of eighteen months, and then again he was fined for arriving late for training, leaving early and exchanging words with a photographer. All of the erratic behaviors led to his exit from Sao Paulo back to Inter Milan having played over 21 matches and scoring 11 goals. His returned back to Inter Milan was a fruitful one as he was a regular goalscorer in the early stages of the 2008-09 Seria A season reaching a combined total of 100 domestic goals in the Seria A and the Brazilian league, and Adriano later rescinded his contract with the Nerazzurri.
Mourinho speaking in 2009 about Adriano’s late return to the squad:
It’s a serious situation for us. It’s no joke. It’s not about lack of discipline, but I don’t want to complicate things. I am sad, not angry, but I don’t want to say anything. We will see how it all ends. I am concerned for the person rather than the player.
Adriano moved on to Flamengo after rescinding his contract with Inter, signed a one year contract with the Brazilian club returning back to where it’s all started in his quest to become a professional footballer, he played over 32 matches and scored 19 goals and his impressive performances were instrumental in Flamengo winning their first Brazilian Seria A title since 1992.
The Brazilian later found his way back to Italy with Roma signing a three-year deal with the Giallorossi, but the forward didn’t stay longer with the Italian side using only seven months with the Roman side.
Following his departure from Roma, he had a brief stint with Corinthians but unfortunately, the injury couldn’t let him perform and was later released for lack of interest in playing, aside from that what is very clear to everyone is the fact that the Brazilian desires to be surrounded by people he loved after his father’s death, even no matter how unsavory, and far outweighed his once burning passion for football was, yet the former Inter Milan couldn’t rise up again to the Adriano we saw at Inter and with the Brazilian national team.
Adriano fall from playing professional football could be attributed to the death of his father, which was corroborated by former Inter Milan chairman and the players, when he got a call from Brazil, that his father is dead, “I saw him in his room, he threw the phone and started screaming” Moratti said you couldn’t imagine that kind of scream and since that day the chairman and the team players watched over him as if he was their little brother, although he kept scoring and dedicating those goals to his father with his hands pointed to the sky in respect for his father, however despite all of the affections showed towards him the players didn’t succeed in pulling him out of depression which later went on to affects his career.
The depression got to him so badly, and he left Europe to rediscover his passion and happy life again, though the Brazilian couldn’t win the World Cup, Ballon d’Or, or the Champion League during his spells in European football then he will be remembered as one the great talent that graced the field of play with his power-play scoring prowess despite falling into depression and as such his story should be a lesson for every football stars who also found themselves in such situation.
The Favela gang have been part of Rio’s long-running fraternity – killing thousands in order to dominate the city’s lucrative drug trade.
Adriano is alleged to have bought the AK47-firing mob a motorbike as a sweetener in order to keep him and his family safe.
