Adriano – another flawed genius?

Twenty-seven year old Adriano had the footballing world at his feet. There is no doubt that he had the talent and ability to become one of the finest players the world had ever seen. However, like so many other players who came close to the ‘genius’ tag, he has not fulfilled his potential.

Rethink

After he failed to return to Inter in Italy after last week’s World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Peru, in which he was an unused substitute, Adriano said that he needed a break to “rethink my career”.

In what was a pretty sad interview with reporters Adriano said,

“I’ve lost the happiness of playing. I wouldn’t like to go back to Italy, I want to live in peace here in Brazil. I don’t know if I’m going to stay for one, two or three months without playing. I’m going to rethink my career. My agent is going to Italy to ask for some time for me and it is fair that I am given no money.”

Adriano, whose contract with Inter runs until June 2010, also denied media reports of possible illness or addiction problems.

“I am not sick, alcoholic or a drug user. Everything I did was well thought out. I talked to my family, my friends and my agent, and I am doing this with my happiness in mind. I have nothing against Inter, I just did not like living in Italy. I felt pressured. A lot of people will not understand. It is a bad situation, not easy at all, but it is a choice. If I play in Brazil, it will be for Flamengo. Otherwise, my grandmother would kill me.”

Adriano burst on to the scene back in 2002 when his goalscoring exploits whilst on loan to Fiorentina and Parma meant that he started to be recognised as a top striker.

He returned to Inter in 2004 and scored fifteen goals in sixteen appearances. In fact, between July 2004 and June 2005 he scores a remarkable forty goals.

Impressive

That statistic together with his impressive international record of thirty-one goals in fifty-one games for Brazil shows just how much ability the man had.

However, he has struggled with fitness and alcohol problems since the 2006 World Cup, and has shown only flashes of the form that made him one of the world’s most feared strikers. Earlier this season in the Champions League, his strength and touch were too much at times for the then excellent Manchester United defence, but he couldn’t quite go on to make it count.

Trouble

In the 2006-07 season he was twice in trouble for his behaviour in night clubs and in 2007 he was in trouble in Inter after missing a training session due to the excesses he indulged in during birthday celebrations the night before. He was dropped by Brazil with Dunga citing his behaviour and lack of focus on football as the reasons.

Now, to all intents and purposes it looks as though at the age of twenty-seven, Adriano’s career at the very top is as good as over.

Just what is it that gets into these talented players that means they end up wasting the talent they have and all the hard work they must have put in as youngsters?

Flawed

The list of ‘flawed geniuses’ is a very long one. George Best never became the worldwide star he should have done because of his lifestyle. Paul Gascoigne never hit the heights he should have done. Ronaldo had his much publicised problems at world cup 1998 and has rarely been out of the news since, Maradona, for all his brilliance, was exposed as a drug addict.

Is it simply that the line between genius and mental health difficulties is a very thin one or is it that the pressure of being regarded as the very best is too much for these young men to cope with?

Together

I hope that Adriano can get his life back together and show us all once again what a great footballer he truly is. Unfortunately, I doubt whether that is likely to happen.

When we criticise the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, perhaps we should be more tolerant of him and the respect the fact that he has the talent and, as far as we know, has not yet fallen off the rails in the way that so many great players seem to have done.