Corinthians’ Tite blames ‘slave to alcohol’ Adriano
Although it was not an official match, the 19 year old piece of skill was nothing common to see and everyone was sure that Adriano would have shortly became a top-class player.
Everyone knows that this is not how the story ended up. After scoring 29 goals in 52 matches with Parma and Fiorentina, Inter brought him back to San Siro, where he scored 15 goals in the first 16 appearances. From the 2006-2007 campaign his future at the club suffered due to poor performances as well as having a behavior which was everything but fitting to a professional football player.
The former Brazilian international was spotted every now and then in pubs and night clubs till late night and also the former Brazilian coach Dunga excluded him from the five-times World Cup winners team as he had to “focus more on football”.
In the following years Adriano featured with the shirts of Sao Paulo, Flamengo, Roma, Corinthians and Atletico Paranaense, always failing to find the consistency he needed to become one of the strongest forwards of his times.
Adenor Leonardo Bacchi, commonly known as Tito, was his manager at Corinthians in 2001.
“When we won the league in 2011 I was feeling shame for him,” the Brazilian manager declared to Lancenet. “He was irremediably overweight and with no willing to commitment. I can deal with being overweight, but he can’t.”
“The morning after we won the league I had a look at the newspapers and a picture of him bothered me a lot. He was photographed while lifting the cup and I felt ashamed for him. A professional athlete can’t end up like he did. The role to follow is completely opposite”.
Adriano is not the first football player who suffered from alcoholism and lack of discipline. George Best and Paul Gascoigne, just to name a few, both belong to this category.
The Brazilian Vildiram is not as known as the ones mentioned above. He was a very talented Romario’s team-mate at Vasco Da Gama, but he destroyed his playing career abusing alcohol just like Adriano did.
Talking to Globoesporte he declared: “Adriano is just like I was. He is still devastated because of his father’s dead and is suffering from self-destructive behaviors. He is slave to alcohol and he won’t stop till ha has reached the limit. I am afraid that it is not too far away.”
