Profile: Adriano
In this series of posts we shall look at the most promising young players who will soon capture our imagination and become the biggest stars of the game. It’s too bad this player was not chosen by Bruce Arena to play in the upcoming World Cup. We continue with Adriano. (This is an advance posting.)
A bright future awaits this 22 year old striker especially when his record stands beside of Pele’s 8 goals in Copa America. Having netted 7 goals in the competition, he overtakes Ronaldo and Rivaldi’s 5 goals in 1999. He has a powerful free kick clocked at 80 mph that gives Inter Milan a lot to look forward on this kid.
Inter Milan manager, Roberto Mancini, says the kid has the power of Riva, agility of Van Basten and opportunism of Romario.
On the other hand, Brazilians dislike Adriano because of his “ugly” playing style. He does not possess the gracefulness and beauty that Robinho, Kaka and Ronaldo displays on the field. People are saying that Adriano is bound to hit the marketing efforts of Brazil as the team that wins and plays beautiful soccer.
Despite Brazilians disliking his style of play he deliver the results game after game. A natural goal scoring machine, he is best remembered on scoring the goals against against Basel in the Champions League despite fighting fatigue and emotional stress because of his father’s death 7 days prior to the competition. The heart of this is kid is undeniable.
He has this to say to his father:
“I was ten and walking alongside him in the favela of Vila Cruzeiro when a gunfight broke out and he was hit by a stray bullet,” remembers Adriano. “He collapsed at my feet and I couldn’t help him because my friends wouldn’t let me. It left such an impression on me. My life changed that day - I became an adult on the spot. For twelve years, my father lived with a bullet lodged in his skull. As soon as I started making money I tried to help my family because here (in the favela) life revolves around theft, guns and drugs. To stay away from all that you need a strong family behind you.”
Below shows you how “ugly” his style is; though results is all that matters: