Adriano became a shadow of himself after his father’s death, explains Zanetti

Adriano was one of the many Brazilians who shone for Inter Milan. But at just 25, he received a phone call that would change his career and his life forever. Inter’s captain at the time, Javier Zanetti, claims in an interview that only he knew how much the Brazilian had suffered. Had it not been for that phone call, Adriano could have been one of the best footballers in history.

• Adriano was an Inter Milan star, but one phone call changed his life
• The Brazilian left European football at the age of 26 and never returned
• Zanetti is the only one who knows what it was really like

Adriano at Inter Milan

The Brazilian was considered one of the greatest Brazilian talents of the time. That’s why Inter Milan sent just under €14 million to Flamengo for him in 2002. I probably don’t need to mention how much it was back then. It may sound even stranger when mentioning the fact that the Brazilian did not dazzle in any way in the Brazilian competition.

Moreover, he was bought by Parma after half a year, so the chapter at Inter didn’t look good at all. He scored 17 goals in 32 games in the opening season for the club that produced, for example, goalkeeping icon Buffon. Not bad numbers at all for a 20-year-old player with minimal experience of European football.

He added 21 goals the following season and a move to Inter was (again) on the cards. The striker went about his work in his own way, finishing the 2004/05 season with 28 goals scored and 5 assists. The season after that he added just 19 goals in 47 duels and then came an unexpected twist.

During the 2006/07 season Adriano scored only 6 goals. Inter only had patience for another six months during which the Brazilian scored 1 goal and was thus sent on loan to Brazil. The guest stint did not help and Adriano was released as a free agent and never returned to his former form. What was behind this?

One phone call and his career was over

“We told him he was a mix of Zlatan and the Brazilian Ronaldo, but that he could be better. We did everything we could. It just didn’t work and it still bothers me,” Zanetti says. The Argentine is one of the icons of the Italian national team, having spent most of his career there and wearing the captain’s armband for many years.

“Adriano had a father who looked after him and kept him in a strict line. But at the beginning of the 2004/05 season, a terrible thing happened. He received a phone call from Brazil telling him that his father had died. From that moment on, he became a mere shadow of himself. He was never the same again,” explains the Argentine the whole decline of Adrian’s career.

“He cried right in front of me. He threw the phone away and started screaming that it was impossible. From that day on, Massimo Moratti and I took care of him like a brother. Unfortunately, we were short on treatment for his depression. Only I know how much he suffered,” concludes sadly the former captain of one of Italy’s biggest clubs.

Source: Goal, Transfermarkt