From rise to decline, a life between Football and favelas

Goals with Roma and theInter to days in the favelas between alcohol and dancing. The latest video ofAdriano Leite Ribeiro quickly made the rounds on the web. Some reacted by shouting with indignation at the conditions in which the former great striker finds himself today, but others see in these images a man who has finally found the way to live happily. What happened to the Emperor today?

Adriano the Emperor

The former Brazilian footballer was born in Rio de Janeiro on February 17, 1982, he was 44 years old. The nickname Emperor is a reference to the historical figure of the same name. As a young man, he was considered among the world’s most promising talents and was officially recognized with sixth and seventh place in the Ballon d’Or rankings at ages 22 and 23. However, its potential remained largely unexpressed, to the point that the same French magazine France Football included him in the list of the greatest wasted talents in football history. His name is mainly linked to Inter, of which he remains the top scorer in the Champions League with 18 goals. The Nerazzurri recruited him in 2001 from Flemish to keep it until 2009, except for the year at Fiorentina, the biennium in Parma and the semester in São Paulo. In 2010, he returned to Italy to wear the Roma jersey. Due to his overweight condition and numerous injuries, the experiment ended in March 2011 with the termination of the contract after 8 matches without a goal scored.

Life today

In August 2004, he lost his father Almit. A mourning that the footballer himself indicates as the cause of the appearance of depressive disorders which, aggravated by the tendency to alcoholism, compromised the career of the striker. In 2006, he became the father of Adriano Carvalho Ribeirowho followed in his sporting footsteps by being recruited by the Grêmio in 2021. Adriano was investigated in 2014 for alleged involvement in drug trafficking, but he was quickly cleared of the charges given his innocence. The videos published and going viral in recent days make a strong impression at first glance. Barefoot, with flip-flops on a sidewalk, he staggers from a plastic chair with a glass of beer and a cigarette in his hand. He’s also holding a smartphone that’s plugged into a makeshift outlet. He laughs and dances, appearing to be a happy person. He sticks his tongue out at a friend. The sadness that gripped and contorted him seems to have passed. He returned to the favelas from which he left, without the millions he would have dreamed of but with many human relationships.