Adriano the emperor talented Brazilian players not fulfilling their full potential is the story of many a player but most of the time due to partying (ala Ronaldinho or Robinho ) or injuries (a la ronaldo de Lima or Ricardo kaka) I can even see neymar heading in this direction (I kind of get the feeling he has stagnated at psg and even declined from the team player he became at Barcelona) With Adriano you cannot help but feel a degree of sympathy for his fall from grace(his loss of his father was too much for him )we are talking here about a guy who in his prime was a complete striker. He was a skilful drogba (even stronger on the ball then him)with an all round game to compare to any elite striker today I would like to here thoughts from Brazilian posters about how he was viewed in his own country and by anyone else who was familiar with him in intermilan Just how good was this guy and how far could he have gone
Honestly I never saw anything that great about Adriano. He had a couple of good years. It has happened to several players over history. Even in his day, i never heard anyone even mention him as the best striker in the world (one of the best but not the best). And I don't really see much of an all round game. To other strikers that played in his time, I put Etoo, Henry, Forlan, and Drogba as levels above Adriano. Adriano wasn't even close. And I don't think there are too many people who disagree. I would be surprised if someone thought Adriano was even close to them. I wouldn't compare him to Lewandowski, Aguero, Suarez. I would probably put him in the same category as Cavani and Higuain at best! Edit: I just looked to Adrianos career statistics to see if my memory was failing me but at Inter Milan over 5 years from 2004-2009 he only played 115 matches and scored 47 goals. That was his best showing in his whole career!! In my opinion Adriano had too much emphasis on strength and power. Things that can be good but he relied on this so much that he never developed a sophistication of thinking in his game and lacked good ball technique in general compared to the likes of Etoo, Henry, Forlan, and Benzema.
Adrianos goal record was average for the era he played in but so was George weahs and Eric cantona (averaging well below 0.5 goals per game) Plus Adriano was more well rounded (in terms of his all round play compared to etoo or Diego forlan)
To include stats after 2005-06 is to include a clearly out of focus Adriano. His 02-03 to 05-06 years at Parma and Inter were pretty good. This was pre Ronaldo / Messi scoring rates mind you. I think people saw some of R9 in Adriano. Physical guy that had some decent skills running with thte bal (R9 much more obviously). But yeah his all around game wasn't all that if you're going to compare to those other players.
Etoo had good years at Mallorca and Ronaldinho had good years at PSG. But when taking in their prime years and recognition into account we really only count them at Barcelona. The same goes for many, many players. The time in which they were worldly recognized. If I'm not mistaken even Platini said his best years were in France but no one takes those years into serious consideration. In any case, we all have our opinions. But I've never heard anyone seriously compare Adriano with Etoo, forlan, or Thierry Henry. Me personally, i wouldn't even put Adriano in the same stratosphere as Henry or Etoo. I could also make the case that had Adriano been born in France, he would not be compared to R9. Simply because he is from Brazil are these comparisons taking place. Anybody who thinks there was ever a comparison between R9 and Adriano has no idea about R9 or the game. If Adriano was at any point in comparison with R9, then surely his name should come up when talking about the greatest players in the history of the game.