How A Family Tragedy Stopped Adriano From Becoming An All-Time Great

Teammates at Inter Milan called him a mix between Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Brazilian Ronaldo - but just as he was reaching his peak, heartbreaking news changed Adriano's life forever.

"He got a phone call from Brazil: 'Adri, dad is dead'," said Inter legend Javier Zanetti of pre-season training in 2004. "I saw him in his room, he threw the phone and started screaming. You couldn't imagine that kind of scream... I get goosebumps even to this day."

The striker had become a national hero just weeks earlier. An injury-time equaliser in a Copa America final against Argentina ultimately led to Brazil's victory. It was a standard Adriano screamer - turning to rifle the ball home with a left foot that could either be a magic wand or a rocket launcher.

It was the stuff of childhood dreams, shortly before the phone call of childhood nightmares.

Adriano was 22 when a heart-attack took the life of his father who'd suffered from poor health, not helped by years spent with a bullet lodged in his skull. Rio's dangerous Vila Cruzeiro favela was home for the family, but Adriano had used his talent to build a new life for himself in Italy.

Fiorentina, Parma and Inter fans all marvelled at the strength, pace, skill and heatseeker finishing that saw Adriano nicknamed L'Imperatore (the Emperor). Even after his father's death, he continued to dazzle in Milan - but as Zanetti knew, his teammate's life was secretly going off the rails.

"He kept playing football, scoring goals and pointing to the sky, dedicating them to his father," Zanetti told Tutto Mercato. "But after that phone call, nothing was the same. Ivan Cordoba spent one night with him and said, 'Adri, you're a mix of Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Are you aware that you could become the