Adriano "l'Imperatore" Leite Ribeiro

Which forum?


  • Total voters
    50
  • Poll closed .

n4l

Allenatore
Allenatore
Joined
Jul 22, 2007
Messages
9,743
Likes
10
Favorite Player
Mancini
10 years of FIF
nice ad...but pastore? :oblivious:
 
Last edited:

Dylan

La Grande Inter
La Grande Inter
Joined
Jul 20, 2008
Messages
24,503
Likes
146
Favorite Player
Walter Samuel
10 years of FIF
FIF Special Ones
Adriano back on the drink clamoroso
 

Besnik

La Grande Inter
La Grande Inter
Joined
Mar 3, 2009
Messages
19,397
Likes
6,874
10 years of FIF
Some filthy stuff by Adriano back in the day... such a brutal player he was. :proud:

giphy.gif
 

vex

Capitano
Capitano
Joined
Dec 13, 2017
Messages
3,976
Likes
4,162
Favorite Player
Don't have one.
And he didn't even have a need to be flashy, he would just bulldoze through players.
 

wera

might be Deadpool
La Grande Inter
Joined
Mar 28, 2011
Messages
33,833
Likes
13,060
Favorite Player
Bea Arthur
10 years of FIF
Most Diverse Poster
I miss us having Brazilians or Bosnians up front.
 

Sassuolu

La Grande Inter
La Grande Inter
Joined
Oct 12, 2006
Messages
12,318
Likes
179
Favorite Player
Stefan de Vrij
Old username
Toninu
Forum Supporter
10 years of FIF
When did we have Bosnians?
 

brehme1989

La Grande Inter
La Grande Inter
Joined
Jan 17, 2005
Messages
35,404
Likes
18,640
10 years of FIF
Nostradamus
Most Passionate Member
[youtube]4mg72wLIwD4[/youtube]
 

William

Allenatore
Allenatore
Joined
Jun 18, 2010
Messages
5,420
Likes
960
Favorite Player
Zanetti
Forum Supporter
10 years of FIF
You remember the left foot being so powerful but still forget just how powerful it was.

I always remember his screamers in the 04/05 coppa final v Roma (believe it was 2 legs back then) and against Greece.
 

n4l

Allenatore
Allenatore
Joined
Jul 22, 2007
Messages
9,743
Likes
10
Favorite Player
Mancini
10 years of FIF
And people have the balls to talk about lukaku's left foot in the same sentence as adriano's :oblivious:
 

dax21

Capitano
Capitano
Joined
Sep 16, 2017
Messages
3,356
Likes
938
Favorite Player
Bastoni
I missed this video a week ago somehow. Quite an interesting conversation and I really appreciate Lukaku's questions. Adriano is suprisingly humble, I like how he mentioned Prandelli as the most influential coach in his development from his time at Parma and how he taught him the way a forward should move in Serie A. That was a good Parma team too - Adri, Mutu, Nakata, P. Cannavaro...
[youtube]Y29jQlC2HM0[/youtube]
 

Il Drago

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Dec 21, 2015
Messages
22,289
Likes
37,132
Favorite Player
Wesley Sneijder
Best Football Poster
Best Overall Poster
LETTERS TO INTER - ADRIANO
The Brazilian's message, who made 177 appearances for Inter scoring 74 goals, to all Nerazzurri fans


Happiness is a simple thing.

It’s the taste of the popcorn my aunt used to sell from a cart on the side of the road: “pipoca”, I ate so much that it became my nickname. It’s the colour of the dust that rose when we played football in Vila Cruzeiro on a pitch where I played every day of my childhood.

Shorts and bare feet. That was always my favourite kit. I don’t need to explain why: it’s the life of a child growing up in a slum.

I was ten years old, and on one seemingly normal afternoon I suddenly heard the hiss of bullets whistling in the street. One of them lodged in my dad’s head, Almir. Hit by chance, by accident.
If you live in a favela, you don’t really see much of a future, but I’ve always tried to aim a little higher thanks to football.

I was already playing for Flamengo’s futsal team, but that was the time when I should’ve been becoming a proper young man. I remember there were so many very long and difficult days, with my mum Rosilda in hospital and me at home with grandma Wanda. I would try to make myself useful: every now and then I’d stand on the street corner and shine shoes for money. My days were school, training and afternoons spent waiting. The day my dad Almir came home from hospital was one of the happiest of my whole life.

You know my powerful left foot? Well, I’ve trained and nurtured it since I was a kid. I used to always smash doors and things in the house, it drove my mum crazy. That’s one of the reasons why she decided to take me to Flamengo, to sign me up for a football school. Although we had to pay for it, and my dad knew we didn’t have the money and we couldn’t afford it. However, mama Rosilda wouldn’t deny me that dream: she told my dad that our aunt could help us pay for it. That was a lie for the greater good, and she started an extra job selling candy on the street.
When you’re born and grow up in a favela, it’s hard to imagine a different, brilliant future.

It’s also hard to dream. My mum, dad and my grandparents, however, always showed me the positive side of things. They made the difference in my life: they allowed me to focus on football.

Can you believe that I was playing as a full-back? On the left, of course. It was tough for me, but I knew I could never give up, even though there was a time when my Flamengo adventure seemed over before it had even started. By then I was playing up front and in February 2000 I went with the first team to the Rio-Sao Paulo Tournament. I made my debut against Botafogo, then a few days later Sao Paulo played Flamengo. We were 1-0 down and they threw me onto the pitch: I scored a goal and provided three assists, and we won 5-2.

I loved playing football, but above all I wanted to repay my parents. I had a clear aim: to buy a house for my family.
Football gave me self-esteem, goals in life, determination and a balance. Football is synonymous with hope and humanity, it allowed me to live a life that I couldn’t have done in any other profession.

The call from Europe, from Italy, soon came. I was neither nervous nor worried: I got on the plane to Milan full of happiness and enthusiasm. My greatest journey began, the one I had hoped of and dreamed about.

And yes, the beginning was a dream. It remains that way today, between hundreds of games and moments, there’s one memory that I cherish the most. I had just arrived a few days earlier and I joined the team for Madrid away. On 14 August 2001 I arrived at the Bernabeu. I was wearing Inter’s shirt, Real were in front of me. It was the stuff of dreams. I didn’t need more. I went onto the pitch and didn’t think about anything, I played as if I were on that dusty pitch in Vila Cruzeiro. I dribbled, nutmegged people, I could do everything. I won a free kick and from the bench they were saying I should take it. Remember that left foot I used to train on the street and at home, the one that drove my mum crazy? I introduced it to the world with that free kick. They said it was going at 170 kilometres an hour!

Football, goals, excitement. However, bad news knows how to hurt like a bullet. It can come suddenly and change your life. August 2004, Bari. I was on the bus with my teammates, and my cell phone rang: “Papa Almir is dead.” I thought it was a nightmare. I hoped it was. I can’t describe my despair right then. I’ve never felt such awful, unbearable pain in my life. I rushed back to Milan looking for a flight. All I felt was suffocating anguish and a longing for Rio de Janeiro. Off I went, to Rome, then Brazil.
Only I know how much I suffered. My dad’s death left an irreparable void in my life.

It’s strange how, for a Brazilian like me, it was a city in Switzerland that brought some light back to those dark days. I returned to Europe and took to the pitch for Basel vs. Inter. Imagine my state of mind. I won one duel, then the second, I burst past two men who tried to bring me down, then I passed the ‘keeper and fired one into the net with my right foot. I put all the energy I had into dedicating that goal to papa Almir.

I still remember my teammates’ embraces. Inter were very close to me in one of the most difficult periods of my life. Moratti was like a father to me. Not only him, but also Zanetti and others close to me. I’m extremely grateful to everyone, because I’ll carry those memories with me forever.

The Emperor. At first, I didn’t think they were that fond of me when they called me that. And it was nice to gradually discover the Inter fans’ affection for me. I’ve always felt at home in Milan: my love for Inter is never-ending. I immediately became a true Nerazzurri: my last-minute winner to make it 3-2 in the Derby is testament to that, isn’t it?

I remember it all: dribbling past half the team for that goal against Udinese, the greatest wins, the defeats, the triumphs, that thunderbolt against Roma in the Coppa Italia Final, everything. Do you know who I scored my last goal against in the Inter shirt? Against AC Milan in the Derby, of course!
Inter is a great part of me, it’s intertwined with my life, brightening the most beautiful moments and accompanying me through the saddest and most difficult ones.

Even today, when I think of Milan, San Siro, and the Nerazzurri shirt I feel like singing that song which I’ll never forget and that every time, without fail, made me feel happy, feel at home, feel like one of you, one of us:

“What a noise as we shout and cheer, for this great player who you all fear, we’re all standing for our Brasiliano, clap your hands, 'cause we’ve got ADRIANO!”
Forza Inter!
Adriano
https://www.inter.it/en/news/2020/05/04/adriano-letters-to-inter.html
 

Batman

La Grande Inter
La Grande Inter
Joined
Jun 7, 2010
Messages
14,221
Likes
1,480
Favorite Player
Icardi
10 years of FIF

Pimpin

I'm better than Icardi
La Grande Inter
Joined
Jul 13, 2011
Messages
17,225
Likes
1,468
Favorite Player
22IcardiBroHand
Old username
DomesticatedPimp
10 years of FIF
wow that was so rough to read, we should hire him as an ambassador or something
 

syrus

Capitano
Capitano
Joined
Nov 12, 2016
Messages
1,921
Likes
916
Favorite Player
JZ AR Adri NB
Time to put this guy in the legend's
 

Guney

Capitano
Capitano
Joined
Mar 11, 2013
Messages
2,139
Likes
19
Favorite Player
RONALDO & CHINO
a man I loved the most when i was younger, after my grandpa and dad. I'll never forget those moments <3.
 

sdvroot

Capitano
Capitano
Joined
Oct 2, 2017
Messages
2,617
Likes
3,122
Favorite Player
Wálter Samuel
Adriano, L'Imperatore


"I've played with great champions, but the one I felt could do it longer – and he didn't do it – was Adriano. The way he was, he was an animal. He could shoot from every angle. Nobody could tackle him, nobody could take the ball, nobody could stop him, he was a pure animal. But it lasted for a short time." (Zlatan Ibrahimović about Adriano Leite Ribeiro)
 
Top