voldemort

It's certainly not a bombshell to welcome a Brazilian back from years spent abroad to the Brasileirão (Big Brazilian; the Brazilian first division) as Brazil has been receiving repatriated veterans for decades, but the big boom about Adriano's return that echoed around Brazil was centred around the fact that a star was coming back...in his mid-twenties. If all goes well, Adriano will celebrate his twenty-sixth birthday in the aftermath of Carnaval on the 17th of February, but some are already wondering whether 'aftermath' will be a prophetic term to use given the striker's self-confessed fondness for a drink or seventeen. That's the reality behind the surprise at receiving an exported star at such an early age: is he damaged goods?
It's a bet in a different way than the two other recent São Paulo striking sensations that had returned from European experiences: Amoroso and Ricardo Oliveira. The former arrived over thirty and after a poor passage through Malaga and briefly re-ignited his spluttering career whereas the latter, although under 30, was getting over delicate cruciate ligament damage.
Both cases reflect different facets of why Adriano is seen as having been so keen to accept the São Paulo FC proposal. The Amoroso case provided a precedent that showed that the club is a great place to bleach a soiled reputation - and hoist such coveted silverware as the Copa Libertadores (Liberators Cup; equivalent of the Champions League), while Oliveira also highlighted the importance of the Reffis sports medicine facilities.
These are, along with those at Santos' installations down on the coast, the cream of Brazilian state-of-the-art infrastructure combined with a top-flight staff. This has been given a glowing write-up by Inter medical chief Franco Combi, sent to ensure that the Nerazzurri wouldn't simply be chucking their investment on a Churrasco (Brazilian barbecue), although Adriano's taste for two other local products - Cachaça (Brazilian cane spirit) and Fubanagas (loose women of mirror-cracking appearance) has already started tongues waggling.
"In Italy he was the 'Imperador', but here with the Bambi crowd he'll be the 'Imperatriz do Jardim Leonor'", jabbed the sarcastic Corinthians character Tião Fiel in football daily Lance! (Move!), playing on the samba school Imperatriz Leopoldinense that has a flamboyant Empress rather than an Emperor. There's also the São Paulo FC 'reputation'/slur for being less-than-macho Bambis: effeminate deer (with the added insult that deer in Portuguese is 'veado' - pejorative slang for gay) and the name of one of Morumbi's eyesore favelas: Jardim Leonor.
Then again, cross-club rivalries will generate this sort of the mud-slinging out of a combination of knee-jerk habit and sane jealousy, but it will be the first time that Adriano has taken sides with a club from the landlocked megalopolis that is São Paulo. The centre-forward played for Rio de Janeiro giants Flamengo from 1999-2001 before leaving for Italy at a tender 19 years of age and is himself a carioca (Rio resident), so this is a far from a return to old haunts for Adriano.
That leads the more pessimistic to conclude that a man who spent a reported $40,000 a week on nightlife in Milan may be tempted to drown any sorrows in drink and 'saudade' (longing) for the beach in the arms and between the legs of local Maria Chuteiras ('Mary Football Boot's: the nickname for player groupies in Brazil) who get him to pose in an addled state for photos that soon pop up in the press with appalling ease.
Nevertheless, despite the doubts about adaptation to smoggy São Paulo and a potential nosedive back into the bad habits that landed him back in Brazil, most Brazilian pundits are roundly positive about the return of a prodigal son. "He's a great signing and another sign that São Paulo are working well at management level. He'll make a great duo with Dagoberto but he needs to get into shape for the liberatdores", argued columnist Benjamin Back.
Marilia Ruiz also pointed out the fact that both the club and its facilities were gaining in stature abroad. "Adriano is another great feat in Reffis' retrospective who have already been responsible for other great players being attracted to São Paulo and will improve the team a lot." This is a salient point: São Paulo is now a reference for any Brazilian player who faces problems, and this is a big boost to growing fan numbers in a relatively young club.
Other observers, however, are more cautious. "Adriano is a crack player but he's coming from a terrible year, but he does have everything it takes to make it big for São Paulo and explode again", opined Roberto Assaf in Lance! Top tactical expert Paulo Vinicius Coelho added more detail. "Adriano has all the advantages of Aloísio [ex-PSG striker now at SPFC], power, height and positioning, but with added speed and an ability to work off the wing as well as a booming shot."
PVC does add a caveat that echoes Assaf's concern as "the only doubt that remains is if he's fit, as he most certainly wasn't last year, but he appears to be back into shape after the spell with Reffis", he observed. Another thing that's slimmed down sharply apart from the marksman's waistline has been his salary: halved to a reported 208,000 Euros a month, although that will hardly see the Emperor juggling or selling gum at São Paulo traffic lights to make ends meet.
Inter are also putting their money where their hearts are and paying 70% of the new figure, something that "brings Adriano into line with the club salary cap policy', explained VP Jesus Lopes, who refused to confirm the amount, but local paper Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo State) pointed out that Rogério Ceni earns more. Despite the hair-splitting, something Ceni can ill-afford, the real point is that Adriano is a bargain for São Paulo FC.
Much of this value is speculation, and Rivaldo's return to Cruzeiro from Milan or Oliveira's return to Milan from São Paulo were followed by flops and swift transfers out, but there's hope that Adriano will be born again back in Brazil. At a time when football promises are snatched away by European greats even before their voices have broken, and those that bloom late - i.e. nineteen - are speedily exported Brazil is looking forward to having a player of the Emperor's calibre back home and playing live at club level...even if it is for just six months.




source:goal.com