Adriano a new Fat Boy for Corinthians?

“He’s fat, he’s round, he’s worth a million pound” was the chant of praise sung by Clyde supporters open-mouthed in awe at stout Steve Clarke’s prime. Nowadays it is more likely to be applied insultingly to faded Brazilian superstars. The great Ronaldo, probably the world’s finest forward of the thirty years preceeding Messi and Ronaldo, set the standard, returning to Corinthians looking a physical parody of his once lithe self. Even with the extra weight, he still managed to do some good business for Corinthians (see LSA Post “The Fat Boy does Good”), helping them to a Sao Paulo League title and a Copa Brazil. However when it came to the tournament that Corinthians really wanted to win, the Copa Libertadores, Ronaldo and his rotund fellow legend Roberto Carlos were just not fit enough to help, and both left Corinthians within weeks of the club’s exit from the premier South American trophy, with the boos and jeers of the fans ringing in their ears. Ronaldo sensibly, hung up his boots for good. Roberto Carlos, with a different kind of good sense, set sail for one last overseas adventure with the mega rich Russians of Anzhi Makhachkalia.

The vacated Fat Boy title was quickly claimed by Adriano who arrived in Sao Paulo in March 2011 to take over Ronaldo’s mantle as the Great Hope who would lead Corinthians to title glory.

Adriano came with a great deal of history. On the positive side, his good days, in Italy with Inter Milan and with Brazil, had shown him to be as good as any centre forward in the world, a world class finisher with surprising silky skills for such a big man. Known in Brazil as the Emperor for his imperious play. But, and it is quite a but, he has a long history of off-field problems that have always prevented him sustaining his best form over any consistent period. In the last LSA mention was made of Ronaldinho’s fondness for the nightlife, in some ways quite understandable for a young male, but Adriano’s problems are of a darker hue. He has a sad history of depression linked to drinking to alleviate it, drinking at a level sufficient to count as serious alcoholism. Inter Milan were surprisingly tolerant of the increased absences from training that became linked to such a threatening pattern of drinking and depression, but eventually their tolerance ran out and in November  2007 he was sent back on loan to Sao Paulo. There in the sun and less intense pressure he played quite well and was recalled to Inter for season 2008-2009. The then Inter manager, a certain Jose Mourinho, initially coaxed some good performances out of Adriano but it did not last, and the tears, the depression and the drinking returned. In April 2009 Adriano announced he was quitting football for good. Initially he blamed it on a breakdown of his relationship with his fiancée, but slowly deeper truths emerged including an inability to come to terms with the death of his father, shot in dubious circumstances in a crime spot in Rio.

Adriano confessed that he felt very unhappy in Italy and that he had lost all pleasure in playing football. He returned to Brazil where he described himself as happy, “with my friends and my family”. His exile from first class football lasted only 26 days, before he signed a contract with his previous Brazilian club, Flamengo. With three weeks training under his belt he made a scoring debut for Flamengo and went onto to become the league’s top scorer as he helped lead Flamengo to a surprise title triumph in December 2009.

Not a great Roman Emperor

Adriano had a different approach to night life than Ronaldinho whose happy relaxed personality led him in constant search of good company and good times. Adriano linked up socially with what any sensible manager would call the wrong crowd, many of whom remembered him from his younger Rio days. By summer 2010 after increasing amounts of bad publicity around his lifestyle and especially his association with men known to be drug barons, Adriano ignored the lessons of his European past and signed up again with an Italian club, this time Roma, in a setting not known for its tranquillity. He never really managed to settle in either the team or the city. The contract he signed with Roma had a number of get-out clauses related to his performance and his behaviour, and by early March 2011 a frustrated management decided to exercise these clauses and cut their losses. Once again the supposed retirement was brief. This time it took 20 days before Adriano was revealed as a Corinthians player, with the man himself explaining in passing how Sao Paulo will be a safer place for him socially than a return to Rio would have been. Corinthians fans were delighted, most fervently believing that at just 29, Adriano had more to offer their club than the very fat Ronaldo.

However the initial enthusiasm and excitement soon turned to frustration as the obviously overweight and unfit Adriano struggled against a series of niggling injuries to get himself fit enough to finally make his trumpeted debut. Without access to their new superstar the goalscoring burden at title favourite Corinthians fell on Leidson the other top class repatriated forward. Leidson rose to the challenge and without Adriano Corinthians still looked the team most likely to win the league. Incredibly it was to be October, in the 28^th round of a 38 game league, before Adriano was finally to make his competitive debut for Corinthians. He came on for the last 11 minutes. However a series of minor injuries prevented him from building on this late start and coming up to the middle of November there had been only two more substitute appearances, with no goals. On 16^th November Adriano declared himself fully fit again at last and he was named as a substitute for the away trip to Ceara. Despite the game being scoreless, Adriano was not given a chance by the cautious manager Tite and when Leidson was pulled off, it was a midfielder Morais that was brought on rather than Adriano. Eventually Corinthians snatched a 1-0 win.

From Emperor to supersub. Adriano at last makes his debut

Four days later, at home to Atletico Mineiro Adriano again started the match on the bench. This time however he was eventually brought on  in the 67^th minute with Corinthians 1-0 down and facing a defeat that would hand the title initiative to Vasco da Gama with only two games to go. The substitution energerised the crowd, the noise generated was stupendous and somehow all the energy and excitement flowed into the Corinthians team. Adriano’s first major contribution was a brilliant assist to allow Leidson to equalise. Yet it appeared that all the energy and all the effort would not be enough as Atletico hung on desperately. Then in the very last minute Adriano struck to score a goal, taking a half chance with class and cool control to win the game for his team. As any normal football supporter would expect Adriano celebrated this first goal after so long in the most joyous fashion. That he was booked for this celebration says something about the soulless direction of the modern game. LSA would urge readers to google “Adriano goal for Corinthians” and see his impressive contribution, making one, scoring one and winning a game for his new club that surely clinched the league, leaving Corinthians two points ahead with two games to go.

Tite, in his usual pragmatic way, avoided getting caught up in the hype and come the next game, away to high-flying Figueirense, Adriano found himself back on the bench. A goal in the 66^th minute by Leidson gave Corinthians the decisive advantage and when centre forward Emerson was substituted with 11 minutes to go it was not Adriano but a midfielder who was brought on. To his credit Adriano avoided any temper tantrums about his lack of action and seemed delighted just to be part of it all. A late winner by second placed Vasco da Gama over third placed Fluminense guaranteed that the title race would go down to the last day. Corinthians at home to old rivals Palmeiras only need a draw to guarantee them their 5^th Brazilian Championship. It will be interesting to see what role if any Tite allows Adriano to play in the final game, but even if he spends the whole game on the bench, that dramatic last minute winner against Atletico will mean that Adriano will always be part of the story of that title win, even if he doesn’t add a single second to the 73 minutes that is currently his total contribution for the whole season.

But perhaps more importantly, he would appear to have coped with the frustration and inactivity of the past 6 months without triggering off returns to the black places that have haunted him in the past. In the week Gary Speed hung himself, and a book about Robert Enke a goalkeeper who committed suicide, deservedly won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, perhaps we should all just be grateful that Adriano, who displayed a similar depression more openly than these other two, seems to have found some contentment even in a secondary role. Let us all hope that whatever contribution he can make to Corinthians almost certain title triumph will bring him some inner peace.

With one round to go in the Brazilian Championship, there are several other issues still to be decided as well as the destination of the title. Fluminense and Flamengo would appear destined to join Corinthians and Vasco da Gama as Brazil’s representatives in the 2012 Copa Libertadores, but the 5^th slot is still up for grabs with Coritiba and Figueirense competing with Inter PA, Sao Paulo and Botofogo. .If Inter beat local rivals Gremio in their last game that would probably be enough to give them, winners in 2006 and 2010, another crack at the Libertadores. And mighty Cruzeiro need a home win against local rivals Atletico Mineiro to be absolutely sure of avoiding the relegation with which they have been flirting dangerously over the last few weeks. LSA regular readers will be pleased that Bahia the carnival club from Salvador have finished their first season back in the top league safe from relegation.

The next LSA will report on the final resolution of the Brazilian season next weekend.

Flamengo - the best supported club in the world

Flamengo are the Brazilian club with the most supporters. An estimated 40 million of them in Rio and spread throughout Brazil make the Mengao truly the club of the people. They traditionally draw their support from the lower reaches of Brazilian society while their Rio rivals Fluminense, Vasco de Gama and Botafogo tend to be better supported by the middle classes and the power elites. Flamengo supporters tend to think of their club as the biggest and the best in the world, a claim not really validated since 1981 when they hammered Liverpool 3-0 to win the World Club Cup.

Since these glories days of Zico, Junior and company, with 3 Brazilian championships in 4 years as well as the Copa Libertadores and World Club Cup wins, Flamengo have never again threatened to lead the world elite, and in the mid years of this first decade of the 21^st century, gross mismanagement by incompetent directors lead them perilously close to relegation from the Brazilian top division, a disaster which did actually happen to the other Brazilian club of the people, Corinthians of Sao Paulo, in 2007, as well as to all three of their posher Rio rivals.

Even the winning of the Brazilian League Championship in 2009 came out of the blue, with a mediocre Flamengo team being in the bottom half of the league in mid-season, until one of the 1981 team Andrade emerged as the coach to lead them to an unexpected Championship, their first since 1992. The momentum generated by Andrade’s success could not be maintained into the 2010 Copa Libertadores and Flamengo were eliminated in the quarter finals by a Chilean team, despite having put out Ronaldo’s Corinthians in the last 16 round. Andrade was rewarded for his miracle work by being summarily dismissed and then Flamengo reverted to more typical league form finishing 14^th in the 2010 Brazilian League won by their deadly rivals Fluminense.

However new Directors took over the club, with a powerful woman President Patricia Amorim, slowly brought a more professional approach and determined to restore Flamengo to their due position as the pre-eminent Brazilian club.

Ronaldinho Now a Flamego player

The corner stone of their approach was to gazump Gremio’s almost sealed deal to bring Ronaldinho back from Europe to Porto Alegre, and persuade him to sign instead for Flamengo. At one level this seemed an inspired move, Ronaldinho having been the best player in the world for the mid years of the first decade, winning World Footballer of the Year awards in 2004 and 2005. When Flamengo signed him in January 2011 he was only 30 years old and should have several years of top class football left in him. However serious question marks existed over his character and discipline, which made the transfer less obviously brilliant than it might otherwise have appeared.

In his last season with Barcelona, Ronaldinho had displayed a lack of dedicated professionalism. He rejected the authority of the coach Frank Rijkaard and led a cabal of players including Deco, Thiago Motta and Messi, astray in a series of drunken night time escapades. It took another of the Barcelona South Americans, Edmilson, to courageously denounce this situation, claiming there were black sheep aloose in the Camp Nou. Old President Juan Laporta and new Manager Guardiola agreed to slaughter all the black sheep, except for Messi, to cure the club of the sickness and indiscipline that had crept in. Removed from Ronaldinho’s malign social influence, Messi stabilised himself and reverted to being the model professional his personality is more suited to, the results of which have been enjoyed by Barcelona fans and football supporters everywhere over the past three years as he has clearly inherited Ronalidinho’s old role as “best player in the world”.

Ronaldinho sad lonely figure on the field at Milan

Ronaldinho spent a largely miserable 30 months in Milan. Or more accurately he spent a brilliant 30months in Milan, partying almost nightly and single-handedly introducing Carnival traditions to Milan night life. He totally confirmed the correctness of Guardiola’s determination to get rid of his unprofessional approach from Barcelona. His first season in Milan was a poor one on the field, where his form and attitude lead him to being heavily criticised as an unprofessional freeloader. Things improved slightly in the second season, 2009-10, as Ronaldinho sought to restore enough form and reputation to book his flight to South Africa with the Brazilian squad. But he would spoil every brief run of sustained form with another nocturnal splurge, sometimes missing training, sometimes turning up smelling of alcohol. He did want to go to South Africa and did enough over the second half of the season to make it into Dunga’s provisional squad of 30. But Dunga, a hard player, a hard manager, a hard man, decided at the end that he would not risk the man’s reek of indiscipline contaminating his tightly controlled squad, and omitted a genuinely devastated Ronaldinho from the final 23 along with his Milan teammate and occasional dancing partner Pato.

Most Brazilian football supporters were appalled and accused Dunga of betraying the traditions of the beautiful game, in favour of dull conformity. There was much talk that Garrincha, who helped win Brazil two World Cups, was not exactly a model of sober disciplined behaviour even during tournaments. In the event, a rather flat Brazilian team exited the World Cup without distinction even though they had been well-seeded to meet Spain in the Final. They lost in the Quarter Finals to a more spirited Dutch team but it was a game Dunga’s team might well have won and a game where even a couple of minutes of Ronaldinho magic might have proved crucial.

Ronaldinho enjoying the Milan night life too much

The disappointment of missing out on the World Cup did not prompt a disappointed Ronaldinho into a major rethink and season 2010-11 saw him reverting to the worst patterns of his initial season. AC Milan finally decided that he was a liability to them and with Ibrahimovic and Robinho now available to them up front along with a more professional Pato, Ronaldinho drifted out of the first team picture and started partying even more. Allegri the clever and talented new manager made it clear he could do without Ronaldinho and the decision was made to cut their losses and let him leave in the Winter Transfer Window without expecting an enormous fee. They replaced him in their squad with another “bad boy” Antonio Cassano whose indiscipline was of a less nocturnal nature to Ronaldinho’s. With this change settled, AC Milan romped home in the Italian League finishing 6 points ahead of neighbours Inter.

The word was clearly out in European football circles that he was finished as a top class player and even previous suitors Manchester City didn’t want to waste money subsiding the thriving Manchester night life scene.

Several Brazilian clubs, most notably his original club Gremio and fading Palmeiras decided they would like to take a gamble that his charisma and talent could kick-start them into better days again, but in the end it was the new Board at Flamengo who made the most offer, helped no doubt by the fact that Ronaldinho like most poor Brazilian boys had grown up worshipping the Red and Blacks.

While Ronaldinho was naturally the signing that got all the attention, more quietly the Directors engaged in several other repatriations that added much needed depth of quality to the side.  The most talented of this group was Thiago Neves, well known to regular readers of Letters From South America as the player who almost died of a broken heart after scoring 4 goals in a Copa Libertadores Final and still finishing on the losing side, to the worst team ever to win the Copa, LDU Quito. He sought relief from the pain with exile in Europes but his shattered heart prevented him showing his true potential. Eventually he sought a different kind of solace by campaigning for Arab petro dollars and seemingly turning his back on serious football. When Fluminense, his old team, won the 2010 Brazilian Championship they determined to bring their old idol back to lead them into a further attempt on Copa Libertadores glory. For a while it looked as if they had succeeded, but to general surprise he turned up one day to be announced as a new Flamengo signing. Maybe the fact that Flamengo were not playing in the Copa Libertadores tipped the balance for this still haunted man. Also brought back from self-imposed petro dollar semi-retirement was an old Flamengo favourite midfielder Renato Abreu. He had always been a top quality player without ever getting proper international recognition and when he went East aged 30 it seemed his chances of ever playing for Brazil had gone West. They brought experienced forward Deivid back from Turkey to be their main striker. They signed ex-Corinthians goalie Felipe from Braga where he never really settled and to the delight of their younger fans brought back young defensive midfielder Airton on loan from Benfica, who had snapped him up after his starring role in the 2010 Brazilian Title victory but never managed to harnass his tigerish ability. The final addition was not a direct repatriation but class centre back Alex Silva although signed from Sao Paulo actually belonged to Hamburg. Already in the squad were experienced internationalists like Leoardo Moura and Chilean Claudio Maldonado and seasoned professionals like Junior Cesar and Ronaldo Angelim, plus a host of promising youngsters like Welinton, Willian, Diego Mauricio and Negueba.

Vanderlei Luxemburgo the best Brazilian Manager of the past 20 years takes on restoring Flamengo to the top rank

To manage this promising mix of world class superstars, solid internationalists, good professionals and upcoming young players, the Directors turned to the most successful Brazilian manager of the past 20 years, Vanderlei Luxembourg already familiar to regular LSA readers as a great manager and a flawed man. His record over the past 20 years includes 5 Brazilian Championships, 12 State Leagues, and 1 Copa Brazil, as well as a Copa America with the national team. Al;.though he failed to shine in his one year with Real Madrid

True to his record he did not take long to weld all that talent into an effective and attractive, but not reckless, team. He gave Ronaldinho a free role up front behind sole striker Deivid and pushed Thiago Neves and Renato Abreu as wide supports with the centre policed by Airton and Willian standing in brilliantly for the seriously injured Maldonado. Flamengo swept aside all local opposition in the 2011 Rio State League winning both legs of the competition to obviate the need for a grand Final. Ronaldinho played superbly in the final of the second stage competition assisting as Thiago Neves scored both goals in the 2-0 defeat of Botafogo, and the team as a whole looked very good.

It would not be true to say that Ronaldinho completely gave up partying on his return to Flamengo but somehow he settled on a balance that was tolerated by his employers and allowed him to perform professionally on the field. (continue reading…)

Corinthians - the club of the people

Corinthians are popularly known as Timao, the team of the people. They are the best supported of the four big Sao Paulo clubs. Their estimated 30 million supporters are the second biggest support in Brazil behind only the 40 odd million fans of Flamengo, the Rio ‘club of the people’.

In April GGW confidently tipped Corinthians to emerge from the just beginning 2011 Brazilian League as the most likely Champions. And for all of the campaign to date they have either been leaders or very close in contention. Now, with only 5 games to go they sit top of the league, but they will have to cut back on an alarming tendency to casualness if they are to hold on to that number one spot and earn their 5th national title for their fanatical supporters, known as the Fiel.

The four Rio clubs, Vasco de Gama, Fluminense, Flamengo and Botafogo are the only clubs left in a position to deny the Timao the title they have set their hearts on. Currently Vasco the winners of the 2011 Brazil Cup, are behind Corinthians only on goal difference, with 2010 champions Fluminense 2 points behind, and 2009 Champions Flamengo a further point behind sharing 4^th place with Botafogo.

In some ways this has appeared to be the most open and even Brazilian Championship ever, in the 8 years since the league resorted to the European formula of League football rather than the more complicated formulas of mini-leagues and knockout stages used in  the first 32 years from the formation of a true national championship in 1971. But those like your GGW correspondent who watch Brazilian games regularly can report that the sad truth is that the increased competitiveness has resulted from a reduced standard of play which means there are no outstanding teams and almost every team is capable of beating any other team. In what would be  a surprise to most UK football supporters, brought up on the myth of Brazilian brilliance, the current overall standard of even the top teams is actually quite poor, by top European standards. (continue reading…)