Hey, It’s Adriano Day!

By: Martha | March 21st, 2007

Big ups to the big man. While Adriano is off soberly (we think) training with his non-international Inter buddies, people all over the world have him on the brain.

In Spain, there are a couple of rather big name clubs reportedly considering offers for his services — maybe you’ve heard of Real Madrid and Barcelona? Yep, that’s what it says here. Supposedly the Brazilian’s salary demands put him out of the reach of interested Italian clubs (namely Fiorentina, who have been linked — hopefully erroneously — with him via an exchange for Luca Toni), but since Real and Barca have money to burn, they see him as a possible striking option for next year. No word on what they think of his off-field issues, or how he would cope with La Liga. (I watch very little Spanish football — do you guys think he could succeed there?)

Back in Brazil, meanwhile, the national team big cheeses are preparing to get involved in the big fella’s personal life — and not in a fun, setting-up-on-blind-dates sort of way. Adriano hasn’t been called up for the team’s upcoming friendlies, and assistant coach Jorginho has told the press that he will shortly be speaking to the player about his crappy choices and stupid-but-fun lifestyle. According to an interview with a Brazilian website, Jorginho and his boss Dunga (who has picked Adriano only once since taking over) believe “every player that it wants to have a long career must be known to manage also outside from the field,” and he’s going to point out to the player that he’s falling down a bit on the “outside from the field” part. While he might not actually care what Jorginho or Dunga thinks, the fact that they’re the people who can dump him from national team for good might go a ways towards sorting Adriano out.

Oh, and speaking his off-field antics: According to Italian “TV celebrity” Nora Amile, Adriano was simply being a gentleman and defending her when he got into that fight Sunday night. Why, he’s a saint, that Adriano! (And, oh look at that — by speaking out, Nora got herself some press. Funny out that works.)