On his day, there were few footballers on the planet who match Adriano.

The Brazilian powerhouse was known as 'The Emperor' at Inter Milan having joined the Italian giants as no more than a wide-eyed teenager.

Having soared through the ranks of Brazilian football, Adriano was plucked from obscurity by the European superpower, quickly making a name for himself at the San Siro.

His eye for goal was uncanny, but it was the power he could generate from a shot that truly made him unique.

Adriano had one of the most powerful left feet the game has ever known and it took a brave man to get in the way of one of his sweetly struck efforts.

However, Adriano's career never truly hit the heights it had once promised as he fell into issues with drink and fitness in the latter years.

The arrival of Jose Mourinho heralded the beginning of the end for Inter's Emperor, but, in a recent heart-wrenching interview with the The Players Tribune, Adriano revealed that he had fallen out of love with the game long before then.

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"Nine days later (after the Copa America win in 2004), I was back in Europe with Inter," he began.

"I got a call from home. They told me my father had died. Heart attack."

"I don’t really want to talk about it, but I will tell you that after that day, my love for football was never the same. He loved the game, so I loved the game.

"It was that simple. It was my destiny. When I played football, I played for my family. When I scored, I scored for my family. So when my father died, football was never the same."

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"I was across the ocean in Italy, away from my family, and I just couldn’t cope with it. I got so depressed, man.

"I started drinking a lot. I didn’t really want to train. It had nothing to do with Inter. I just wanted to go home."

"Not all injuries are physical, you understand?"

Credit: The Football Terrace

Adriano was often criticised in the media for his decline but after hearing the reasoning behind it, many may owe the Brazilian an apology.

Having come from nothing to the top of the world, the man wasn't even given enough time and space to morn the death of his father.

Then, after years of struggle, Adriano gave up when Mourinho entered the frame. He returned to Brazil for national duty and never went back to Inter.