FM Legends | Adriano

By: Marco | March 11th, 2009

I started this category to talk about the legends of your careers. The players that rescued the team from certain relegation, carried them on their backs and eventually led you to glory. Maybe they just played their hearts out on the save and you thus fell in love with them. Maybe it’s the amount of goals, red cards or performances they put in. Either way everyone has a player they love because of FM and thus you love them in real life.

Adriano…where to begin. Well in real life he has soooo much raw talent and potential that has been wasted. First he is at Inter. They will always fail. Second he likes to party and don’t make me google the Adriano party pics. Third he is Brazilian and living in Milan. Besides Kaka being well Kaka most Brazilians love to party. You are in the fashion capital of the world for Dunga’s sake. In real life he may have his problems and I may eternally hate everything that Inter stands for but I have to give props to Adriano.

So let’s go back in time. My first season in charge of my beloved hometown team and pretty men of the world Palermo was a difficult one. I immediately sold off the cheap dirty sluts Barzagli and Zaccardo and managed to get some great cash money off of them. With around 50M to spend on transfers I tried my best and I managed to build up a decent squad while not wasting a load of money. We finished in 6th that season thanks to Amauri. Eventually though he left for Milan, the only team I would let him go to, for 27M. I finished the next season in 7th but I knew that I had to strengthen the squad since Budan, Vannucchi (spelling?), Miccoli and Cavani weren’t going to match up to the top four. While looking at the top squads I noticed something amazing. Adriano had a few weeks until his contract ran out and I could swoop in like a black, pink and golden eagle and steal him from the scum.

That I did. Gave him a nice four year contract worth well let’s say a lot and one of the highest paid players in Italy. I remembered the days of earlier versions with Ivan Klasnic dominating the league and I wanted to relive that glory. Well I was in for a treat. First season with us he scored 23 goals and a load of assists. Life had been given back to Palermo. Long story short he essentially carried us for the next six seasons. Scored over 140 goals while in the pink shirt and won us three CL trophies, four Scudetto, One Italian Cup, Two European Super Cups, One Italian Super Cup and one Euro trophy. Class eh? Sure I had a great team behind him but he was the one that scored the most goals. Pure class.

The fondest memories happened during his last season with us before unfortunately departing to Real Madrid for 204M euros (I wanted to get as much money as possible and I knew he had to leave). We were matched up against Arsenal in the second knockout round. First match it ended 1-1 at London. They had to come down to Sicily though and it was a different story. Adriano scored a brilliant hat-trick but we were still tied for a combine 4-4 score. With three minutes to go in extra time he took the ball from the midfield and ran Kaka style down the middle past three midfielders, fooled the last defender and chipped it over the keeper to give us the win. Needless to say I, wearing one of my sport jackets and Palermo scarves (wore them all day for good luck), jumped up and started yelling. It was brilliant. I had won it before but that was just….amazing. We went on into the finals against Manchester United and beat them 1-0 with guess who getting the winning goal. Adriano bagged a goal in the 59th minute off of a rebound from the corner.

So that is a little insight into the story of Adriano. He accumulated more goals than legend Ivan Klasnic and practically won us more silverware. Sure I love Ivan but Adriano claims the number one striker of all time for me in FM. I actually had Ivan and Adriano for a while (the latter left while Ivan stayed for a few seasons) and enjoyed the goals. Living those glory days…nothing like it. Earlier this year Inter beat Milan in the derby through a blatant handball. We all know it. We were watching the game with plenty of other people, all of the Milanistas, and I commented “I had him on my Palermo squad for five seasons. Guy was class but you can tell they are playing him wrong.” needless to say I got some very strange stares and threatening looks. Good times.

Even if he has no class, plays for the scum of the earth and will never set foot in the Renzo Barbera wearing the pink jersey he will always be one of my favorites. I decided to blow some transfer kitty away and spent 40M on him and I was very surprised that he accepted the contract. Maybe another chapter in the book will be added? With Cavani, Miccoli, Keirrison, Quique and Lanzafame he will have some strong competition. He may not score 40 goals but he will be playing for the right team again.