Adriano Leite Ribeiro

He is a real stormer, he has unbelievable shots on target and superb goals. He is the crown prince of Ronaldo.

Adriano Leite Ribeiro (born February 17, 1982 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), known simply as Adriano, is a Brazilian footballer who plays for Inter Milan in the Italian Serie A.
Adriano is a burly player known for his agility, strength, balance, and ball control. His kicks are strong and accurate, though sometimes lacking technical execution, he is said to have one of the most powerful left feet in football. He began his career in the youth squad of Flamengo, and played in the pro squad between 1999 to 2001.
He came to international fame in his first appearance for Inter Milan, when he scored against Real Madrid in the 2001 Santiago Bernabeu Trophy with a powerful free kick in his first eight minutes on the pitch. With Inter already boasting first-class strikers, they loaned him out to ACF Fiorentina in 2002. In the summer of 2002, a 2-year co-ownership deal with Parma F.C. of the player was agreed. In Parma, he formed one of the most impressive striking duos of Serie's A last decade with Adrian Mutu. They each scored more than 15 goals with assists from each other.
He returned to the Nerazzurri in 2004 and signed 4 and a half year contract and has since been an asset to the team. He had scored a total of 15 goals in his 16 appearances during the 2004-05 season. From 11 July 2004 through 25 June 2005, Adriano had scored an impressive total of 40 goals. They had come from an assortment of matches (28) including appearances in: Serie A, Coppa Italia & Champions League games for Inter in 2004-05; Copa America, South American World Cup qualifying, and Confederations Cup games for Brazil.
He visited Bahrain with his club and won a friendly match against Bahrains national team with a score of 6 to 1 goals in the 6th of January 2007. Two of the goals were scored by the Emperor himself. He met many of bahrains kind people, as he mentioned to reporters in the Gazzeta dello sport: "Bahrain has many nice people, I really enjoyed spending my time there and hope to visit it again some day". He mentioned a story which involved a drawing of him that was done by one of the bahraini civilians, which he liked and kept as a memory of visiting bahrain, alonside the insident which led to three bahraini fans arrest because of breaking into the stadium, which showed how the Emperor was loved in his visit to the Middle Eastern country.
Adriano's future at Inter Milan has been in doubt due to lengthy slumps in both 2006 and 2007, fueled by questions regarding his work ethic. He was caught partying at nightclubs twice in the 2006/07 season- the first one coming in October of 2006 when he asked Brazilian coach Dunga to leave him off the national teamsheet, which caused Dunga to call for Adriano to "change his behavior" and "focus on football", and the second one coming in February of 2007, where Inter manager Roberto Mancini parked him on the bench for Inter's Champions League Round of 16 match against Valencia following his late night partying while celebrating his 25th birthday. He has been the subject of transfer speculation, with Fenerbahce, coached by his idol Zico, being one possible destination.
Adriano, with 36 caps and 25 goals to his credit, is often considered as the long-term successor to Ronaldo in the Brazilian national team. During the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup, Adriano was named Player of the Tournament and received the Golden Boot Award as the competition's leading scorer with five goals. In the final, he steered Brazil to an unforgettable victory. Two outstanding goals helped Brazil to beat Argentina 4-1, the first one coming from a blistering left-footed shot in the 11th minute. The second came as a result of a Cicinho cross, with Adriano heading it in. This goal was also impressive because Brazil's players passed the ball among themselves for more than one minute, with most of the players participating in the build-up to the goal.
Adriano was called up to the Brazilian national side ahead of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. He lined up alongside Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Kaká in what was expected to be an impressive attacking foursome, touted in the press as the "Magic Quartet." Brazil were heavy favourites to lift the cup. He opened his World Cup account on June 18 2006, scoring the first goal in a 2-0 win against Australia. He also scored the second goal in a 3-0 victory against upstart Ghana. The goal against Ghana was Brazil's 200th goal in World Cup history. (Pelé scored the 100th in the 1970 World Cup Final.)
Brazil met France in the World Cup quarterfinals, and managed only one shot on goal in the entire match, whilst France, inspired by a resurgent Zinedine Zidane, managed to grab a goal in the 57th minute to put themselves through to the final. Adriano started the game on the bench, and only came on as a substitute after France had scored.
Despite scoring twice (once against Ghana, once against Australia), Adriano's World Cup campaign was considered a disappointment, as he had just five shots all tournament, while Brazil as a whole were unable to find the right mix between defence and attack.
On February 6, 2007, Adriano was called up to the Brazil national football team by new head coach Dunga for a friendly against Portugal.

Inter
17 February 1982
Source: Wikipedia