How Brazilian footballers ruin their careers

In the game of football, different nations have different unique types of players they produce. The Spanish are the skilful passers, the Italians are the long-suffering defenders, the Germans are the good team players and great goalkeepers, the Africans provide strength, Asians good pace, Brazilians????

Dribbling, but not just dribbling, pretty much everything… pure entertainment. Brazil have produced quite a number of generational talents that gave football a good name, from Pele to Garrinchia, down to the Rivaldos, the Nazarios, Gauchos and we're currently tasting the sweetness of the likes of Neymar, Coutinho, Firmino and so on.

There have been quite a number of these Brazilian players that actually made a good long successful career but most of them go elite for a while and then shutdown, why?

Football is a very interesting game, but it is very much unforgiving. You can possess the greatest talent and you can be loved and cherished by millions of fans around the world, but if you don't consistently play by the rules and put out good performances, you become a goner and there are certain things one need to have on the palm of their hands to not fall victim.

Three players, Ronaldinho, Adriano and Robinho are the case study for this article. These three players have quite a number of things in common (well aside from the letter O ending their names). They're Brazilians, and are very talented. But aside from these good traits, they have some really common bad traits as well which ended up playing a role in limiting their bright careers. The deadliest if them all, distractions.

Distractions have many branches ranging from partying, lust, drug and alcohol usage, laziness and all other things that limits a player from focusing on carrying his career to the next level. Ronaldinho could easily be named as one of the greatest footballers of all time, he had no match during his time, he was a king on the pitch and can do almost everything, scintillating and mesmerizing, he was a giver of entertainment.

He won the Ballon d'Or twice but then suddenly, his career died. One of the major things that made Dinho have such a short time at the top was his love for partying. The Brazilian had a penchant for late night stuff in clubs and bars and aside from being a distraction to his career, this also affected his physicality and the once-best-player-in-the-world became just like every other average player despite his talent showing glaringly on the pitch.

Just like with Ronaldinho, partying was also a major lifestyle for both Robinho and Adriano but Robinho's added a case of total unseriousness. Robinho was dubbed the “next Pele” at a time but then fell off the pecking order. The star was a Jewel for Real Madrid but then sometimes he goes crazy on the pitch and would attempt skills that kill the team's morale and attack.

He was unserious. He left Real Madrid for Manchester City and totally forgot who he signed for saying “I accepted to join Chelsea” in a press conference before being corrected that it was Manchester City. He later admitted he didn't know who he signed for. Robinho off-the-pitch wasn't good either as he was once accused of raping a girl. He just couldn't focus on his footballing career which looked to be very promising at a time.

Adriano, probably the unluckiest among these three. Partying was also part of his lifestyle as he was caught numerous times. But Adriano was raw talent, deadly in front of goal and a good holder of the ball with his glorious left foot. In 2006, after being caught partying, Brazil coach Dunga advised him to regain his motivation for playing football as he's a talented star but Adriano was not ready to take heed. Although he helped Inter win four consecutive Serie A titles, his behavior was getting out of hand and he was loaned out to Santos where he still didn't change. He moved to Flamengo and then back to Italy with Roma, that was when it all got the worst.

Adriano stopped scoring and was either getting injured or partying in a nearby nightclub. Adriano became a total embarrassment as he now takes a lot of alcohol and reportedly does drugs too, these stuff got him out of shape as a footballer and definitely put an end to his career. However, teammates of Adriano's suggest that it was the death of his father that put him in such a State, he wasn't always like that but he lost all his passion for the beautiful game after his Father's demise, poor poor Adriano.

Partying is a lifestyle among most of these Brazilian players as we see currently in players like Neymar, Dani Alves and co. this lifestyle, if not done moderately can be of great harm to a player's football career as with Ronaldinho, Adriano and Robinho. Also, these footballers should learn to put their careers first and not get carried away by these silly distractions as it's glaring that most players who stayed long at the top put more focus on their career.