Didn't Adriano have serious family issues that basically ruined his career?
Yeah, his dad died and he went into deep depression. Turning to partying and drinking to help him cope.
Mate, it is always something.
Someone's dad dies, someone's friend dies, someone's brother dies.
Some players have problems with taxes, with law, with kidnappers.
Puyol's father died in 2006 (he was on his job and a truck fell on him.):
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SPORT/football/11/04/spain.puyol/
Puyol didn't lose his mind or disappeared.
He was the Lion Puyol for the next 5-6 years after that for us, winning numerous La Ligas and Cls.
Not even once King Puyol had a dip in form or any on field problems after that.
Iniesta and his wife had huge problems (miscarriage) a few years ago.
Iniesta played somewhat weaker, but still played world-class and continued for years.
On the other hand, our legend Ronnie disappeared quite fast once he reached fame, and he was on his prime more or less for only 3-4 years (2002 and his first 3 years at Barca, 2003-2006):
Deco, our another Brasilian from that era, also disappeared heavily after a few years of world class form.
His problems were wife (a divorce) and who knows what.
But a guy turned into a shadow of himself virtually in 6 Months and never returned even close to his former level.
Romario was also a party animal in Cruijff's era in 90s.
My point is: majority of world class players will face:
-- either horrible injuries which could ruin them physically or in a psychological way
-- they will surely suffer love problems from time to time
-- they will probably suffer some tax and similar problems
-- maybe some criminals will ask them for money etc, it happens often
-- they will have problems with media and scandals no matter what they do
-- majority of players will lose their dad/mom/brother/a close friend between the age 20-30, it more or less happens to every person in the world, that's life
So, about Adriano and his dad, imo, those are just excuses.
You probably haven't watched him live.
But I remember jokes from his era, we all used to joke all the time: omg, this guy looks as if he just recorded a rap album and won 7 grammies and not like a football player.
Or: look at his attitude, he acts like a dick all the time and you get an impression that he thinks: "Man, I am too cool for this sport, I need to be a singer/rapper/actor or something. I need to quit this shit."
Adriano didn't "lose" it only because of his father.
He was a bomb all the time, you never knew what was going to happen next in his head:
In short: all players will face problems 1000s of problems because of money, fame, parties, girls, pregnancies, taxes, deaths in their family.
But Brasilians seem to lose head/calmness/focus too easily once when something goes wrong.
I am not saying that IT will exactly happen to Neymar.
But famous Brasilians are often bombs in locker-room, and Ney's celebrity lifestyle till now is more or less again strengthening this myth about Brasilian, partying and questionable long term careers.