Players Who were supposed to be the "Next big Thing" but weren't

Harry Palmr

I was just looking at an article about Monchi at Roma and Juan Iturbe was mentioned so googled him and saw much to my amazement that he played two games for Bournemouth in 15/16 season which clearly passed me by at the time. He is now just back to Roma from a loan in Mexico. I remember when he was at Porto (but loaned to Verona) and a big noise was being made about him, Conte at Juventus wanted him but Roma stepped in to nab him for about 20 million which was still a decent wedge back then. And then it all went horribly wrong, first season he couldn't get a regular place scoring twice in Seria A and once in Europe and then the loan to the Cherries Jan 2016 followed by Turin loan and Mexico where he hardly got a game. The only thing in his favour is that he is still only 25 and could rescue his career but it looks like it'll be at a pretty low level.

So who else was big for fifteen minutes or maybe not at all - please no one mention Freddy Adu - that's practically a cheat move!

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup

bojan is always the first name i think of when this question is posed. there was major hype for him when messi was becoming messi and the whispers were bojan was even better.

Will I Am Not

Martin Odegaard. Haven’t really heard anything about him since his big move to Madrid. Still only 19 but it hasn’t really planned out as expected.

Agent Coulson

Odegaard is probably set for life with that Madrid contract even if he never kicks a ball again at the decent level.


So football wise it may not work out for him however financially it has.

dinorebel

Ally Dick

fullstop

Terry Dixon!

pgj2015

ravel morrison

larrymiller

Ronaldo

crushproof

fullstop wrote: »

Terry Dixon!

Blast from the past there!!

Surely a classic example has to be Freddy Adu, incredible hype at the time. Also for us Champ Manager 01/02 fans, the prolific Cherno Samba.

Hammer Archer

fullstop wrote: »

Terry Dixon!

Feel so sorry for Dixon. He really could have been a great player but two dislocated kneecaps in a few years basically ended his career at a high level before he was out of his teens.

SureYWouldntYa

Jack Rodwell and Micah Richards were two guys making lots of impressive performances in the pl when young but ended up doing little in the prime of their careers

Pato had all the looks of a world class striker when he was first at Milan only to fade away since

Giovanni Dos Santos was promising at Barca for a time and didnt live up to his potential, ditto for Gai Assulin who came a few years after

JaMarcus

Deisler for me.

Succumbed to numerous injuries and depression in the end, retired early and set up a shop in his home village.

Was supposed to be the next Michael Ballack.

Trigger

Strictly from a United perspective Rodrigo Possebon and Giuseppe Rossi.. Both suffered horrible injuries in their teens, I’m not sure about Possebon but Rossi forged a decent enough career without ever hitting the heights expected of him

Mezcita

56 year old Freddy Adu.

thetimeisnow

Adnjan januzai

holy guacamole

Two players who were bought for world record fees in the 90s but never went on to achieve greatness: Gianluigi Lentini and Denilson.

In Lentini's case there were mitigating circumstances, he was involved in a serious car crash and although he recovered from his injuries he was never the same player again. He ended up moving down the divisions and spending what should have been his peak years at clubs like Cosenza and Canelli.

Denilson went to Betis for £20m + in the late nineties and did little to justify his transfer fee with the club being relegated in his second season there. Think he ended up in the Saudi Arabian league in the end.

Does anyone remember the name Sonny Pike? The little British kid who joined Ajax and was in McDonald's ads at aged just fourteen? Good article about him here.

thetimeisnow

Stephen Hughes

Super-Rush

Ross Barkley, Danny Wellbeck, Anthony Martial, Jack Wilshire, Theo Walcott.

Turtyturd

Luke Shaw...obviously has in some ways but not in football terms.

StringerBell

Ryan Babel.
Andy Carroll?
Lazar Markovic
Mario Balotelli
Memphis Depay
Alberto Aquilani
El Haj Diouff (however you spell his name) broke on to the scene at the WC, then nothing.
Mark Gonzalez


Varying degrees of next big thing to zero

Denilson (one of the Brazilians)
Pato
Alex

Hercule Poirot

I know he's still young but Renato Sanches should get a mention - he was a beast in Euro 2016 but has gone nowhere since then...

AidoEirE

Ricardo Quaresma, was supposed to be the next ronaldo and hit high heights for portugal.

Theres a player that was at QPR when in premier league. His name escapes me, was it Ravel Morrison?

Zapp Brannigan

AidoEirE wrote: »

Ricardo Quaresma, was supposed to be the next ronaldo and hit high heights for portugal.

Theres a player that was at QPR when in premier league. His name escapes me, was it Ravel Morrison?

Adel Taraabt?

Harry Palmr

They were both at QPR

retalivity

crushproof wrote: »

Blast from the past there!!

Surely a classic example has to be Freddy Adu, incredible hype at the time. Also for us Champ Manager 01/02 fans, the prolific Cherno Samba.

Tonton Zola Moukoko.

Seriously though, Michael Johnson for Man city.
Tipped as a future england captain. Still only 30, now works as an estate agent

AidoEirE

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

Adel Taraabt?

Thats the lad, so much potentional but seemed to have a real attitude problem

niallo27

Any championship manager fans remember Cherno Samba. He was 15 I think in the game and was the next big hope.

Talisman

There's a whole host of English players who failed to live up to the hype of their potential.

Paul Gascoigne
Jermaine Pennant
David Bentley
Richard Wright
Billy Kenny
Jody Morris
Lee Sharpe
Theo Walcott
Danny Cadamarteri
Michael Branch
Ross Barkley
Micah Richards
Michael Johnson
Jack Rodwell
Kieron Dyer
Andy Carroll
Dean Ashton
Seth Johnson
Robbie Fowler
Michael Owen

callaway92

Hercule Poirot wrote: »

I know he's still young but Renato Sanches should get a mention - he was a beast in Euro 2016 but has gone nowhere since then...

This is a complete myth...not sure why people say this so much.

Young player of the tournament was given to him solely based on his miracle deflected goal against Poland

dinorebel

Talisman wrote: »

There's a whole host of English players who failed to live up to the hype of their potential.

Paul Gascoigne
Jermaine Pennant
David Bentley
Richard Wright
Billy Kenny
Jody Morris
Lee Sharpe
Theo Walcott
Danny Cadamarteri
Michael Branch
Ross Barkley
Micah Richards
Michael Johnson
Jack Rodwell
Kieron Dyer
Andy Carroll
Dean Ashton
Seth Johnson
Robbie Fowler
Michael Owen

Dean Ashton was so unlucky with injuries he really looked to have everything.


The real missed English player was David Hirst he was the same era as Shearer and looked the better player but again injuries finished him.

Necro

niallo27 wrote:

Any championship manager fans remember Cherno Samba. He was 15 I think in the game and was the next big hope.

Had nothing on 03/04's Supat Rungratsamee. Legendary Thai striker who banged in 40/50 goals a season from the age of 16 upwards.

redzerdrog

Richie Partridge

martyos121

Jo, Diouf and Bebe come to mind immediately, as well as the “next Roy Keane”, Eric Djemba Djemba.

Bret Hart

Anthony le Tallec,Neil Mellor, Florent Sinama Pongolle,Bruno Cheyrou,Robinho,Macheda. Anderson,Wishere,Welbeck,Diouf, Liam Miller.

~Rebel~

In honor of his goal today... Lazar Markovic.

Talisman

Talisman wrote: »

There's a whole host of English players who failed to live up to the hype of their potential.

Paul Gascoigne

Guided England to the World Cup semis at 23 and Euro semis at 29? Played in the Premier League into his 30s? Recognised as.one of England's best players in recent decades?

Granted, he never went on to realise his full potential but many might say he was very much a "big thing".

Plague Maiden

Hernanes. He carved out a solid, title-winning career for himself in Italy, but huge things had been expected of him just before he moved to Europe but it never materialised.

S. Goodspeed

StringerBell wrote: »

Ryan Babel.
Andy Carroll?
Lazar Markovic
Mario Balotelli
Memphis Depay
Alberto Aquilani
El Haj Diouff (however you spell his name) broke on to the scene at the WC, then nothing.
Mark Gonzalez

Gonzalez (and possibly Mario) is the only one there who I think falls into the category of “next big thing, then nothing”. The rest were over rated, over paid for or just didn’t reach their potential but don’t think they were ever hyped as the “next big thing”. I’m still disappointed though by how average / bad “Speedy Gonzalez” turned out!

Gbear

Yoann Gourcuff.

The next Zidane, and for a few years he really looked the part, scoring worldies dribbling past 3 or four, getting into the French side, but then it all petered out a bit. He's 32 now and still had a good career in Ligue 1, but in another universe he just captained France to that world cup win.

Gbear

S. Goodspeed wrote: »

Gonzalez (and possibly Mario) is the only one there who I think falls into the category of “next big thing, then nothing”. The rest were over rated, over paid for or just didn’t reach their potential but don’t think they were ever hyped as the “next big thing”. I’m still disappointed though by how average / bad “Speedy Gonzalez” turned out!

Babel definitely looked class. In that first season for Liverpool even, he looked showed a fair bit of quality. Great pace, strength, shot like a ballistic missile, decent dribbler. Scored some crackers, and got a few important goals in the CL, as I recall.

I think he was just not very intelligent, and ended up being a bit of a one trick pony.

That whole Dutch youth side are probably contenders. Drenthe, Elia were others who promised much and delivered little.

major bill

niallo27 wrote: »

Any championship manager fans remember Cherno Samba. He was 15 I think in the game and was the next big hope.

01/02 Jonas Lunden of Goteborg, a bargain at 250k , him and kim kallstrom (BK Hacken) were wonder kids , Kim went on to play for Lyon while Lunden went on and remained in swedish leagues.

marklazarcovic

Mido.. fm legend

mugsymugsy

Francis Jeffers - arsenal even paid crazy money to Everton for him

Talisman

Deleted User wrote: »

Guided England to the World Cup semis at 23 and Euro semis at 29? Played in the Premier League into his 30s? Recognised as.one of England's best players in recent decades?

Granted, he never went on to realise his full potential but many might say he was very much a "big thing".

A "big thing" for the English tabloids but that was about it - He was a phenomenal youth talent but accomplished nothing with it. He dragged Tottenham to the 1991 FA Cup Final where he self destructed. The other highlight of his career was scoring a goal against Scotland at Euro 96.

Gascoigne should have been remembered as one of the greats of the game, sadly he couldn't handle the pressure.

Too Tough To Die

Sergio Canales

Richard Hillman

Talisman wrote: »

There's a whole host of English players who failed to live up to the hype of their potential.

Michael Owen

Michael Owen won the Balon D'or ffs :pac:

Talisman

Talisman wrote: »

A "big thing" for the English tabloids but that was about it - He was a phenomenal youth talent but accomplished nothing with it. He dragged Tottenham to the 1991 FA Cup Final where he self destructed. The other highlight of his career was scoring a goal against Scotland at Euro 96.

Gascoigne should have been remembered as one of the greats of the game, sadly he couldn't handle the pressure.

I remember Gascoigne as a great player in the 90s. I think many do. It's not limited to tabloids.

One could say he was a fat kid addicted to Mars Bars who went on to star in a run to the World Cup and Euro semis and had a lucrative career, although he was prone to injury and played for clubs that had limited success. He certainly did not maximise his talents, but I disagree with the idea that he was never a "big thing".

HalloweenJack

Lulinha is a name I remeber seeing around a lot, nothing ever seems to have come of him. He might have been more of an FM wonder.

Kerlon was another one. He had a rough time with injuries, though.

Keirrision was one I had high hopes for. I don't quite know where that went wrong for him.

Sheridan81

I think if Gazza was a big thing, then so is Balotelli.

Javier Pastore, the next Kaka.
Valeri Bojinov, the next Stoichkov.
David Bentley, the next Beckham.
Davide Santon, the next Bergomi.

Andrea Ranocchia came along at the same time as Bonucci and they were tipped to be a great partnership for Italy a la Nesta and Cannavaro in their early days, but it didn't work out so much for him.

Robinho and Diego also never lived up to the hype of their Santos days, although both had good careers.

Davide Petrucci, the next Totti.
https://www.givemesport.com/1266875-what-happened-to-the-youngster-dubbed-the-new-totti-who-signed-for-man-utd-in-2008

From an Irish perspective, Stephen Ireland outshone Robinho at Man City one season, was named Manchester player of the year...then nothing.

Nerdlingr

Julen Guerrero

Spain's bright hope in the mid 90's. Stayed at Bilbao his whole career. Never moved.
Never quite had the career he could or should have had.

Sheridan81

Sheridan81 wrote: »

I think if Gazza was a big thing, then so is Balotelli.

Not sure I get the analogy. It seems to be just putting the names of footballers together.

I think if Gascoigne was not a big thing, then no English midfielder ever was a big thing. Or at least this side of 1966.