5 players who changed positions after graduating to senior level football

Youth football is the level where footballers are allowed to make their mistakes, identify their best qualities and experiment with their place on the pitch to find one that best complements their strengths. So, it’s not uncommon for players to switch their preferred positions at some point during their career.The most common shifts include full-back to center-back, winger to midfielder or wide player to striker. Some, however, are more drastic than others, they involve completely different roles and these players have gone on to achieve quite a bit in their changed positions since.While some were influenced by their parents to change, others found it to be the right choice in their development as players. Either way, we were lucky they did because it would be hard to imagine some of these players in the roles that they started off with.

#1 Gianluigi Buffon

The Italian custodian has grown to legendary status in his role at Juventus not only between the sticks but also as captain. He could be considered among the illustrious list of best goalkeepers the world has seen having achieved cult status for both his nation and his club.

The now 37-year-old, however, wasn’t always a goalkeeper. His initial days as a football player were spent playing in midfield for a small Italian club called Perticata and later in Parma’s youth system.

What changed then? The 12-year old Gigi watched Cameroon in action at the 1990 World Cup in Italy and their then goalkeeper Thomas N’Kono captured him and spurred him towards what seemingly would be his destiny. In fact, Buffon was idolised the Cameroonian so far as to name his first-born after him – Louis Thomas. But that wasn’t the only mitigating factor.

Goalkeeping ran in the family for the Italian. His father Adriano been coaxing the young boy to try his luck in goal. He thought his son had talents that were not being utilised in midfield, and how he would be proved right. Gigi also told The Guardian in an interview about the strong arms that ran in his family. His mother was a discus thrower, his two older sisters were volleyball players, his grandfather’s cousin was A.C. Milan goalkeeper Lorenzo Buffon and he also followed a bit of tennis.

He had all the initial makings of a solid goalkeeper, but the Cameroon keeper’s heroics were the turning point for Italy’s 2006 World Cup winning captain.

What might have been if Buffon had decided to stay a midfielder is a question most Italian or Juve fans might not want to find out.

#2 Fernando Torres

El Nino may not have found his form of old back, but he seems to be a new man playing at his boyhood club Atletico Madrid. We’ve seen him hit his heights and sink to lows. But anyone who had the chance to witness Fernando Torres at his peak would pose no questions about his quality as a striker.

He started playing football as a child playing in the role of a goalkeeper aged about 7. He wanted to emulate his elder brother Ismy who played in goal and that pushed Torres to take up the position as well. His career as a shot-stopper never went professional though, because of one particular incident as he recalls in an interview with Sky Sports.

He said: “I wanted to be like him (Ismy), so I start playing as a goalkeeper, until I break my teeth doing a save. And my mother said ‘you want to play football, no more as a goalkeeper’”.

So it would be fair to say that Nando can thank his mum for the numerous trophies he won as a striker so far in his career. He could also thank anime show Captain Tsubasa, the characters from which he was inspired. When he rounded off the 10-year mark, he was growing into the lethal striker we saw later as he scored 55 goals in a season for a team named Rayo 13 and was subsequently picked up by Atletico Madrid.

#3 Thibaut Courtois

At the level of kids football, the Under-9s and the Under 11s there is hardly ever a fixed position for any player, including the goalkeeper. Having decided at the age of 5 to pick football as his sport of choice, straying away from volleyball – the sport most of his family was affiliated with.

Belgian football does not allow children to play organised football unless they are at least six years of age but through some nagging and coaxing, Courtois and another friend were allowed into a local club Bilzen’s youth team where others were about 18 months older to them. He largely played left-back for them.

However, Courtois' talent stood out despite his otherwise clumsy nature being a right handed but left footed player. He was picked up by local club Racing Genk where again he played left-back in his initial days because he still hadn’t found a position that suited him best.

In an Under-9 tournament, his then coach Marcel Nies tried him out in goal and since then Thibaut Courtois has not looked back. He continued to play in outfield positions till the age of 12 but his abilities came to the fore best while playing between the sticks and he went on to win a number of accolades at youth level before being picked up by Chelsea and loaned out to Atletico Madrid.

#4 Kurt Zouma

Kurt Happy Zouma – yes that’s his real name – played in a couple of positions for Chelsea this season in the 14 appearances that he made for the senior side. His most memorable performance coming in the Capital One Cup final against Tottenham when he was deployed in midfield by Jose Mourinho despite being very much a central defender.

Zouma in the aftermath of that game said he was willing to do whatever the manager told him because that was what the team needed. He was brought to Chelsea from St. Etienne just ahead of last season but that wasn’t his firsts football club. He played at a smaller club roughly at League 2 level in France called Vaulx-en-Velin.

Zouma himself acknowledged through Chelsea’s official website that he didn’t start his career as a defender. He actually started in a more attacking position, he said: “When I started football at nine, I played right winger and also then striker.

“Since then, for 10 years, I have played defender. I was average height and then in one year I grew 17 centimetres. I became very tall suddenly and at first it was difficult, but after that I improved to be quick despite my tall size. I worked very hard.”

So it was his size that deterred him from taking up the position for the longer term but luckily for the Blues he’s shaping up to be quite a defender based on his few appearances for Chelsea so far.

However, you wouldn’t put it past the versatility-loving Mourinho to try and get the French defender to revert to his striking ways for the sake of better defensive stability.

#5 David De Gea

Photo Courtesy: Daily Mail

David de Gea is among the new breed of goalkeepers who are more than just shot stoppers but often come off their line to help out their defense as well. They wouldn’t be lost with the ball at their feet. While many goalkeepers can probably beat many amateurs for ball control with their feet, not many would have played striker till they were 14-years-old.

Not only was he a striker, he was his five-a-side team’s top scorer according to his then coach Jose Maria Cruz. He said: “You have to understand that he loved to play. Futbol sala (five-a-side football in Spain) has great value in improving technical aspects of the game. Watch how calm he is with the ball at his feet. It improves control, balance, composure in tight spaces, your confidence on the ball.”

De Gea chose to become a goalkeeper by the age of 7 but he didn’t regularly play the position despite his love for playing as shot-stopper. His father Jose was also a goalkeeper according to The Daily Mail and would regularly advise his son and discuss football with him.

With the young Spaniard is smack in the middle of strong rumours linking him with Real Madrid. If he does go there perhaps he could try out for striker when Rafa Benitez plays Iker Casillas in goal.