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None of us is alien to hyperbole. Especially in the contemporary media environment, footballers are often hyped up with words like 'wonderkid' or even 'great' which are all thrown around quite casually. As such, we encounter players who are overrated in terms of their quality quite frequently.
These days, a footballers' life is all about the extravaganza. Caught in the limelight and egged on by agendas, it is then no surprise that several of our iconic football players might have received way more adulation than is due.
Today, we take a look at 10 of the most overrated footballers in history.
Top 10 most overrated footballers in history
#10 Georgi Kinkladze
The playmaker Georgi Kinkladze is a cult hero but when you get down to facts, the former Manchester City man's claim to fame is mostly limited to a goal against Southampton, where he cut in from the right flank and beat 5 defenders before dinking the ball into the net. For a player whose style was likened to Diego Maradona, his record just doesn't hold up.
Though there were flashes of quality and he perhaps was one of the standout performers in an abysmal Manchester City side, he was sidelined later on due to his lack of fitness and contributed nothing defensively.
For all the ballads that are written about him, he has only played one season for Manchester City in the Premier League where he scored 4 goals. He later returned to the Premier League with Derby and Kinkladze scored a goal a piece in each of the three seasons with them before being relegated once again.
#9 Jack Wilshere
There was a time when England fans had thought they'd found in Jack Wilshere, the answer to all their midfield problems for years to come. However, in the long run, it is now clear that he was only flattering to deceive.
The Englishman's legacy is more or less entirely centred on one glorious performance at the Camp Nou where he came out on top against a Barcelona midfield that had Busquets, Xavi and Iniesta. While that's no mean feat, he has simply failed to replicate that in the following years.
The English media has a knack for overhyping young players and Wilshere was immediately anointed to the throne as the future of England. However, he started fading from thereon and with him being more of a presence in the infirmary than on the field and currently playing for West Ham United, you could say that Wilshere was one of the most overhyped players of this generation.
#8 Hulk
Hulk is perhaps one of the most overrated strikers in world football. With a penchant for pulling off the spectacular on occasion, the Brazilian gathered way more credit than was due over the brief stint of time when he was relevant.
After breaking onto the scene with Porto where he won a treble, Hulk was bought by Zenit St. Petersburg for a whopping €40 million. The team was arranged around him and Hulk had a season return of just 11 goals.
He constantly underperformed in the inferior Russian league but somehow managed to get Zenit €55 million when he moved to Chinese Super League side Shanghai SIPG. For all the hype that surrounded him at Porto, Hulk never reached those heights again even though he went on to become one of the highest paid footballers in the world.
#7 Joe Hart
Joe Hart has proved that he is an excellent shot-stopper on occasion. But any football fan who has followed his game over the last decade will know that much of the hype around him was simply puffed up.
Joe Hart has had a notorious streak of deflecting shots into dangerous areas and into the path of oncoming attackers. He has, too often, been found in absurd positions while dealing with crosses and corners.
The England side have been so desperate to see a world-class goalkeeper that when the former Manchester City man broke onto the scene, the media rolled out the red carpet and sang songs in praise of him. He was even considered as one of the best in the business and then gradually Hart himself proved that he is not worthy of that tag.
After being snubbed by Pep Guardiola due to his unreliability at City, he is now a free agent after having played last for Burnley in the Premier League.
#6 Adriano
Adriano was, going by pure talent, one of the most exciting forwards to watch at one point of time. With a left-foot that could score goals from anywhere on the pitch to dribbling skills that were nothing to joke about, the Brazilian's fall from grace had to do with his vagrant ways off the pitch.
Adriano was too much into gambling and debauchery off the pitch and that resulted in his game suffering greatly on it. Packing enough talent to be a regular feature on the Ballon d'Or podium, the Brazilian never came close to actually making it because of his lack of discipline.
His fall was difficult to stomach as it coincided with the death of his father and the player who was part of the magical attacking quartet with Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Kaka was soon reduced to a shadow of his former self.
#5 Ricardo Quaresma
Ricardo Quaresma was once touted to be the next Luis Figo. He was constantly labelled as the biggest Portuguese talent of the generation. However, Quaresma failed to deliver on that initial promise.
A player who can still pull off a stunning trick or cop an assist with a rabona, Quaresma was never short on natural talent. In fact, with the ball at his feet, it would be hard to find someone who can do all that Quaresma can.
After uninspiring stints at the likes of Barcelona and Inter Milan where his over indulgence and selfishness were consistently criticized, Quaresma was offloaded to Besiktas and though he has represented the national team regularly over the years, Quaresma never became one of the best in world football as he was widely expected to be.
#4 Robinho
Robinho was labelled as the successor to O Fenomeno the OG Ronaldo and seeing him flit past players on his best days was indeed a joy to watch. However, that joy was shortlived and the Brazilian never lived up to his talent or the hype around him.
His transfer to Real Madrid was supposed to be the move that took him to the pinnacle of world football and he was given the no. 10 shirt used till then by Luis Figo. He was the club's third highest scorer during his time there but never really blossomed into what he was expected to become.
After growing tired of not being given a contract extension and used as a bait to rope in Cristiano Ronaldo, Robinho left and was given another lease of life at Manchester City as they signed him for £32 million. After a decent debut season, he endured a difficult sophomore year and was later shipped off in the January transfer window.
The less we talk about Robinho and his life off the pitch, the better. It is safe to say that for a player who was expected to become a world beater, Robinho never even came close.
#3 Mario Balotelli
Maybe Mario Balotelli would have had a better career had he got better guidance. Or maybe not. The Italian international whose natural ability was phenomenal, squandered all the initial promise away due to his erratic behaviour and attitude problems.
He started off the last decade by even stating that he is the second-best player on the planet after Lionel Messi. However, as we come to the end of the decade, his one major achievement is scoring 2 goals for Italy in the 2012 Euro semi-finals.
Balotelli was trouble in whichever dressing room he inhabited, whether it be Manchester City's or Liverpool's or AC Milan's. At 29-years-old, Balotelli currently plies his trade for Serie A club Brescia and that is a good indicator of how far he has fallen.
Balotelli had enough quality and talent to be one of the best in the world and at 29 years of age, he is hardly even relevant right now.
#2 Roberto Carlos
Roberto Carlos has gone down as one of the legends of the game. He has scored some outrageous goals and had illustrious careers for club and country and of course, he has scored some absolutely unbelievable goals as well.
But in reality, Roberto Carlos was more of a winger than a fullback. He was a mediocre defender at best and the untouchable status is quite undue if you simply go by the merits of his game.
The hype around Roberto Carlos comes from the misconception that he was the first modern fullback who would shuttle back and forth down the wing and get involved in attack a lot more than any other fullback would.
Giacinto Facchetti was famous for doing it as early as the 60s and Amoros was a master of it in the 80s. However, lack of television coverage at the time meant that praise would go to Carlos instead. Roberto Carlos owes an awful lot to Ivan Helguera who used to do the defending for himself and a couple more players in that Real Madrid backline.
Roberto Carlos makes it to the list because he is often labelled as the best full back of all time. He simply was not.
#1 Pele
Before you start flipping desks and screaming at the computer screen, please hear me out. Pele is, ofcourse, an incredible player who has had an incredible career. But all those goal statistics, in close view, is quite dodgy and the greatness attributed to the name feels a bit extra.
The records state that Pele scored 1283 career goals in1363 games . However, what fails to be stated is that more than 500 of those were goals scored in 'unofficial' friendlies. That brings his actual total goal tally down to 757 goals in 812 games.
As exposed by a thread on Twitter,
Before 1971, Santos played in the Campeonato Paulista, which was a regional tournament as the Brazilian National League didn't exist yet. And you guessed it right 469 of this man's goals came against farmers even worse than an average French second division donnies.
Pele has been outperformed in each of his much celebrated World Cups. He wasn't even the most important player for Brazil when they wont he World Cup in 1966 and 1970. He played just one game in the 1962 World Cup and came off injured in the second and missed the rest of the tournament.
Pele scored 34 goals from 84 games in the top flight and that's not a goalscoring return that's worthy of the tag of the greatest player of all time.
You can decide for yourself now.
