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Once in a while, a superb young talent comes through the youth ranks and heads straight into the first team without even a question of whether they'll struggle to handle the transition - some players are just naturally gifted.
This is the case with the following ten players in this list, all of whom had incredibly bright stars and were tipped to do great things, but never quite managed it.
Whether it be due to injury, lack of consistency, or external factors rooted in their personal life that hampered their rise to the top, all of these players are now in the dumps. Though some are further down than others.
There may still be time for some of them to revitalise their career, as not all of them are over and done with, but the chances are slim. Besides, with player wages so high nowadays, no club wants to risk shelling out a fortune on a player that might not make the grade.
Also see : Womens World Cup Bracket, Copa America Standings, Gold Cup Standings
#10 Andre Schurrle
Andre Schurrle started out at Mainz in the Bundesliga, where he progressed through their youth sides before finally making it into the first team in the summer of 2009. He was 18 years old at the time and already being eyed by the top teams in Europe for his impressive displays in the first division.
Before long, he would be snapped up, and it was Bayer Leverkusen who made their move, splashing out £7.5m on the 20-year-old, two years after his first team debut in 2011.
Here, he would improve considerably and become an almost permanent fixture in Leverkusen's first team. Schurrle's speed and dribbling ability out on the left flank was what singled him out as one to watch; he had a way of skipping past a defender that made it look effortless. Soon, the scouts made their presence known.
Chelsea took a gamble on Schurrle in 2015 by paying around £20m. He had just won the World Cup with Germany in the summer of 2014, so was now hot property. However, his time at Stamford Bridge could have been better. He never quite got into the swing of things and was more used to watching the action unfold from the bench than being out amongst it on the field.
A year on and Schurrle was on the move again, this time to Wolfsburg, which is where he flourished the most, and by the second season played around 29 matches, scoring nine goals and assisting three in the process. He had regained the form he lacked with Chelsea.
But perhaps the worst mistake Schurrle made at this point was opting to join Borrusia Dortmund in the summer of 2016. He had it good at Wolfsburg, but took one step too many and found himself surplus to requirements at Dortmund, playing less than half the fixtures, with a stats tally not worth even discussing.
A recent loan spell to Fulham would damage Schurrle's reputation considerably after he was relegated from the Premier League with them. Although he played in around 24 matches, he was average at best in the majority of them and was one of the many reasons behind why Fulham slumped into the relegation zone to begin with.
He will return to Dortmund soon, but there's little hope of him reviving his career now.
#9 Marko Marin
Once tipped to be a star at Chelsea, Marko Marin is now languishing in the Serbian league with Red Star Belgrade.
Marin was hot property back in 20112 when Chelsea signed him from Werder Bremen for £7.5m, and many backed him to become a great first team option for the Blues. But things didn't pan out that way at all, and any time he would be brought on a substitute, the impact he had on the game was minimal.
He was used in a variety of positions at Stamford Bridge ranging from attacking midfielder to the left and right wing, but Marin failed to impress in any of them. Chelsea sent him out on loan to Sevilla, Fiorentina, Anderlecht, and Trabzonspor before he was eventually sold to Olympiacos for £2.5m.
Marin made the switch to Red Star Belgrade a couple of seasons later and is now at his lowest ebb. Is there any coming back for the 30-year-old now?
#8 Ryan Babel
After Ryan Babel graduated from Ajax's youth academy in 2001, he was expected by many people to do big things, and, sure enough, within three years of him being in the first team, he was bought by Liverpool for £15m.
Babel's time at Anfield was largely a success and he developed rapidly within a side that was generous to the youngster, giving him advice and generally helping him out when possible. As a result, he blossomed into a very good player. But, as with everything, what goes up must come down.
It seemed as if Babel ran out of steam and exhausted all of his ability by the time he had reached his early twenties, as he began to slip down the rankings at Liverpool quite quickly at one point.
Hoffenheim took him off Liverpool's hands in January 2011 for a mere £6m, a reflection of how much he had declined since he joined the Reds four years ago. But six months with the German club was all he would get before he was handed to Ajax on a free transfer.
From here, Babel would be passed around four different clubs before finally landing with Fulham in January of this year for just under £2m. He was brought in to try and save the struggling London side from sliding into the relegation zone, but despite a few positive performances, he was mostly unimpressive.
Babel recently featured for the Netherlands in a European Qualifier match, however, which definitely a big step up from the level he's been playing at in recent years, but many believe it to be a one-off. Babel will play in the Championship for Fulham next year if he doesn't jump ship.
#7 Ganso
Ganso was in the Santos side at the same time as Neymar back in 2008. Neymar was undoubtedly the better of the two, but Ganso looked as if he had a huge amount of potential as a midfielder and could have possibly followed Neymar to Barcelona, given the form he was in at that time.
However, his consistency dwindled over time and instead of a big-money move to Europe, Ganso switched to another Brazilian side, Sao Paolo for £8m in 2012. He remained with the club for four whole years before eventually heading to La Liga, but it wasn't with Barcelona like his former teammate; instead, it was mid-table side Sevilla.
Ganso was pretty lacklustre on the whole, which led to his loan move to Ligue 1 side AC Amiens in the summer of 2018. He returned in January of this year somehow even worse than before.
Ganso would be shipped out to Fluminense on a free transfer a day after he returned to Sevilla from his loan, perhaps signalling the end of his time in any top flight football in Europe.
What could have been...
#6 Federico Macheda
Federico Macheda was just 17 years old when he came on as a substitute for Manchester United against Aston Villa. The score was 2-1 to Villa, and it was a must-win game for United in the final sprint for the Premier League title. Cristiano Ronaldo pulled a goal back to level the score but that wouldn't be enough -- a goal had to be scored for United; it was now or never.
The ball fell to Macheda who had the ball knocked away from his feet, but it came to Ryan Giggs who passed it back to the Italian who had now found a bit of space. He flicked the ball to his side after receiving it, sending the defender the wrong way, then curled it round the keeper's outstretched arm and into the far corner of the net.
Old Trafford exploded. The ground's moniker -- "The Theatre of Dreams" -- seemed very much appropriate at this moment in time. Macheda was instantly a United hero.
However, after he scored that wondergoal on his debut, expectations were sky-high. This was probably the crux of his downfall; his inability to handle the pressure caused him to plummet to perhaps the lowest depths a football can go.
In January 2011, Macheda embarked on one of many loan deals to Sampdoria, where he was mediocre at best. The same can be said for his spells with Stuttgart, Queen's Park Rangers, Doncaster, and Birmingham, too. He failed to revive his stagnating career and was ultimately sold to Cardiff City on a free transfer in July 2014.
His time at Cardiff would prove just as miserable. He was given an opportunity to prove himself on loan at Nottingham Forest but returned the same as he had been. In August 2016, his contract would be terminated and he was made a free agent.
By December, he had joined Italian side Novara in the third tier of Italian football, where he stayed for two years before moving on to Greek side Panathinaikos on a free transfer in September 2018.
Despite it seeming like Macheda has been around forever, he's still only 27 years old. It's safe to say that he never quite realised his potential, though, and has plunged into obscurity, which is probably how it will stay until he retires.
#5 Yoann Gourcuff
Gourcuff was highly regarded during his start with Stade Rennais in Ligue 1 and earned himself a £4m move to AC Milan, who were a club at their peak during this time, which made the move a very special one indeed.
Anyone who followed world football at that time will have heard of the great things Yoann Gourcuff was capable of and probably expected him to become the next top French midfielder, possibly reaching the same level as Zinedine Zidane.
However, his form took a hit half-way through his second season with Milan and he was given the opportunity to play for Bordeaux on loan to recover. But after returning to Milan in the summer of 2009, the signs were not looking good for Gourcuff who had a very bland spell with Bordeaux and showed little signs of improvement.
And yet, shockingly, Bordeaux signed Gourcuff for £12m that same summer, clearly having seen something in him than others hadn't. It was a good job they took the gamble, too, as Gourcuff's performances in Ligue 1 were superb. So much so, that Lyon paid £20m for him the following season and signed him up on a five-year contract.
Gourcuff's ability waned over the next five years until eventually he was released from his contract in 2015. He returned to Stade Rennais a couple of months later, before switching to Dijon after that, but it was clear he didn't have much left to give. As a result, he was released from his contract with Dijon last January and is currently without a club.
#4 Yevhen Konoplianka
Yevhen Konoplianka was once tipped to become the next big thing out of Ukraine after his move to Sevilla in the summer of 2015 from Dnipro. He had been watched by scouts from top clubs across Europe, but they were apprehensive about signing him for he was prone to bouts of inconsistency.
He showed this negative trait at Sevilla and struggled to get into the first team, resulting in him being loaned out to Schalke the following summer. His spell in the Bundesliga was a lot better than his time in La Liga, as he seemed to fit the style of play, along with the speed of the division.
Schalke would buy him for £11.5m once his loan spell ended, and whilst he had a promising start at his new club, he soon became anonymous out on the pitch, resulting in him slipping down the ranks. He now tends to warm the bench and occasionally get brought on later into games, but that's the extent of it.
#3 Jack Wilshere
Everybody already knows about Jack Wilshere's descent from a key player at Arsenal to a bench-warmer for West Ham, and the main reason behind his fall has been due to injuries. Constant setbacks have been a theme throughout Wilshere's career and it doesn't seem like an issue that's going to go away any time soon.
Mocked for being "made of glass" during his last few years at Arsenal, Wilshere was loaned out to Bournemouth in 2016 and showed a fair bit of promise, but once again, injury struck and he was sidelined for several weeks. He returned to Arsenal with the knowledge that he was probably going to be sold.
And he was - to West Ham last summer, on a free transfer. He has only played five matches for the Hammers this season and is currently sidelined with an ankle injury (surprise). It's safe to say that Wilshere's days of being a key player at a top club are over, along with the chances of him getting into the England squad, especially with some of the talent in there right now.
#2 Luciano Vietto
Luciano Vietto was thought to be the next big thing when he arrived at Atletico Madrid from Villarreal for £18m back in 2015. He would spend a season on loan at Sevilla shortly after but failed to really make much of an impact, which was the beginning of the end for the striker.
A brief six-month loan at Valencia was meant to prove he still had it, but in reality, it just exacerbated the worries about his declining ability. He went from having a market value of around £15 to a mere £5m within two seasons - and he was only 24 years old at the time.
His latest loan spell with Fulham was probably the last-ditch effort from Atletico to see whether Vietto was as good as they first thought, but the London club would be relegated from the Premier League. Vietto is to return to Atletico at the end of June, but whether he'll stay there now is unlikely.
#1 Alexandre Pato
Surely everyone remembers when Alexandre Pato broke out onto the football scene with AC Milan in the late noughties. He was only a teenager at the time and yet he was scoring goals for fun at one of the biggest clubs in the world. He attracted attention from virtually every top club across Europe but AC Milan would not sell, whatever the price, and at the time, you could see why.
But then, all of a sudden, things began to fall apart. His goals dried up and his form dwindled. Pato was swiftly benched and forced to watch as other strikers did the job he was supposed to do without any problems. As a result, his confidence simply dissolved and things would never be the same from then on.
He was sold to Corinthians in 2013 for £13m, and from there, his career has been in a steep decline - save for a brief six-month loan spell at Chelsea where he flopped. He was recently playing for TJ Tianhai in China,, but has now returned to Brazil to play for Sao Paulo.
