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Sometimes, a precocious talent arrives on the football scene and takes away the breath of onlookers and critics while evoking comparisons with legends of the sport.
Often, these football players have humble beginnings before they are 'spotted' by the biggest clubs in the world. These clubs sign such players in the hopes that they will one day blossom into glittering finished products and usher in an era of unprecedented success.
However, more often than not, that doesn't happen because of a multitude of reasons. Football players tipped for greatness often lose their focus by letting their initial success get into their heads. There are countless such examples in the annals of football history.
Top ten football players who never lived up to their potential
Young and talented football players can also see their careers disintegrate if they happen to join a big club at the wrong time. The sudden surge of expectations and the hype around them can get too overwhelming, and these players end up imploding long before they are able to reach the promised land.
These football players then tend to move to pastures anew, but 'sustained' success remains elusive. On that note, let us have a look at ten such football players who had the world at their feet only for them to throw it all away and slip down the path of mediocrity into a bottomless crevasse of anonymity.
Without further ado, let's get started.
#10 Robinho
Despite playing for some of the biggest football clubs in the world like Real Madrid, AC Milan and Manchester City, Robinho's career was largely underwhelming.
Robinho had burst onto the football scene at Santos, where his goal-scoring ability and dribbling prowess caught the eyes of top European clubs. Real Madrid soon came calling for his services, and there should have been no looking back for the player after that. However, that wasn't to be the case.
The Brazilian striker inherited the number ten jersey at the Bernabeu but scored only 17 goals in 64 cumulative games in Real Madrid's back-to-back La Liga triumphs.
However, with the Spanish football club more intent on using him as a bargaining chip to land Cristiano Ronaldo, Robinho was long courted by Chelsea before he landed up at Manchester City instead.
However, Robinho's form petered off after scoring 14 league goals in his debut season in English football. Six months later, he was back at Santos.
In 2010-11, Robinho joined Italian giants AC Milan, for whom he scored 14 league goals as the Rossoneri lifted the Scudetto. Soon, his goals dried up as a combination of a drop in form, injuries and the emergence of Alexandre Pato (more on him later) meant that Robinho slipped down the pecking order.
Once again, Robinho was back at Santos. Further spells at Guangzhou Evergrande, Atletico Mineiro, Sivasspor and Instanbul Basaksehir followed but unsurprisingly, the player was a resounding failure at all these football clubs.
#9 El Hadji Diouf
El Hadji Diouf had a modest start to his football career in France before he sealed a move to English giants Liverpool just before the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
Diouf dazzled in that tournament for Senegal, scoring the winner against defending champions France en route to scoring two more goals as the African nation belied expectations to reach the quarter-finals.
However, the striker failed to live up to his hype at Anfield, scoring only six times in 79 appearances. Further appearances followed at Premier League clubs Bolton, Sunderland and Blackburn.
Diouf also dropped down a division to the Championship, where he played for Doncaster and Leeds United, but the player simply forgot to score. He instead got embroiled in needless controversies and spats (both literally and otherwise) with fellow players, fans and officials.
The Senegal international thankfully called time on his career after a short stint with Malaysian football club Sabah in 2015.
Even after his retirement, Diouf has continued to court controversies galore. He has burnt bridges for good with his former football club Liverpool by making a slew of unsubstantiated allegations against them.
#8 Ravel Morrison
Ravel Morrison was touted to be the next big thing in English football when Manchester United legend and former defender Rio Ferdinand showered lavish praise on the then-teenager.
“The first day I saw him, my old boss (Sir Alex Ferguson) said: ‘Have a look at this boy’. He was taking the mick out of everyone on the pitch when he was about 14. The manager thought he was the best player he had seen at that age,” said Ferdinand about Morrison.
However, despite the hype around him, Morrison never made a first-team appearance at Manchester United before he moved to West Ham United.
The midfielder scored a stunner against Spurs, a goal described by the club's then-manager Sam Allardyce as a 'genius goal'. However, such moments were too few and far between.
Morrison spent a few seasons in the Championship and has also had short stints in Italy, Mexico, Sweden and Netherlands but the 'next big thing' never took off. The 27-year-old is now plying his trade at ADO Den Haag in the Eredivisie.
#7 Nicklas Bendtner
Touted for greatness at a young age, a 17-year-old Nicklas Bendtner made his Arsenal debut for Arsene Wenger in 2005.
Blessed with aerial prowess, physical strength and good tactical intelligence, Bendtner had all the ingredients to become a prolific center-forward. However, that was not to be as his indiscipline, big mouth and lack of focus proved to be his bane.
Bendtner once remarked about himself:
"If you ask me if I’m one of the best strikers in the world, I (would) say ‘yes’ because I believe it."
Alas, he could never walk the talk.
In nine seasons at North London, that were interspersed with several loan stints (one of them was at Juventus), the tall Dane only hit double figures twice before he moved to Wolfsburg in Germany, where he disappointed once again, scoring only nine times in almost 50 games over two seasons.
'Lord Bendtner', as he was often called by Arsenal fans, was infamous for wagering large amounts of real money at casinos as he got blinded by the trappings of fame and ultimately failed to live up to his potential.
From playing in the 2015-16 UEFA Champions League to plying his trade at a Danish fourth-division team five years later, the 32-year-old Bendtner has had quite the fall from grace.
#6 Ryan Babel
Ryan Babel was one of the brightest graduates out of Ajax's academy, but his name is not taken in the same breath as some of his other contemporaries who came from far humbler beginnings.
In that perspective, it wouldn't be too out of place to term Babel's career as one of modest success but massive disappointment.
Babel was never touted to be the next Messi or Ronaldo, but Liverpool were impressed enough by his attributes and the promise he carried to bring him to Anfield in the summer of 2007.
The 2010 FIFA World Cup finalist, however, struggled to get going under three different managers at the English club. Babel was beset by disciplinary issues at his next club - Hoffenheim - before he returned to his boyhood club for one season.
Babel tried his luck in four different leagues over the next eight years before arriving at Ajax for a third stint last year.
The 33-year-old would later reminisce about his 'failings' at Liverpool under manager Rafael Benitez. However, he largely has himself to blame for his inability to adapt to new surroundings and make a name for himself at one of the biggest football clubs in the world.
“For a 20 year old the gap from Holland to England is massive. That’s a fact. Not all players are able to settle in directly from day one. I remember even Van Persie needed two, three years but he became Van Persie. The difference is I think Wenger actually helped him develop and gave him time.”
#5 Kleberson
Kleberson was signed by Manchester United on the same day as a certain Cristiano Ronaldo in 2003, but the careers of the two players could not have progressed in more opposite directions.
The player was in much demand after impressing in Brazil's victorious campaign at the 2002 FIFA World Cup. However, Kleberson struggled to replicate that at Manchester United.
While Ronaldo evolved to become arguably one of the greatest players in the game's history, the Brazilian midfielder lasted only two seasons at Old Trafford before he tried his luck with Besiktas in Turkey.
Kleberson was soon back in his native Brazil and also played in the US before calling time on his career in 2016.
#4 Freddy Atu
Freddy Atu was dubbed the 'new Pele' at the tender age of 14 when he signed the then-most expensive contract in MLS history with DC United in 2003.
Nike tied him to a $1 million contract that led many to proclaim that the teenager had more commercial potential than LeBron James. Nevertheless, after etching a few records in the competition, Atu moved to Benfica to try his luck in Europe.
And that was when his promising career began to spectacularly unravel.
The attacking midfielder, who was also versatile enough to play as a forward, became the proverbial journeyman as he dabbled his luck in a bevvy of clubs in the old continent. Atu returned to the MLS in 2011 but was not the same player again.
Presently plying his trade with Osterlen in the Swedish first division, Atu is a pale shadow of the young teenager who earned lavish praise from Pele himself.
At 31, Atu is already burnt out from excessive travel and massive expectations put on his young shoulders. The player, who turned out to be yet another victim of the trappings of fame, is a poignant example of what can happen when a young player is suddenly thrust into the limelight when he is far from ready for it.
"My family was really poor. My mum was working two or three jobs to take care of my brother and me. So if Nike come to you and say they want to give you a million-dollar contract and the MLS wants to make you the highest-paid player at 14, you can’t say no. You just can’t. I said yes to everything that was asked of me and ended up doing a lot of appearances, a lot of promotion, a lot of interviews, and it took away from the football on the field. People saw me more as a marketing tool," bemoaned Atu in an interview.
#3 Adriano
Adriano made his name as a precocious striker who was touted to be the long-term successor of Ronaldo Nazario but inconsistency and indiscipline laid waste to his incredible talent.
The Brazilian enjoyed prolific spells at Parma and Inter Milan, winning four consecutive league titles with the latter, as the world seemed to be at the feet of the mercurial striker. However, he threw it all away.
In his prime, L’Imperatore could bulldoze past defenders and score left-footed screamers. However, the death of his father in 2004 spelled the death knell for his football career at a time when it should have hit a crescendo, and Adriano was never the same player again.
The player partied late into nights and arrived sleepless for training sessions.
“At that time, I only felt happy when I drank,” Adriano said in a 2017 interview. “I could only sleep if I drank. My [Inter] coach, Roberto Mancini, and my team-mates noticed that I was hungover when I arrived for training. And I feared arriving too late, so I didn’t sleep and went to training still drunk. I slept in the medical department and Inter had to tell journalists that I had muscular pain,” recalled Adriano.
Having tried as hard as they could, his Inter teammates couldn't help Adriano come out of depression.
"'Adri, you’re a mix of Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Are you aware that you could become the best player ever?’ But we didn’t ever succeed in pulling him out of depression," Javier Zanetti recalled saying to his embattled teammate.
The player soon returned to Brazil. He went back to Italy for a spell with AS Roma before retiring in 2016 after a spell in the MLS.
#2 Bojan Krkic
Bojan Krkic rose up the ranks at Barcelona's La Masia academy, scoring goals galore for various youth teams, before making his first team debut at the age of 17, netting an impressive 12 goals in his debut season in 2007.
Comparisons with a certain Lionel Messi were inevitable. However, Messi had set the bar so freakishly high that just about any player would falter in the quest to emulate the Argentine's exploits. Krkic proved to be no different.
His goal returns dried up and under new manager Pep Guardiola, Krkic fell down the pecking order. In 2011, he was shipped out to AS Roma, where he endured familiar struggles Spanish players face in Italy: time on the ball, which becomes a premium.
The player subsequently turned up for the likes of AC Milan, Ajax, Stoke City, Mainz and Alaves, but Bojan Krkic was never the same player again as he also got afflicted by mental issues like anxiety attacks.
"At 17 my life changed entirely. I went to the Under-17 World Cup in July and no one knew me; when I came back, I couldn’t even walk down the road. A few days later I made my debut against Osasuna, three or four days later I played in the Champions League, then I scored against Villarreal, then Spain called, " rued Krkic in a later interview.
Krkic was indeed at the right club but at the wrong time. In another era, he might have had a flourishing career at the Camp Nou, but that wasn't to be in Krkic's case.
#1 Alexandre Pato
It is not uncommon for a talented Brazilian striker to evoke comparisons with the legendary Pele.
However, Alexandre Pato seemed destined for great things when the then 19-year-old scored a brace in a Brazil's friendly against Sweden to commemorate 50 years of the country's 1958 FIFA World Cup triumph against the same opposition, a game in which a 17-year-old Pele had also scored a brace.
Brazil's then-manager Dunga remarked after the game about Pato:
"His style of play is similar to that of Ronaldo. I don't think he is a normal talent.'
A few months ago, AC Milan had splashed out €24 million for the services of the precocious teenager. Pato racked up consecutive 10-plus-goal league seasons, the third of which helped the Rossoneri win the 2010-11 Scudetto.
Soon, injuries and loss of form meant that Pato struggled to score goals, and Milan sold him off to Corinthians in Brazil.
Like with Milan, Brazil and Corinthians, Pato also scored on his Chelsea debut (albeit on loan), but the stint at the London club proved to be short-lived. Pato then enjoyed a resurgence of sorts with Tianjin Quanjian in the Chinese Super League, for whom he scored 30 goals in 47 games.
Incredibly, the 30-year-old, who plays for Sao Paulo now, still has age on his side to make a comeback and return to one of the top-five league clubs in Europe. Whether he has the desire to scale the heights he once reached remains to be seen, though.
