Top 5 players who went from hopeless to hero

Thierry Henry struggled at Juventus before becoming a sensation at Arsenal

When we see the countless legends the beautiful game has churned out, we always fall for their stardom. However, there is just a handful of us that try to delve into their past and learn about the hurdles they have overcome before earning a name for themselves.

Also, their fame and limelight come at a heavy price. As much as they are adored during their best days, they receive equally brutal criticism while not performing to the expected standards.

It takes a strong gut to swallow the criticism that players are often subject to, and not everyone succeeds in fighting and proving their haters wrong. It takes a combination of hard work, courage and a never-say-die attitude to silence your critics and that's what earns you loads of respect.

Here are 5 such footballers who went to become indispensable for their respective clubs after being branded as failures in the early stages of their respective careers:

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#5 Jamie Vardy

Jamie Vardy was the spearhead of Leicester City's title-winning campaign

The tale of Jamie Vardy's rise as a footballer is the closest you can get to a fairytale in the sport. Who in their wildest dreams could have imagined a factory worker and a non-league player to be the spearhead of a title-winning team in England?

To start with, the Englishman was released by Sheffield United when he was sixteen in 2006. The club deemed him as a below-par player and he went on to choose a more traditional line of work, functioning as a technician who made medical splints in a factory.

His days turned around when he scored 31 goals in his only season with Fleetwood Town, a third-tier club. Leicester City came calling and snatched the player for £1 million in 2012.

Four years later, Vardy's rampant run of form saw him become the kingpin for the Foxes as they clinched their first ever Premier League title in season 2015-16. He netted 24 goals that season in all competitions and also broke Ruud Van Nistelrooy's long-standing record of scoring in consecutive league games, netting 11 times in a row.

Since then, the Englishman has been a top target for clubs like Manchester United and Arsenal. If that ain't a fairytale, what is?

#4 Victor Moses

Victor Moses has been a revelation for Chelsea under Antonio Conte

Victo Moses has been a revelation in the football world under Antonio Conte. Not many would have thought that a player who had three dismal loan spells would become the influential figure that he is at Stamford Bridge today.

Perhaps it is the company of players like Juan Mata, Eden Hazard, Oscar and Willian that denied him the time needed to develop as a footballer. The loans to Arsenal, Liverpool and West Ham did no good and he was looked upon as another wasted talent by The Blues.

However, a man-of-the-match performance against Hull City in the right wing-back position in a 3-4-3 format was enough for Chelsea to see how good he was and the potential he possessed.

Chelsea won the league that season and Victor Moses was one of their stand-out performers. When you look at him today, you can hardly imagine him to be a guy who was wrecked as a player just two years ago.

#3 Ciro Immobile

Ciro Immobile has been running rampant in the Serie A this season

After winning the Capocannoniere with Torino, little did Ciro Immobile expect to go through a rough slide down the spiral when he joined Borussia Dortmund for €18 million in 2014.

A lacklustre debut season saw the Italian being loaned out to Sevilla and then to Torino for the next two seasons, where he failed to resuscitate his career.

The world had forgotten the Italian before he completed a turn-around at Lazio, joining the Biancocelesti in 2016. He netted 26 times in 41 appearances and has been running riot this year as well, bagging the same number of goals in just 24 games.

The second half of the season has only just started and the 27-year-old is destined to make it big for Lazio, who are currently 4th in the Serie A race at the moment. Ciro Immobile is the perfect example of what a person can achieve with hard work and a never-say-die attitude.

#2 Thierry Henry

Thierry Henry went from being a failure at Juventus to having a statue of himself outside the Emirates

He has rightly earned the title as the King of Arsenal, but during his formative years, rarely anyone would've expected the extent of success Thierry Henry would go on to achieve in his career. He had enjoyed a decent spell at Monaco but a move to Juventus was where it all went wrong, and he was subsequently branded as overrated, and as a failure by many in the football world.

The striker was played on the flanks under immense pressure to score goals and failed to live up to the hype. He netted only thrice in 16 appearances in his only season for the Bianconceri.

But, a change of fortunes followed when he joined Arsenal. Henry's exploits in England became the stuff of legend as the Frenchman spearheaded Wenger's Arsenal to a number of accolades, including the golden Premier League trophy that the Gunners won as The Invincibles.

Adding to that, he also won the Golden Boot four times in eight seasons with the club and also became the club's all-time top scorer with 175 goals.

A move to Barcelona didn't work out as well as he had would've expected on a personal level. But, his achievements in England had done enough to place the Frenchman amongst the greatest strikers ever to grace the game.

#1 Gareth Bale

Gareth Bale had to endure a 24-game winless streak at Tottenham

None can tell you how great it feels to become a hero from a zero better than Gareth Bale.

A £10 million signing from Southampton in 2097, he had to wait for a total of 25 games before he tasted his first victory in a Tottenham shirt.

In all those torrid times he faced, the Welshman became the subject of mockery by his own fans and was branded as an unlucky jinx. Deemed as one of the worst transfers the club ever made, he was on the verge of being shipped off to Birmingham City in just a £3 million deal!

And look at him now. A three-time UEFA Champions League winner, who is widely regarded as one of the finest as well as the fastest players of his generation. He has a trophy cabinet many can only dream of. And, his San Siro fairytale needs no retelling, does it?

To this day, the Welshman's fans still fondly remember that 4-3 loss to Inter Milan and it wouldn't be wrong to count that game as one of the best games the club has ever played in the modern age. After all, that night saw the birth of a Galactico; a man who would eventually make it to the highest echelons of the sport.