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World Cups often have a history of making true footballing superstars and icons, with many a top-tier talent having used the competition as a launching pad for a big-money move to one of football’s elite clubs. Much like a good World Cup can make a star, though, a bad World Cup can have its repercussions, too.
To many, the World Cup itself is often about making or cementing a legacy, boosting a reputation, or even bumping up a price tag. Here, we have five examples of big-name superstars who have done nothing but tarnish their reputation at what has proved to be one of the greatest World Cups in recent memory.
David De Gea
For the majority of you out there, you may see David De Gea as the very best goalkeeper in the world. And even if you don’t agree with that statement, there’s no disputing that the Manchester United ‘keeper is certainly in the conversation when it comes to the world’s best.
Surprisingly, the ever-reliable Spaniard had a complete stinker of a World Cup in Russia.
De Gea is known for his consistency, his athleticism, and for pulling off saves that you thought could not even be possible. At the World Cup, however, he rarely looked comfortable, and allowing a tame Cristiano Ronaldo effort through his grasp in Spain’s opening game seemed to set the tone for what was a massively disappointing tournament for the former Atletico Madrid stopper.
Even the best of players have their howlers, and it’s obviously always a lot more costly when a goalkeeper makes an error, but it was more worrying that De Gea struggled to bounce back from that early mistake.
Spain would ultimately be knocked out by host nation Russia in the last 16, and there was even talk of De Gea being dropped for that game. He did indeed start the game, but he was again a shadow of his usual self as the Russians shocked the football world.
Nicolas Otamendi
To be honest, you could likely include several of Argentina’s big-name players in this article. But for now, we’re going to focus on Manchester City’s centre-back, Nicolas Otamendi.
Despite having impressed for the Citizens as they romped to the Premier League title last season, Otamendi often looked like he was never far away from a costly mistake. And in this summer’s World Cup, he put in some outright disastrous displays for Jorge Sampaoli’s men. In fact, the only Argentine defender to leave the tournament with any sort of credit is Manchester United’s Marcos Rojo.
With the international-level inexperienced Nicolas Tagliafico at left-back, right winger Eduardo Salvio at right-back, and a trio of calamitous goalkeeper options available following the pre-competition injury to regular stopper Sergio Romero, many were looking at Otamendi and Rojo to guide a shaky backline. Unfortunately for the Man City man, he was left wanting in every single game for Argentina – leaving him to revert to kicking and lashing out at the opposition in the games against both Croatia and France.
Thomas Muller
The 2018 World Cup has conjured up a whole slew of shocks, but you could argue that nothing was quite as shocking as the hugely disappointing performances from Joachim Low’s Germany team.
Ahead of the tournament, many had the Germans pegged as one of the favourites to win the competition, with FC Bayern forward Thomas Muller seen as their main attacking threat. Muller had been there and done it, appearing at two previous World Cups and being a part of the Germany team that won the competition in 2014. Much like the side as a whole, Muller might as well have stayed at home this time around.
With ten World Cup strikes to his name, some optimists even saw Muller as having a genuine chance of tying countryman Miroslav Klose’s all-time record of 16 World Cup goals. For Muller and for Germany, it simply all went wrong – to the extent where Low even dropped the usually-ever-present attacker for the team’s vital, final group game against South Korea.
South Korea, of course, would dump Germany out of the tournament after a 2-0 win, and Real Madrid’s Toni Kroos was the only German who could hold his head up high after an awful campaign for the four-time World Cup winners.
Robert Lewandowski
Did anybody have a more disappointing 2018 World Cup than Robert Lewandowski? The FC Bayern striker went in to the tournament with expectations high, but ultimately failed to deliver anything of note.
In the ten games Poland played to qualify for the competition, Lewandowski scored a ridiculous 16 goals. Those stats saw him outscore the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Edinson Cavani, Gabriel Jesus, Alexis Sanchez, and Romelu Lukaku.
Going in to the World Cup, Lewandowski had the poor record of just two goals in the two international tournaments he’d played in to date – and he left the World Cup with still just two tournament strikes to his name, failing to score against Senegal, Colombia, and Japan.
More worryingly, though, was the performances as a whole put in by the usually prolific forward. Lewandowski barely looked interested and offered absolutely nothing in his country’s three games. With the likes of Real Madrid and Chelsea looking to sign him for next season, it now looks as if he’ll be staying put at Bayern Munich – and you have to ask whether there’s maybe a little less interest in Lewandowski after his dismal contribution at the World Cup.
Neymar
While Neymar actually had some good games during Brazil’s World Cup campaign, the 2018 edition of football’s biggest competition saw the Paris St-Germain forward tarnish his image, his legacy, and saw many fans turn away in disgust.
The former Barcelona attacker certainly had a vital role in getting his team through to the World Cup quarter-finals, but his antics and, let’s be honest, cheating soured what could have been a legacy-cementing tournament for world football’s most expensive player.
Sadly, play-acting and diving is an all too common part of the modern game these days, but Neymar just took this to frankly ludicrous lengths; feigning injury and adding roll after roll after roll after roll to any and all contact (or near-contact) that came his way.
Throughout the history of football and throughout the history of the World Cup, many often love nothing more than to see a Brazilian team full of flair, ingenuity, and pace do well. Unfortunately, this time out, many neutral fans were hoping for Brazil’s exit to come sooner rather than later – all due to the “gamesmanship” of Neymar. And those same people were likely cheering loudly when Belgium emphatically dumped Brazil out at the quarter-final stage.
