Are there any players that were really good, but "wasted" their prime?

Ricardo Quaresma - such an enigma. Okay wasn't blessed with blistering pace but had enough to get half a yard. Don't really know why it never materalised into something more for him. His natural talent was scary at times but like so many, natural talent isn't enough to make it to the top.

Over 600 appearances and 109 goals, just not productive enough.

Anyway enjoy!

 
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The original post didn’t specify they had to be world class talents so to throw out a few more random ones:
  • Landon Donovan - won the best young player award in the 2002 World Cup, retired as the US’ leading goal scorer and with the most assists. Could have made it on a decent team in the EPL as he showed at the end of his career on loan to Everton. Wasted his talent in MLS.
  • Juninho - stayed in France where he was happy cruising at Lyon. Was arguably a better deadball specialist than Beckham.
  • Hidetoshi Nakata - widely seen as one of the greatest Asian talents. Nominated for the Ballon d’Or three times. Showed well in Serie A but retired before 30. With a different mindset he’d have started on a world class team for years.
  • Carlos Valderamma - Mostly known these days for his iconic hair, he was a brilliant playmaker but spent his prime in MLS and in a poor Colombian side.
 
JPRouve said:
The issue that I have with linking a wasted career with trophies is that it's only in the last decade that some teams could guarantee anything and even then it's only three or four of them which means that vast majority of top players "wasted" their primes.

As an example if you go back to the 90s and 2000s which are the last eras during which top players were spread around Europe and not really concentrated in a handful of teams, the likes of Totti, De Rossi, Montella, Aldair or Totti didn't win as much as their could suggest. And in my opinion they didn't waste their primes, in fact I miss that era I hate this trophy hungry and super team focused era, I hate seeing player move to the same clubs just to be on the bench or be forced into a team that doesn't see their talent valued and showcased. The same applies to a team like Fiorentina in the 90s that has just been slandered in this thread, we are talking about a team that had Mijatovic, Balbo, Toldo, Rui Costa or Batistuta.

To me that's the death of Football as I knew it as a kid. Concentration of talents and focus on everything but actual football games.
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They are just naming talented players who didn't sign for Real,Barca or Bayern at their prime, which is ridiculous considering 80s and 90s football was different and had talent more widespread, and 30 years ago Barca and Bayern were not the juggernauts that they are today.

More than 90% of players are fine with playing football for a living, while securing the financial future of their family and kids. Not every footballer loses sleep cause they didn't sign a contract for Barca or Real, plus there a lot of mediocre players who played for Real and Barca and their reputation didn't get any better.

Many people are watching this thread through the lens of modern plastic football fans from social media, who only follow teams that win trophies, and if you didn't win certain amount of trophies, your a are loser.
 
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Eli Zee said:
A lot of players are loyal to their club and work their hardest to do their job, and most are doing what they love, so It's not a waste if they never win anything. This is more geared towards players that were among the best, especially in their prime, but never won or tried to win anything meaningful while they could.

This is a drastic example, but let's say someone like Mbappe decided he's just going to play for Al Nassr and collect millions a year with ronaldo during his prime... to him, he'd value the money and so yeah, it's not a waste.. but to us, we'd say, "he could have done something memorable, he was so good. Now he's retired and we never saw him test himself against strong competition or win anything big."

I'm sure there are also some other ways players may have wasted their prime besides how successful their team was with them on it.
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I'd agree with your drastic example in the case of a top player going to a no mark league for the money. That's a waste.

I'd also suggest a player who is happy to sit on the bench and not play, just collecting their wage to be wasteful, albeit depending on their level.

But a player who is a first teamer, playing regularly for a club in a top 5 European league? Never a waste.
 
FrankFoot said:
What a ridiculous comment.

Pavel Nedved even won Series A and UEFA cups with Lazio(during peak Serie A), that holds more value than winning La Liga with Real or Barcelona, then became successful with Juventus, unlucky to lose the final to AC Milan in penalties after such a great season he had(even won Balloon D'Or), but he certainly was considered a successful phenomenal player by everybody.

Not everybody lose sleep over signing for Real or Barcelona, plus both teams were underwhelming when Nedved was entering his prime.
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Yeah, i think Nedved is an example of someone who got the absolute most out of his ability with a great work ethic, and was able to make very good career moves at the right times to stacked teams. When i look back at that late 80s/90s group of players from the countries emerging from communism(which Nedved was towards the end of) there were a good number of players with the talent to have a similar career as he had, but very few managed it, often due to the extra difficulties adapting. Only Shevchenko and Stoichkov managed an equal/better career. Nedved is the opposite of wasted talent.
 
Me - I should have put my talent of being a world class player to good use and created more babies.
 
Marco Reus.

2 DfB cups (FA Cup)
3 German supercups

0 World Cups (injured 2014)
0 Euros
0 Bundesliga (joined 2012/13 and missed back to back leagues in 2010/11, 2011/12)

Bloody shame for someone that could have been a top 5 Ballon d'Or player any given year. On the level of Hazard, Ribery, Mane, Robben, Salah and the likes.

200+ goals and 150+ assists as a LW/CAM/SS.
 
Blood Mage said:
I know Pogba won a world cup but he had the talent to be as prolific as Modric/Xavi/Iniesta etc. and wasted many years playing in crap United teams. Imagine 25 year old Pogba playing under Ten Hag right now.
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He would be injured and building his social media profile at the annoyance of ETH. And he never was a workhorse to press the opposition. Pogba's biggest mistake was going to Juve like a baby instead of fighting it out like a man. Pog is a man of poor footballing attitude and good riddance.
 
How about a couple of blasts from the past, that we were linked with on many occasions when I was delivering papers :D

Steve Bull and David Hirst.
 
Aboubakar wasted his prime playing in SA and only to be replaced by Ronaldo
 
I think this heavily depends on the player. Does someone like Totti consider his career a waste? Or is he actually proud to be remembered the way he is, a legend of his favourite club? If so, that’s in no way a wasted career. It’s a very successful one, actually.
 
Going by the OP were classifying this as a player who was excellent but didn’t make the right moves in terms of probability of trophies ?

Then,
De Gea
Pogba
Son
Romero
Gerrard
Shearer
Ozil maybe?
Reus - was he wanted by bigger clubs?
Totti
 
tomaldinho1 said:
I think this is honestly one of the biggest myths of modern football, that Pogba was ever close to that level. We watched Pogba for years and saw exactly what he was over many seasons, a skilful but erratic midfielder who couldn't nail down a specific role (both himself and managers to blame) who we kept referring to as world class because of how he played in a stacked Juve team and a stacked France team. He has nowhere near the footballing ability of any of those three midfielders you mentioned.

Waste of prime, probably Shearer, Kane, Le Tisser, Riquleme, Zola arguably
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Because the three players mentioned played in Sunday league teams?

Whilst I agree that Pogba would not have been on the level of the three mentioned if he played in better teams, he is a player that I would consider a cherry on the cake. As his performances in world cups have often attested….he is one of the best cherries in world football. But what he isn’t is the cake itself, Casemiro is the cake and wouldn’t make as great a cherry as Pogba…but ultimately is a far better player.

We tried to play Pogba as the cake, and to be fair, and this is the bit that people don’t like, he was picked by three different managers 90 odd percent of the time he was available and was one of our best players every season bar his last, where he was ultimately injured. His actual performances far outweighed the narrative despite being no more than ‘good’ overall. Your point on him playing better in stacked teams is mitigated by him often being the best performer in a stacked team rather than bit part, he’s a sensational footballer when allowed to do his thing.

But yes….he isn’t in the class of those mentioned, who were more cake than cherry, and for me Xavi and particularly Iniesta were more talented in any case.
 
Juan Mata. Bro just gave up on football. Wasn't a first choice starter for the last 4-5 years of his United career.

It's a shame as he was quite talented and I felt that he should've been used better by both Jose and Ole. But it's staggering that he just accepted the situation and was just happy to collect his paycheck.
 
Someone mentioned Bryan Robson, my hero, and whilst being a true united legend….he could’ve played for any side in the world and stayed at united at a time where we were pissing about (literally) in mid table and below.
 
Eden Hazard? From what his team mates say he’s the worst trainer they’ve ever seen and his move to Madrid in what should have been his prime ended up being an injury hit disaster.

With the right mentality and application he should have been challenging Suarez and Neymar as the 3rd best player in the world after Messi/Ronaldo at that time.
 
harms said:
I do believe that he should've been the next Laudrup (or peak Özil at least) in terms of his stature in the game. His vision and passing technique were out of this world.

Instead he ended up being a squad player who got shoehorned all around the pitch to accommodate shinier names — be it Zidane, Kaká or other strikers/forwards that needed that extra space up front. To be fair, he played more often than not but rarely in his best role. And his NT career was nothing to write home about either — 13 caps for a Spanish side that wasn't truly competing for anything important.

Edit: I did want to name a player who's had an objectively good-to-great career though. Obviously there are many players that wasted their talent in a more drastic fashion.
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Maybe if he had been a bit less of a twat he could have been even better but it's hard for me to view that as wasting his prime - it's not like he made career decisions, his twattishness was just who he was, he couldn't help it.
 
I don't think players who played for clubs who didn't win a lot but gave their all for years wasted their prime years.

It's players like Neymar who just went wherever the money was despite the obvious drop in quality of the leagues. Hulk too and Oscar. Or even Gascoigne or Merson who just wasted their talents on drink and drugs.
 
Batistuta. He did win serie A eventually but his prime was really in the 90s, when he could have won much more.
 
Talent wise for us:

Pogba - All the talent in the world to be the best CM in football, but would rather be a show pony and put in half the effort.
Ravel - should have had a world class football trajectory based on his talent.
G.Rossi - one of the most talented strikers i saw play for us at youth level. Injuries ruined what should have been an amazing career.
Anderson - whilst still a fantastic player on his day, should have again like pogba been one of the best cm's in the world - but didn't have the mentality.

Players who "wasted" their talent club wise:

Shearer
Kane
Henrik Larsson (Celtic)
Loftus Cheek (Now 27 - was supposed to be the next big thing for england)
Son
Permanbucano (Lyon)
 
Barkley shouldn't have signed for Chelsea. Lukaku shouldn't have signed for United. Baines and Coleman were probably good enough to play in a title winning squad.
 
Controversial maybe but Bale. Everybody will say oh he won all these things (and theres a beautiful post by @JPRouve about everything being trophy oriented nowadays) and scored a beauty in CL final but most of his time at Madrid he was either injured or wasnt preferred and didnt mind any of that, playing golf.

Also I see some are saying some players wasted their careers by not signing with United like Shearer which is probably true, but some wasted careers by being at United for too long on the other side of the coin.
 
Matt007a said:
Eden Hazard? From what his team mates say he’s the worst trainer they’ve ever seen and his move to Madrid in what should have been his prime ended up being an injury hit disaster.

With the right mentality and application he should have been challenging Suarez and Neymar as the 3rd best player in the world after Messi/Ronaldo at that time.
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Agree with Hazard for sure!

It`s a bit subjective really...people are including Kane and Shearer but they both play/ed and score/d so it then just comes down to whether a player joins a big club capable of winning trophies?
On the flip side there are plenty of players who have won many trophies but hardly played or reached their potential at a club.
Mbappe is only 24.......!

Neymar has to be top of the list
 
Mbappe has 36 goals in 66 games for France at age 23.

At the same age of 23 Messi had 17 goals in 57 appearances.

also 23 v 15 assists in Mbappes favor

to top that (albeit in a lesser league) Mbappe has 230 goals vs Messi’s 183 goals at age 23. (Messi arguably had better teammates too)

+ Mbappe already has a World Cup at a younger age and 3 goals in a final. Of course his talent is huge. But it’s easy to say in hindsight it isnt when Mbappe plays in a lesser league. And thats my point: that Mbappe is wasting it all away in Ligue 1. The international stats at a similar age probably shows Mbappe is around twice the player, so of course you can compare Mbappe’s talent to Messi.
 
ROFLUTION said:
Mbappe has 36 goals in 66 games for France at age 23.

At the same age of 23 Messi had 17 goals in 57 appearances.

+ Mbappe already has a World Cup at a younger age and 3 goals in a final. Of course his talent is huge. But it’s easy to say in hindsight it isnt when Mbappe plays in a lesser league. And thats my point: that Mbappe is wasting it all away in Ligue 1. The international stats at a similar age probably shows Mbappe is around twice the player, so of course you can compare Mbappe’s talent to Messi.
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Why does goals = talent level?
 
A lot of these players are probably happy enough with their choices to be honest. Batistuta is adored in Florence and did end up winning a Serie A in the end, players who moved early for the money did get set up for life.

Riquelme is one that stands out though because I think he has actually said he regrets not moving to United in 06 and staying at Villareal where he was comfortable. Then again would he have actually worked instead of Carrick at that time?
 
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