Footballers who faded away

Steve Guppy

He had a great left foot, i thought he was going to be the long awaited answer to England's left side, though to be fair was never really given a chance. It was during a questionable time where popularity was picked ahead of form or the right profile for the team
 
Dancfc said:
I saw signs of his decline the year before he joined us to be honest. Goalscoring wise he still had a great season but he just didn't seem as sharp all round as he use to.
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Yeah, that's true. There were always rumors regarding his health. Think Milan did the same with him they did with Kaka: get all the mileage you can and once they decline, sell them.
 
Steve Bruce said:
Adrianno - The next fat Ronaldo
Nick Powell was another that was supposed to be the dogs
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Adriano didn’t fade away. He lost an important family member and couldn’t cope. He suffered from a lot from what I’ve read. He shouldn’t be on this list for purposes that circumstances outside of football affected his football. He didn’t fade away. He was a brilliant player
 
Offside said:
Stephen Ireland was absolutely brilliant one year for City, had a number of big clubs looking at him. Then suddenly he couldn't get into Aston Villa's team. Can't remember if he had an injury or what.
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He never wanted to join us. We were playing him as a central midfield player for some reason and then he fell out with Houllier so that was him done. I agree a talented player at Man. City but probably didn't have mentality to really play at elite standard.
 
Alex Pato has to be a contender anyway, looked amazing first 18 months at Milan and then with injuries and other issues he just became journeyman forward.

Don't even think he's 30 yet. He should've been starting Brazil centre forward with Neymar in 2014 WC but think only major tournament he played in was Copa America 2011.
 
Would also say Morientes. Was excellent forward for Real Madrid and that season he had on loan at Monaco. Was excited to see him play in prem for Liverpool but he made little impact and went back to La Liga after 18 months.

Liverpool signed loads around that time. Remember the crazy hype over Djibril Cisse, got bad injury at Liverpool but looked pretty average anyway and became journeyman striker afterwards.
 
Micah Richards
Glen Johnson
Scott Sinclair
Jermaine Pennant
 
Real Madras said:
Adriano didn’t fade away. He lost an important family member and couldn’t cope. He suffered from a lot from what I’ve read. He shouldn’t be on this list for purposes that circumstances outside of football affected his football. He didn’t fade away. He was a brilliant player
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I get what you're saying, but I'd assume you can find many reasons like this for other players mentioned here, often without us knowing. So the point still stands, he faded away. But it's good to mention why, it shows that they are just normal people with all issues involved.
 
Not sure if he's popular worldwide, but at least here in Bulgaria we consider him as the best "fade away" player ever - Valeri Bojinov.
I remember reading a magazine long time ago and there was this list of the top 7 future stars of football and next to our guy, you could see the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Rooney, Messi, Robinho... Pretty much all of them lived up to the hype, except Bojinov. He did make a promising start at Fiorentina, then at Juventus but after that it went downwards. He now plays in the Bulgarian league for a mid table team. In his defence, injuries played big part in his career, sadly.
 
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Also Kaka shouldn't be here. He won the Ballon D'Or FFS - he had issues at RM later but not enough for him to 'fade away'
 
Does Thomas Müller qualify? Was almost world class at one point and he fell off when he should've maybe stepped it up another level
 
I understand that the OP means Top players that faded into mediocrity suddenly, seemingly for no reason (other than bad habits), and still with 5-6 years left of elite football (easy to fall into mediocrity when you're post-30/31)

Ronaldinho is still the blueprint of "sudden fall into mediocrity" of modern football (mini-comeback in 2013, I know; the world never saw Ronaldinho-Messi-Pedro in full potential, circa-2008/10, and it could-should have happened). I mean, I know he didn't care about his diet, but it felt as if his football-IQ had dropped massively, he just couldn't play like he used to, like forgetting a language, even.
Wayne Bridge
Sneijder
Anelka (decent games with Chelsea, I know)
Bogarde
R. de Boer
Senderos
Owen
Ramsey
Götze
Malouda
DDG (don't jump at me)
Pogba (hehe...)
 
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Mendieta :wenger:
From one of the best midfielders in the world to an average midfielder in less than 3 years
 
Phillipe Christanval another one who struggled after Barcelona
Kezman never recovered from his stint at Chelsea
 
GifLord said:
Mendieta :wenger:
From one of the best midfielders in the world to an average midfielder in less than 3 years
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Now that I think about it, most of the great 98-00 Valencia went to shite in a couple of seasons: Farinós, Kily González, Mendieta, Gerard, Angulo, Piojo López, etc. The Valencia of Benitez was a whole different animal.
 
Casanova85 said:
No. 2001-2012, solid. I mean, 2011-12 was bad with Chelsea, but even then he scored the 2-2 vs Barça in the semis. He scored vs Barça too in the QFs of 2016 with Atlético.
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He was poor late on in his Liverpool career, poor at Chelsea, Poor at Milan and poor back at Atletico in comparison to the predator he was previously.

An absolute shadow of the superstar he was previously. Epitomy of fading footballer.

Then again you said solid between 01-12. He was far more than solid before that Chelsea move (slightly before that). Maybe you didn't rate him as highly before then.
 
Casanova85 said:
Now that I think about it, most of the great 98-00 Valencia went to shite in a couple of seasons: Farinós, Kily González, Mendieta, Gerard, Angulo, Piojo López, etc. The Valencia of Benitez was a whole different animal.
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Claudio had a lot of injury issues but was still a beast for a short period of time with Lazio
 
JJ12 said:
He was poor late on in his Liverpool career, poor at Chelsea, Poor at Milan and poor back at Atletico in comparison to the predator he was previously.

An absolute shadow of the superstar he was previously. Epitomy of fading footballer.

Then again you said solid between 01-12. He was far more than solid before that Chelsea move (slightly before that). Maybe you didn't rate him as highly before then.
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You could say the same about Pizarro, for example. Torres clearly had a peak 03-09, but he didn't fall into total mediocrity/oblivion like many other CFs.
 
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