Players who danced one summer

Woodzy said:
I also remember Joaquin and Vicente. Two of my first ever experiences of transfer muppetry here. I don't think they ever actually did anything.
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Vicente won La Liga twice and a Uefa Cup as one of Valencia's best players to be fair.
 
TheRedDevil'sAdvocate said:
Freddy Adu

At 14 years of age, Freddy Adu was being hailed as the man to lead MLS into becoming one of the world's major leagues having starred for the United States under-17s as a 13-year-old. Benfica paid 2 million dollars for him and he was everyone's first signing in Championship Manager 2003. Now he plays somwhere in Brazil.

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He is currently with out a team again, but he did post an instagram video of him running recently. Funny story about him is that he was called into a camp before the 2006 WC and everyone thought he was going to make the team as long as he worked hard and showed up in shape. In one of the training sessions with the team they went for a long run with a few of the coaches and Freddy actually finished last behind the coaches.
 
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D'Alessandro seemed pretty good at Pompey

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Christian Wilhelmsson seemed decent for Sweden but didn't cut the mustard for Bolton
 
Zlatko Zahovic scored a load of goals to help Slovenia qualify for their first ever tournament, Euro 2000. He scored 3 of their 4 goals there, and won himself a move to Valencia. Only played about 20 games for them and was largely disappointing. He did play in a Champions League final, but missed a crucial penalty in the shoot-out. Helped Slovenia qualify for the 2002 World Cup, but after being substituted in their defeat to Spain in their opening game he insulted the manager and was sent home.

Anyone remember Milosevic for Yugoslavia? Used to play for Villa and was top scorer at Euro 2000 with Kluivert, moved to Parma but was pretty disappointing. Yugoslavia were great entertainment that tournament. In the 4 games they were involved in there were 21 goals scored. Best tournament I can remember in terms of entertainment and quality. Some great goals scored in that tournament.
 
Christopher Wreh
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A friend of mine who is an Arsenal fan mentioned him to me when i told him about this thread. George Weah's cousin, one of the many young, talented and full of potential players Wenger has discovered throughout his managerial career. In fact Arsene had brought him from Liberia to Monaco and when he got the Arsenal job he took Wreh with him. He scored on his debut, he scored in vital 1–0 Premier League wins against Wimbledon and Bolton Wanderers, he scored the winner on the 1998 FA Cup semi final against Wolves. He also scored on the 1998 Community Shield final against Man United. And that was the last we heard of him....
 
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Zlatko Zahovic - early version of Mesut Özil. Had an absolutely amazing WC 2002 before he started a fight in the dressingroom and was sent home if I remember it correctly.
 
manutddjw said:
Jared Borgetti

Looked a deadly striker in the Confederations Cup and had people raving about him. Went to Bolton and I have no idea how the rest of this story goes, but I don't remember hearing anything about him when he was at Bolton or after.
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He was absolutely deadly.

He played in Qatar and then came back to Mexico. Works as a pundit now. A while back he said Allardyce didn't play him because his son was Kevin Davis' agent so he opted for him instead. Borgetti scored every time he played though, so nobody could understand how he never really had a run of games.
 
mboRa ndomHer0723 said:
He is currently with out a team again, but he did post an instagram video of him running recently. Funny story about him is that he was called into a camp before the 2006 WC and everyone thought he was going to make the team as long as he worked hard and showed up in shape. In one of the training sessions with the team they went for a long run with a few of the coaches and Freddy actually finished last behind the coaches.
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Waste of talent. Uncoachable, big ego, never his fault attitude, too many inner circle people whispering in his ear, doesn't care about defensive duties and tracking back, and many more negatives. I don't blame him for taking the cash as a kid but the proper route would have been to join a European academy and round his game. My guess is he would have eventually been booted out of a proper academy too with that inner circle and the growing ego. But perhaps he would have actually learned the game and made him a better pro.
 
MrMarcello said:
Waste of talent. Uncoachable, big ego, never his fault attitude, too many inner circle people whispering in his ear, doesn't care about defensive duties and tracking back, and many more negatives. I don't blame him for taking the cash as a kid but the proper route would have been to join a European academy and round his game. My guess is he would have eventually been booted out of a proper academy too with that inner circle and the growing ego. But perhaps he would have actually learned the game and made him a better pro.
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You don't think it has something to do with him being an age cheat?
 
Blasphemy said:
You don't think it has something to do with him being an age cheat?
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It's possible but plenty of fellow players have stated Adu certainly acted and thought the way someone of his age range would be expected too. If he was older than stated, it was only a couple years or so. He looked very close to the stated age unlike that "kid" at Lazio.
 
MrMarcello said:
It's possible but plenty of fellow players have stated Adu certainly acted and thought the way someone of his age range would be expected too. If he was older than stated, it was only a couple years or so. He looked very close to the stated age unlike that "kid" at Lazio.
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I always thought he looked older to be honest. I think the most likely theory is that he's 3 years or so older than he really is. So the different between a 13 year old and 16 year old is gigantic, which is when Adu was at his best. The difference stays pretty huge from 14-17, 15-18, 16-19 and starts to fade a bit around 17 until you're pretending to be 21 when you're really 24 which makes minimal difference.

That pretty much mirrors Adu's career as a player.
 
Woodzy said:
I also remember Joaquin and Vicente. Two of my first ever experiences of transfer muppetry here. I don't think they ever actually did anything.
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Both were among the best in their positions in Europe for a few seasons. In fact between the fall of Figo and Beckham, and the rise of Ronaldo and Messi, Joaquin was probably the best right-winger around between 2002 and 2005.
 
I seem to recall Russell Beardsmore being touted as a special talent, I think he made a few appearances one season, his initial success probably being down to being so small and thin that players didn't even realise he was there.
 
Successful said:
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Zlatko Zahovic - early version of Mesut Özil. Had an absolutely amazing WC 2002 before he started a fight in the dressingroom and was sent home if I remember it correctly.
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Zahovic had a decent portuguese football career. He was a good technical player, too bad he didn´t have the right mentality
 
Drenthe
Rosales
N'gotty
Kezman
Ziege
Jancker
Alfonso
Aimar
Almeyda
Coco
Fadiga
Comandini
Denilson
Marcio Amoroso
Zickler
Deisler
Babangida
Adriano
Duscher
Brolin
Kluivert>Balotelli
 
Does Robinho get up to much these days, was a hell of a talent at Real Madrid.
 
Some fantastic shouts in the thread.

Vicente was always injured. Just checked wiki and apparently he was at Brighton for the last 2 years? What the hell?
 
Keeps It tidy said:
Asamoah Gyan
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He looked good a few times playing with Welbeck. They tore Chelsea apart

Macauley Chrisantus - remember he looked amazing at some U-17 World Cup. No idea what he's done since, but I thought he'd already be a star. Amazing that Nigeria has won so many U-17 tournaments...

Has Henrik Larsen done anything of note beside his performances at Euro 92?
 
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Wittmann45 said:
He looked good a few times playing with Welbeck. They tore Chelsea apart

Macauley Chrisantus - remember he looked amazing at some U-17 World Cup. No idea what he's done since, but I thought he'd already be a star. Amazing that Nigeria has won so many U-17 tournaments...

Has Henrik Larsen done anything of note beside his performances at Euro 92?
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Played for Barca, Man Utd and most predominantly Celtic, winning:
4 SPL titles, 1 Premier league, 2 la Liga, Champions League, Spanish Supercup, World Cup bronze 94, 37 goals for Sweden, 325 career goals in 573 games.
 
Can't recollect his name but anyone remember the Brazilian striker who signed for Middlesbrough under Gareth southgate, bald guy who scored hattrick against us on his debut. He was a goal machine back in the Brazilian league.Alfonso Alves, was it?
 
entropy said:
Can't recollect his name but anyone remember the Brazilian striker who signed for Middlesbrough under Gareth southgate, bald guy who scored hattrick against us on his debut. He was a goal machine back in the Brazilian league.Alfonso Alves, was it?
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Yep, but it was the dutch league where he tore it up for Heerenveen I believe.
 
Wittmann45 said:
He looked good a few times playing with Welbeck. They tore Chelsea apart

Macauley Chrisantus - remember he looked amazing at some U-17 World Cup. No idea what he's done since, but I thought he'd already be a star. Amazing that Nigeria has won so many U-17 tournaments...

Has Henrik Larsen done anything of note beside his performances at Euro 92?
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Yep, he had a very promising first season at Sunderland, then decided he wanted that Arab money so fecked off to the Middle East. Could have been a very good Premier League striker
 
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