Rhian Davies
Talented kids who vanished
- Thread starter Devil81
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Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) discuss United's fantastic win away against Athletic Club in the semi-final of the Europa League.
They also pick out the positives of United's 4-3 loss away at Brentford, and Nik reviews a day out at Old Trafford watching Manchester United Women qualify for the Champions League.
Mads Timm - Danish, former United youth product. Was killing it in the academy in the early 00's. Quick, exciting attacking midfield talent. Looked very promising. Apparently had attitude problems.
Cherno Samba - Early 00's hyped up wonderkid. Ended up a Championship Manager legend
Freddy Adu - Was ridiculously hyped up. Talkshows etc. Next Pele he was gonna be..
Martin Djetou - Versatile Monaco player who was forever linked with us and a host of top European clubs in the late 90's. Ended up a bit of a journeyman in the 00's..
Cherno Samba - Early 00's hyped up wonderkid. Ended up a Championship Manager legend
Freddy Adu - Was ridiculously hyped up. Talkshows etc. Next Pele he was gonna be..
Martin Djetou - Versatile Monaco player who was forever linked with us and a host of top European clubs in the late 90's. Ended up a bit of a journeyman in the 00's..
Djetou is an interesting case, he was very good but had issues dealing with pressure, he talks about it relatively openly today. It's a shame that he didn't manage to find the required support at the time.
Yeah, looked Desailly-esque when he first came through.
Yup. Seen a few mentions of Sonny Pike too. Him and Lamptey were certainly the two biggest schoolboy sensations of the 1990s. Adu being their 2000s equivalent.
Yeah he was injured for a week or so, that tackle and subsequent injury is one of the biggest myths of our youth system.
Max Mayer has played 12 out of 15 games for Palace this season. de la Red retired due to a heart condition.
Jese though, he got fed up of Stoke and just left, literally disappearing mid-season. Turning up in some reggaeton videos.
Didn't he play for Fulham or am I confusing him with Phillip Christanval?
Was racking my brains yesterday to think of that United youth defender people were going mad about on here 6-7 years ago and now have it so cheers to that poster who mentioned him.....Tom Thorpe. Was on loan at Birmingham, Bolton and Rotherham but had injury problems. No idea who he plays for now.
They both did, if I'm not mistaken.
Interesting case. He was very talented indeed but as far as I remember he didn't actually care much for the environment of professional football, the competitiveness and all that. So he more or less fell out of love with the game. He played a bit in the Danish top flight but retired quite early due to the mentioned reasons.
Last I heard he was absolutely loving volunteering/part-timing as a youth coach where the game was still just fun.
Colins John.
Another name just popped into my head Fabien Brandy! Remember watching the youth team religiously when I was younger, and he was supposed to be attracting interest from Barca, now last I heard he was in league 2, seems he was too physically deficient, dare I say it, shades of our Angel Gomes?
- Nuri Sahin
- Ganso
- Yaya Sanogo
- Khouma babacar
Not sure if just FM legends or actually good.
The Next Zizou?
There was only ever one heir apparent to Mr Zidane and that was Mr Bruno Cheyrou lol
Martin Odegaard... where the hell is he?
You can find a host of vanished talents from this thread.
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/top-100-young-players-of-2001.205125/
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/top-100-young-players-of-2001.205125/
The Next Zizou?
The successor of Camel "Next Zizou" Meriem. Meghni was himself followed by Marvin "New Zidane" Martin. It's a good thing this comparison stopped.
He’s made 47 league appearances in the Eredivise over the last two and a half years and he’ll only turn 20 next month. He’s not doing that badly.
Jermaine Pennant #5
Andres Iniesta #20
Arjen Robben #27
Zlatan Ibrahimovich #35
They nailed it
David Odonkor was one that vanished
Keirisson
Cristiano Ronaldo, left Sporting Lisbon and nobody has seen him since.....
Macheda
Januzaj
Januzaj
Lazar Markovic maybe? Still at Liverpool (not even loaned out) and hasn't played a game all year except from pre-season. He did play some matches for Anderlecht the last half of last season. He was highly rated as a youngster wasn't he? Only 24 though so can still turn his career around.
Runs in the family. Ola John was quite promising too.
Riechedly Bazoer.
was here mentioned kerlon? was sublime in some u17 tournament, labeled another cristiano ronaldo, had nothing career, was at inter, before two seasons he showed in slovak first league for trnava and couldnt get a game, played also somewhere in malta. At 28 finished totally, very fat, probably alcohol problems.
quite decent player but when mamadou sakho jumped onto scene i thought he would be now top top CB. Captain of psg at very young age.
alan dzagoev also quite fine career, is stable national team player, but when burst to world football i expected more of him, we can say same about Jano Ananidze.
From more recent history, Alen Halilovic, was considered much bigger talent than Kovacic, went to Barcelona, still young, but have no idea where he is playing now.
From Slovakia i could mention Miroslav Stoch, guy was fantastic at fenerbahce, scoring screamers every week (won puskas 2012), i was telling friend he will end up in some of top clubs in two years, instead he went to some arabic countries for chill tempo league, had many alcoholic scandals, told national coach he is motherf*cker, he stopped playing national team and now playing for slavia in czech league. Now at 29 he seems finally stabilized and is two levels up of anything in czech league, but i thought he will be much better. Same we could say about our another winger Vladimir Weiss - city academy product, at 23 he could play agains us for olympiacos (scored super solo goal against psg in CHL) but in winter he signed for qatari team. Still in qatar, he definitelly had talent to be good player for everton level of team.
quite decent player but when mamadou sakho jumped onto scene i thought he would be now top top CB. Captain of psg at very young age.
alan dzagoev also quite fine career, is stable national team player, but when burst to world football i expected more of him, we can say same about Jano Ananidze.
From more recent history, Alen Halilovic, was considered much bigger talent than Kovacic, went to Barcelona, still young, but have no idea where he is playing now.
From Slovakia i could mention Miroslav Stoch, guy was fantastic at fenerbahce, scoring screamers every week (won puskas 2012), i was telling friend he will end up in some of top clubs in two years, instead he went to some arabic countries for chill tempo league, had many alcoholic scandals, told national coach he is motherf*cker, he stopped playing national team and now playing for slavia in czech league. Now at 29 he seems finally stabilized and is two levels up of anything in czech league, but i thought he will be much better. Same we could say about our another winger Vladimir Weiss - city academy product, at 23 he could play agains us for olympiacos (scored super solo goal against psg in CHL) but in winter he signed for qatari team. Still in qatar, he definitelly had talent to be good player for everton level of team.
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Pablo Piatti was supposed to be a star for the future. Has had a decent career though, but never became the world class player I thought he would become.
Has played over 100 games for Valencia, 1 for Argentina and now a rotation player for Espanyol. 29 years old
Has played over 100 games for Valencia, 1 for Argentina and now a rotation player for Espanyol. 29 years old
Zakaria Bakkali
Ismael Aissati
Ravel Morrison
Neil Mellor
Freddie Sears
Conor Wickham
Gai Assulin
Lula/Lulinha
Me
Nile Ranger
Jermaine Pennant
Ismael Aissati
Ravel Morrison
Neil Mellor
Freddie Sears
Conor Wickham
Gai Assulin
Lula/Lulinha
Me
Nile Ranger
Jermaine Pennant
I have no idea what happened with Diego Capel.
Good ones
Halilovic, who I just read plays at Milan.
That kid that played on the wing for PSV - Bakkali or something?
He was playing at 16 and even managed to get a Cap or 2 for Belgium at 16 aswell. An impressive achievement considering the options Belgium have on the wings...
I remember there was a lot of hype around him but I have not heard of him in years.
Last thing that i remember about him was reading about a contract dispute and wanted to move to a bigger club. He moved to Valencia Im sure and haven't heard about him since.
Anyone know how he is doing these days?
He was playing at 16 and even managed to get a Cap or 2 for Belgium at 16 aswell. An impressive achievement considering the options Belgium have on the wings...
I remember there was a lot of hype around him but I have not heard of him in years.
Last thing that i remember about him was reading about a contract dispute and wanted to move to a bigger club. He moved to Valencia Im sure and haven't heard about him since.
Anyone know how he is doing these days?
Alex Teixeira. Was supposed to be a promising one right around the time Neymar started getting attention, now 28 and playing in China.
Seb Deisler remains the saddest story of all.
How highly were Benny Lauth and Daniel Bierofka rated in Germany ?
Dzagoev is a fantastic midfielder, but he and Akinfeev never wanted to leave CSKA Moscow, despite having offers from top clubs. He's already very well paid. I don't know if we can call it loyalty or lack of ambition, tbh.
Depression got him. You can't control mental health issues.
Anyone remembers Márcio Sousa? 
Considered the best wolrd propspect at his age, never played in the portuguese top division.
I think with nowadays coaching he would have become a top player. He was very very talented.
https://www.transfermarkt.com/marcio-sousa/profil/spieler/103877
Other player that few people know: Xano
https://www.transfermarkt.pt/xano/profil/spieler/13883
This guy was by far the most talented young player I've see in my life. He was so skilled that in international tournaments people were telling that he was going to overachieve Luis Figo.
Problem is that Xano, despite his talent, came from a poor and disfunctional familly, where alcohol, drugs and domestic violence was everyday's meal and eventually got almost abandoned by his family.
He was caught positive to marijuana and got suspended twice, and eventually got arrested by drug possession and battery.
He basically did this in his premiere:
Considered the best wolrd propspect at his age, never played in the portuguese top division.
I think with nowadays coaching he would have become a top player. He was very very talented.
https://www.transfermarkt.com/marcio-sousa/profil/spieler/103877
Other player that few people know: Xano
https://www.transfermarkt.pt/xano/profil/spieler/13883
This guy was by far the most talented young player I've see in my life. He was so skilled that in international tournaments people were telling that he was going to overachieve Luis Figo.
Problem is that Xano, despite his talent, came from a poor and disfunctional familly, where alcohol, drugs and domestic violence was everyday's meal and eventually got almost abandoned by his family.
He was caught positive to marijuana and got suspended twice, and eventually got arrested by drug possession and battery.
He basically did this in his premiere:
but wasn't he supposed to be the "next galactico" at some stage or am I thinking of someone else?
Hervin Ongenda - PSG youth player that was tipped for great things. 8 goals in 11 for France U16s, he and someone who I cannot remember dominated a youth tournament at Carrington for PSG.
Never kicked on, got caps at older youth levels but struggled to score much. Now playing in Romania.
Never kicked on, got caps at older youth levels but struggled to score much. Now playing in Romania.
That reminds me of Souleymane Coulibaly. Dominated an u17 World Cup winning the golden ball, signed for Spurs on the back of that and disappeared afterwards. Playing for Partick Thistle now.