Touted wonderkids who made no impact in football

Bojan Krkic , Wilshere
 
Some I thought never kicked on ,some still did ok but never got to the levels they might

Freddy Adu
Pato
Bojan
Ravel Morrison
Januzaj
Macheda
 
Thought Bojan made a decent career for himself. Sure he didn't hit the heights of Thiago,Pique and maybe Roberto (not even going to mention Messi) but he was still a decent player,especially for Stoke of all places.
 
This will turn into another ‘didn’t read the OP’ thread
 
ThinkTank@Cafe said:
Javier Saviola
Joao Felix (?)
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Saviola had a half decent career. He was a journeyman but he played for the likes of Barca, Benefica, Sevilla and even Real Madrid. I wouldn't put him as a wonderkid who had no impact on football. You can put him with the likes of Quaresma as someone who didn't achieve as much as he could have, but he certainly doesn't belong in this discussion.
 
Nick7 said:
oh yeah remember him? He looked quite decent for Turkey. Has an appalling attitude if wikipedia is anything to go by


:lol:
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:lol:
I just typed Emre Mor and Tuchel into Google Images and they are full of pictures of Tuchel looking p*ssed.:lol:
 
Remember Fernando Cavenaghi at River Plate? He was immense on Championship Manager.
 
Hervin Ongenda? Alright, if Morrison has done too much to qualify then he possibly has too but to me both have done nothing of note.

Trying to remember who is mate was, he and someone else tore up a youth tournament at Carrington 9-10 years back for PSG and both had a ton of hype.
 
Might be a bit of a stretch because he is still a semi decent footballer at a relatively high level, but — Zakaria Bakkali.

He was the youngest player to ever score a hat trick in the Dutch League and got called up to the Belgian NT at 17.
 
Michael Johnson, the City boy?

Jose Baxter is now playing for Memphis 901 FC. Who? Exactly.
 
Irish fans will remember Liam George who was coming through with Robbie Keane and Damien Duff at underage level and was really highly rated but suffered a serious injury and never lived up to his potential.
 
I think they got hard done by the FM scouting department.

The FM for their own interest planted these "wonderkids" to make the game interesting and some actual "unlucky" player got designated as a -9 PA and sometimes it ruins their career.

Was saviola a flop? the only reason he was called one is because he's so good at FM, which isn't fair to him
 
Dale Jennings, the lad that went from Tranmere to Bayern Munich. He had a rough go of it after going back to England and gradually falling down the Football League before ending up at Runcorn Town.

As a club with a decent turnover of Academy graduates West Ham have had a few of these over the years. Lads like Kyle Reid, Zavon Hines and Freddie Sears all getting brief bubbles of hype before fading away. He's still only young but Reece Oxford is a recent one, big hype from debuting so young, getting linked to United and such, doesn't seem to be going anywhere after moving to Germany.
 
Sebastian Deisler is another one who just popped into my head. Retired at 27 or something like that because of injuries.
Keirrison, and Gai Assulin were both highly touted at Barca, while I remember C. Ronaldo was talking highly about Fabio Paim saying he was even more talented than he himself was.
 
DWelbz19 said:
Michael Johnson, the City boy?

Jose Baxter is now playing for Memphis 901 FC. Who? Exactly.
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Both downfalls triggered by mental health issues. Feel sorry for them both. Johnson has completely disappeared from the public eye and it's difficult to find any news about him because he's taken himself completely out of it which is fair.

Baxter IIRC had drug problems - cocaine, ecstasy, weed which caused him to go into severe depression and difficult to recover from when you're already at a low point.
 
Another recent one that was with us - Lookman. I hope it doesn't go that way but he's 22 now and isn't making much impact at Leipzig at all.
 
Nick7 said:
oh yeah remember him? He looked quite decent for Turkey. Has an appalling attitude if wikipedia is anything to go by


:lol:
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This guy took wasting your talent to a new level.




That was a Bundesliga match, a big chance for Mor to earn himself a bigger role. I've never seen anything like it.
 
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Not exactly what the OP was after, but:

https://talksport.com/football/tran...-fight-chelsea-brazilian-wonderkid-100827856/

Neymar-Ganso-Santos.jpg
 
Not being a dick guys, but we've had plenty of wonderkids that didn't live up to their potential threads. OP specifically states some criteria and even lists Ravel Morrison as an example of who not to list, yet some people are specifically listing him. Maybe actually read OP's post?
 
Possebon is now the director of football at a fourth division Brazilian club at the age of 31 after last playing for Ho Chi Minh FC for a few weeks before being released.
 
Kerlon had that ridiculous dolphin dribble that made all European teams want him.

Some others:

Keirrison (Barca)
Breno (Bayern)
Paulinho (Barca)
 
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