Along with massive hype comes massive pressure and while some footballers embrace the attention, others simply fade away into mediocrity.
Sometimes injuries or psychological issues cause a player’s career to take a nosedive but at other times it is simply a matter of media and fans vastly overestimating his abilities or potential.
This thread is for discussion about footballers that could have been a legend of the game but couldn’t reach their full potentials as a result of different and vast reasons.
A combination of factors, including injuries, lack of consistency, off-field issues, or failure to adapt, can hinder even the most promising careers and prevent players from achieving legendary status in football. Few such players are:
Eric Djemba Djemba
The Cameroonian was once held in high regard in the French league after a promising spell at his first club Nantes. Djemba Djemba was seen as the successor to Manchester United legend Roy Keane. As a promising 22-year old, he made his way to Old Trafford in the summer of 2003 after the two clubs agreed a fee of ÂŁ3.5 million. He made his debut with Cristiano Ronaldo against Bolton that year.
However, personal problems along with a bad attitude affected his promising career and his career path took a different turn than Ronaldo’s.
Owen was one of the most exciting young talents in world football when he burst onto the scene as a teenager at Liverpool. He won the Ballon d’Or in 2001 and scored a famous goal for England against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup. However, injuries took their toll on his body, and he was never the same player again. He retired from professional football at the age of 33.
Johnson was an English midfielder who was once considered a rising star in English football. He emerged through Manchester City’s youth academy and showcased immense talent and technical skills. However, a series of personal and mental health issues, along with recurring injuries, severely impacted his career. Johnson’s decline was swift, and he retired from professional football at the age of 24, never fulfilling his early promise.
Kaka
Kaka was a phenomenal Brazilian attacking midfielder who won the FIFA Ballon d’Or in 2007. However, a series of injuries and a decline in form hindered his career, preventing him from maintaining the extraordinary level he displayed earlier in his career.
When Pep Guardiola gave Bojan his debut at Barcelona, he beat a certain Lionel Messi to become the youngest ever player for Barcelona. Not only that, he is rumoured to have scored around 800 goals for various age groups since he joined the Catalan giants, and was touted to be bigger than the Argentine number 10.
However, as Barcelona invested in the likes of David Villa and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Bojan found first-team chances hard to come by despite some impressive performances for the Spanish giants. He eventually moved to Roma, after falling out with Pep.
Since then he has had the career of a nomad. Despite being just 26 years old, he has changed clubs six times in his career. His latest move was to Bundesliga club Mainz to get regular playing time which he didn’t get at Stoke City. STOKE CITY.
