Biggest waste of a talent in football (5 Viewers)

[Red]

I think you need to differentiate in this thread between players who wasted their talent through there own stupidity (lifestyle choices, bad transfers, etc.), like Adriano and Cassano, and those who didn't fulfil their potential simply because of being unlucky with injuries.

I'd mention Mascherano, for instance, as a waste of talent.

His move to Barca has seen him go from being arguably the best defensive midfielder in the world to a third-rate centre-half.

 

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[Pablo]

Becoming a millionair, playing for huge clubs, and your country is not a waste of talent.

A waste of talent would be someone that didn't make the grade due to other problems.

2 names I will give you, for you to look up. Robin Friday & Billy Kenny.

 

[abstract]

Gazza

 

[JuveJay]

Becoming a millionair, playing for huge clubs, and your country is not a waste of talent.

A waste of talent would be someone that didn't make the grade due to other problems.

2 names I will give you, for you to look up. Robin Friday & Billy Kenny.

Depends what you mean by 'make the grade'. Those two players both never got capped, but they did play pro, and in the modern game would have been millionaires. To me they are just the same as the players mentioned previously.

If we talk about real wastes who never even made it to a pro level I can think of 3-4 lads I used to play with who certainly could have been at least Championship level. I know this because I have played with players who played at that level and above. The difference was simply determination, less talented players work harder.

 

[Red]

Duncan Edwards could have done so much more if he'd looked after himself better.

 

[JuveJay]

Duncan Edwards could have done so much more if he'd looked after himself better.

Oh you went there.

 

[am0110]

Gravesen

 

[Pablo]

Depends what you mean by 'make the grade'. Those two players both never got capped, but they did play pro, and in the modern game would have been millionaires. To me they are just the same as the players mentioned previously.

If we talk about real wastes who never even made it to a pro level I can think of 3-4 lads I used to play with who certainly could have been at least Championship level. I know this because I have played with players who played at that level and above. The difference was simply determination, less talented players work harder.

Robin Friday could have been George Best level.

Billy Kenny played a handfull of of games, in comparisons, its like Ross Barkley now hitting the coke & ale, and never playing again.

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How about Micheal Johnson, former City player.

 

[JuveJay]

I heard he was George Best level, at the bar.

 

[Pablo]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2338855/Robin-Friday-The-greatest-footballer-saw-Film-tribute-set-Reading-Cardiff-legend.html

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http://www.amazon.co.uk/Greatest-Footballer-You-Never-Saw/dp/1840181087

 

[radekas]

I'm surprised noone mentioned Freddy Adu yet. The hype this guy had since his early teens was unprecedented. And he turned into nobody.

 

[Red]

But was the hype justified?

Did Adu actually fulfil his potential and the problem was merely that his potential was grossly overstated?

 

[radekas]

But was the hype justified?

Did Adu actually fulfil his potential and the problem was merely that his potential was grossly overstated?

Who knows. It is a wasted talent because he was considered world's top talent for quite some time.

 

[JuveJay]

I think the US soccer fan base were hoping, more than anything.

Besides, he's hardly the first ethnically African player to explode at youth level and then disappear to nothingness. He might well have been fantastic back then, and you can only base hope (and hype) on that.

 

[Hængebøffer]

It all lies in the transition form youth to senior player. People says a lot of players waste their talent, when they become senior player - I would argue most of them are not good enough.

 

[JuveJay]

It all lies in the transition form youth to senior player. People says a lot of players waste their talent, when they become senior player - I would argue most of them are not good enough.

I tend to agree.

 

[Fint]

I think it was sarcasm, and if not then probably insanity.

Cant it be both?

 

[radekas]

I think the talent is there but the passion is not. Most of young guys stop working hard when they earn their first big money. Add parting and drinking to that and we have a ready wasted talent. In order to be a successful professional world-class sportsman you need to avoid the pleasures that most people around 20 years old like. Not every young football players has the balls to do that.

 

[Dostoevsky]

Marco Motta.

 

[Trequartista]

Marco Motta.

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