Five Youngsters Who Never Reached Their Potential

There is plenty of talent out there, but some make it big and stay at the top while others fail to live upto the expectations. The world has witnessed the talents of Cristiano Ronaldo , Lionel Messi , Ricardo Kaka and many more thanks to the talent and the hard work put in by these players throughout their career. They turned themselves from a youth prospect to a big star but there are many who failed to live upto the hype. Let’s look at some of those names who took the world by storm but failed to make an impact.

5. Anderson 

The Brazilian midfielder was named the next Ricardo Kaka by many, and there was a reason why Sir Alex spent a good 20 million for the then 19 year old lad. Anderson became one of the top young talents at Porto and United grabbed him without a second thought. The Brazilian midfielder won enough trophies at the Manchester based club including a Champions League title and 4 league titles during his 8 years at the Manchester based club but failed to live upto the expectation. The Brazilian’s growth was halted by an injury during hi third season at the club. The Brazilian scored only 5 goals in his 105 appearances for the club and the once future “Kaka” is now back to his homeland playing for Internacional where he has bagged a goal in 45 appearances so far.

4. Bebe 

The Portuguese striker was one of the top talents in the footballing world as Manchester Untied won the race to sign the forward who had just moved to Vitoria de Guimares on a free transfer. Looking at his amazing pre season form United reached an agreement with the Portuguese club and a fee of around 9 million was agreed according to the media. United beat Real Madrid and Benfica to get the signature of Bebe. United scouts had an option of either signing James Rodriguez for around 5 million or Bebe for 9 and United stuck with the latter and who knew the former will end up being World Cup golden shoe winner and joining Real Madrid for that matter and the latter is now at Eibar a mid table club in La liga. United already had surplus strikers as Bebe was on loan all the time at his time at United and in the end Benfica landed his signature. Bebe surprisingly made just one appearance for the Portuguese side and was out on loan again to Cordoba and then Rayo Vallecano. After horrible loan spells eventually he is now at Eibar.

3. Mendieta 

Gaizka Mendieta was one of the most sought after midfielder when he led Valenica to two consecutive UCL final with his stellar performances. Lazio finally bagged him after splashing out 48 million for him at the expense of Sebastian Veron and Paul Nedved. Mendieta failed to replicate his Valencia exploits at the Italian club and was loaned out to Barcelona. He finally ended his career at Middlesborough in the second division of English football.

2. Robinho

The Brazilian was one of the top talents at a point of time displaying all sorts of skills on the wing terrorizing defenses and his vision was really amazing. Looking at his amazing progress at Santos, Real Madrid got the Brazilian for 24 millions and it paid off as Robinho played crucial role in Madrid’s league title wins scoring goals grabbing man of the match award for his performances in El Clasico but Ramon Calderon the then president failed to convince the Brazilian sign a contract extension watching the starlet moving to Manchester City after 4 great seasons with the Los Blancos. Robinho totally failed to live up to the expectation as the result of moving out of the Spanish capital backfired and he was finally loaned back to Santos. The now 32 year old now plays for Atletico Mineiro , he was predicted to be the best player in the world but failed after making a wrong choice of going to Manchester City. The former Madrid player was as good as Ronaldinho in his prime but failed to make it big after such an extraordinary start to his career.

1. Ricardo Quaresma

The former teammate of Cristiano Ronaldo at Sporting both were destined for big things but their careers took totally different turns as one ended up becoming the best in the world conquering every possible trophy coming his way while the other came out to be a total flop. Former Liverpool manager Phil Thompson once was quoted saying ” Portugal had two starlets: Quaresma and Ronaldo who played right and left wing for the under-21s. I saw them play and both were very good. It was a toss-up as to who was the best.” Both had incredible amount of potential but one worked hard to achieve his dreams while the other flopped time and again. Quaresma did have the edge in the start as he was grabbed away by Barcelona but since then his career just went downhill as he moved to Inter , Chelsea(on loan), Porto and finally ended up again at Besiktas where he had already played 3 seasons. He did won the Euro with Cristiano Ronaldo and played a crucial role in the Portugal’s campaign but at club level he totally flopped. The 33 year old though is in great form with the Turkish side and is having an amazing Champions League campaign as well this season.