+ Biggest waste of exceptional talent +

[Bristol Coys]

Basically, I'm trying to think of players with massive potential that somehow wasted or blew their talent often by self destruction. Maybe a teenage sensation with the world at his feet, e.g. Someone like Walcott today, who just F*cked it up. Fanny Jeffers might be an example. Although Lee Sharpe takes some beating. Paul Stewart got me thinking on this one originally

In order to get some feedback I'm going to throw a name out there of someone who was relatively successful and could have been up there with the all time greats Pele & Diego, but due to his self destructive nature, never realised his FULL POTENTIAL; Paul Gascoigne.Eek

 

[Tickers]

Gazza was my first thought when I saw the title of this thread.

Such a shame.

 

[VegasII]

Ah, you started it in the end, Bristol.

Def. Gazza - although Pele & Diego's national sides were a lot more successful than Gazza's & we also missed the 94 world cup. Mind you, I can't remember whether Gazza was any good in 94 - he might have been fat, bloated, pony tailed & playing for Lazio.

I remember seeing him on Gazzetta Italia - an Easter special & he had his head inside a giant chocolate easter egg. I think he was eating it from the inside out. Schoolboy's own stuff, yet again.

 

[soup]

First to my mind is Ronaldo (Brasil). All the talent in the world but due to his alledged playboy lifestyle and seeming inability to control his weight/diet he never truly fulfilled it. He was the best in the world for a while and while he will always be remembered as a genius of sorts he had the potential to be one of football's all time great strikers. Maybe he already is considered as such by some, but that just goes to show what he could have been.

 

[Kyras]

First to my mind is Ronaldo (Brasil). All the talent in the world but due to his alledged playboy lifestyle and seeming inability to control his weight/diet he never truly fulfilled it. He was the best in the world for a while and while he will always be remembered as a genius of sorts he had the potential to be one of football's all time great strikers. Maybe he already is considered as such by some, but that just goes to show what he could have been.

Ronaldo at least was recognised as the best player in the world, or one of, anyway, but Adriano is probably worse; stronger, more powerful, great finisher, and spend months in a hotel room living the playboy lifestyle and became an alcoholic.

 

[tony_parkes]

There is a very good book about a former Reading player called Robin Friday, it's called The Greatest Footballer You Never Saw. I didn't ever see him play but he should definitely have played for a bigger club, a definite waste of talent.

The book is written by Guigsy, who used to be in Oasis, which is wierd. Read his Wiki page, the bit about Mark Lawrenson is priceless.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Friday

 

[VegasII]

He was on the cover of the Super Furry Animals' cd 'The man don't give a f***'.

 

[Teofilo-Stevenson]

Adriano?

World class - but he self-destructed at a younger age to Ronaldo and before he'd achieved as much as Ronny.

 

[Banny]

my first thought was "oh no, not another Taarabt thread" :grin::grin:

 

[Schoolboys' Own Stuff]

Dave McEwan.

 

[Rackybear]

Ronaldo was world class for many years. At inter milan and his early years at real madrid he was the bollox. I think all the success and Ballon D'ors went to his head and he perhaps thought he had nothing else to achieve having already won european and world player of the year, the champions league, the world cup, the all time top scorer at the world cup, what else did he have to do. So he started to enjoy his life and kinda f'ed up the remainder of his football career.

 

[SpurSince57]

Did Jeffers really cock it up, or was he just nowhere near as good as people thought?

Besty, surely—although like Gazza, he had several fabulous years before he hit the skids.

Denilson?

 

[donny1013]

Antonio Cassano, hell of a player at Roma, then made the mistake of moving to Real Madrid and his career took a nosedive after that. He is getting back on track with Samp though.
Reyes, awesome at Sevilla, thankfully turned out to be shite for Woolwich, now on loan at Benfica
Joaquin, immense at Betis, could have moved anywhere he wanted, chose Valencia and he has been average at best for them, missing out on Spains Euro 08 squad.
Adriano, has everything in his game to be the best striker in the world but his head just isn't right and his partying has held him back big time
Mendieta, was the heartbeat of Valencia's side that got to the CL finals, then made the €48 million move to Lazio which has to be one of the worst transfers in Serie A history, he didn't settle and only played 20 games before moving to Boro.

 

[senseispab]

Le Tissier

I think the guy had so much talent that he never developed any hunger.

Imo he was on Zidane's level flair-wise.....

 

[hellava_tough]

Stan Collymore was a great player back in the day - complete mentalist though!

Michael Owen's worth a mention as well. His initial injuries really took his pace away, and subsequent injuries have robbed him of a run of good form.

Possibly Jamie Redknapp?

Ronaldinho seems to be going that way as well. His skill levels are off the scale, and has the potential to be up there with Pele and Maradona. But it seems he'd rather party hard instead. Oh well, I guess he's won everything there is to win already. Just shows how good he is - wins everything there is to win and still doesn't fulfill his potential.

Finally, my Sixth Form football team NEVER lived up to its potential (I was the centre-forward, btw :grin. We had bags of talent, but instead of mid-week training we'd party. Instead of getting an early night before the match we'd party. Instead of turning up on time for the match, we'd still be partying. Instead of having a warm-down session after the match, we'd go to the pub to begin partying. Out of the 20 or so games we played every season, there must have been 8 or 9 matches when most of the team were still pissed. The funny thing was, we actually won one of those games :grin:.

 

[Midostouch]

My first thought was Collymore - he could have made much more of his career had he not got involved in drink, drugs, Ulrika, dogging etc etc.

 

[deselina]

Quincy Owusu Abeyie - Took the U20 WC by storm, was better than Huntelaar, Babel et al. Felt too good to go on loan and play in the Championship while at Arsenal. Moved to Moscow for the money, didn't hack it there and is now playing.. in the Championship on loan.

Podolski - For wasting his time on the bench at Bayern

Le Tallec & Sinama-Pongolle - Why on earth did they sign for Liverpool? They should've stayed at their respective clubs like Benzema is doing now and move when they were respective Internationals for France like Nasri.

Kluivert.

 

[SpurSince57]

For some reason the name Djalminha has just sprung to mind.

 

[CosmicHotspur]

I don't think anyone's mentioned George Best (sorry if I missed it), who should have gone on playing much longer. Another flawed genius like Gazza and one of the most naturally talented footballers I ever saw grace a football pitch.

 

[donny1013]

Kluivert.

Forgot to mention Kluivert. One of my fav players when i was growing up. His record for Holland is phenomenal 79 games and 40 goals. At Barca he was brilliant and after leaving there his career just went down the pan, not helped by a list of injuries. Now doing his coaching badges so hopefully he will stay in the game