All Martin Odegaard's in the World

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Bojan was another kid that was meant to become a great. I remember the debate between him and Kroos as the best prospects ca. 2007. Quite a few people thought he'd be much better than Kroos. I think mental issues prevented him from ever even becoming a good pro.

 

[Live in the Now]

Oh Marko Marin, Samed Yesil & Sinan Kurt.

Yesil looked like a player until his knee exploded.

 

[Stray Wasp]

Mention of Nil Lamptey is compulsory in this type of discussion.

 

[gary69]

Mention of Nil Lamptey is compulsory in this type of discussion.

Although Anderlecht back then were relatively bigger than what they are today, I still wouldn't say that the reason why his career didn't turn out as expected, was him moving to a too big a club too soon for money only (the premise that the OP hinted). It seemed like a smart at that time, I thought.

 

[Stray Wasp]

Although Anderlecht back then were relatively bigger than what they are today, I still wouldn't say that the reason why his career didn't turn out as expected, was him moving to a too big a club too soon for money only (the premise that the OP hinted). It seemed like a smart at that time, I thought.

Although I agree with you that Anderlecht wasn't the worst move for Lamptey, please note that it was Evilo who first introduced the money theme rather than the OP.

 

[cgf]

Yesil looked like a player until his knee exploded.

That and him deciding that getting his move to Liverpool meant he had arrived & so could stop working...

 

[phisherman]

Too bad the Soccer Prospects lists that Juni, Evilo, Ajacied, etc. created from time to time got wiped out. It would have been interesting to go back and look at those lists and see what became of those prospects.

 

[Suiteness]

There's an article floating around the interwebs that boldly claims Liverpool made better business signing Le Tallec than Man United who countered with an overhyped youngster named Cristiano Ronaldo.

I'll throw Pablo Aimar and Juan Riquelme here. They had good careers but the hype around these two was massive, they were supposed to dominate football for a decade.

 

[Panteras]

Ryan Gauld?

 

[bluesfan94]

Halilovic
Miyachi
Zelalem

 

[Eye of Ra]

in sweden we have tony flygare. He was a bigger talent than Zlatan, both of them played in swedens biggest club, Malmö FF. tony flugare missed a important penalty and since then he sucked. he went into depression.

2 other swedes with world-class potential that never turned into anything was Hasse Blomqvist (brother to Jesper who played for Milan and Man United) and Johnny Rödlund. Blomqvist was injured all the time and Rödlund was a lazy bastard.

Hasse Blomqvist:

 

[Eye of Ra]

Also Bojan Djordjic. He was a lazy bastard.

 

[Luigi Habs]

There's an article floating around the interwebs that boldly claims Liverpool made better business signing Le Tallec than Man United who countered with an overhyped youngster named Cristiano Ronaldo.

I'll throw Pablo Aimar and Juan Riquelme here. They had good careers but the hype around these two was massive, they were supposed to dominate football for a decade.

I agree about Aimar.

As for Riquelme, he was simply an artist. For some reason his club career abroad didn't go well, but he his career with Boca Junior and Argentina were great.

 

[cgf]

If we’re including supertalents who were destroyed by injuries I have to throw Sebastian Deisler into the mix. He was well on his way to becoming the german Figo before his body fell apart

 

[Savi]

I agree about Aimar.

As for Riquelme, he was simply an artist. For some reason his club career abroad didn't go well, but he his career with Boca Junior and Argentina were great.

Aimar's career was (somewhat) derailed by injuries. Also I don't remember him being seen as someone who was gonna dominate world football.

Riquelme was great at Villarreal as well. Was one missed PK away from leading them to a CL final. And at the 2006 World Cup, against the Germans he was subbed off for Cambiasso who went on to miss the PK that knocked Argentina out of a tournament where they were clearly the best team. How different would we view Riquelme today if he'd won a CL and WC..

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

I would never count guys in here who simply had good or very good careers, i.e. the likes of Riquelme and Pablo Aimar, instead of 'great' careers. There's only a very select few players who turn into all-time greats. If you play professionally for a decade at a high level no-one can say you really disappointed or were a 'bust'.

 

[JeffreyLFC]

Bojan Krkic and James Vaughan

 

[robertmac43]

Ah. Evilo know-it-all. How would Ødegaard have developed if he went to another team?

I mean going to a team that is known for fostering growth and then using it as a jump to one of the behemoth clubs would have been a smarter decision hands down. A 16 year old going to Real has dissapointment written all over it

 

[robertmac43]

Bojan

Obviously he did not live up to the hype. But he has had a more respectable career than many other young failures.

 

[Ceremony]

Ryan Gauld?

Ready to lead Sporting's charge back to respectability since they're only going to have about five players left by the time the season starts. He'll be fine.

 

[S E P H]

Ah. Evilo know-it-all. How would Ødegaard have developed if he went to another team? Obviously quite hard to answer. Look at any list of talents from any year and you'll see most don't live up to their hype. At 15-16 it is basically impossible to say who will actually end up becoming good (or in this case very good). I seem to vaguely remember that discussion about Ødegaard (not sure). What is true is that he has a father that used to play - so certainly more knowledge than usual in the family about what is required for a professional football player (and I'm sure they knew most fail at RM and that it was part of the decision making process).

Failed badly physical training? And what does that mean?

I am not going to get into a discussion on if he knows anything or not (I mean my fantasy draft squad definitely beats his), but he isn't entirely wrong here. All the Norwegian fans came in here saying how he was going to be the next CR7 and anyone who discredits him should be burnt at the stake. I think the same thing happened with another Danish prospect as well who was only a youth star. I actually member how majority of us preferred him to head to Ajax or Juve, but chose his death at Madrid. Real doesn't really develop players, they poach them.

 

[Wee Baby Seamus]

Yeah, of all the things to call Evilo smug about

Going to Madrid was always gonna be dumb. Shoulda gone to Ajax.

 

[John Pedro]

He'll still be a class player, maybe not Madrid level but good enough to start for top Premier League sides. Incredible talent.

 

[Suiteness]

As for Riquelme, he was simply an artist. For some reason his club career abroad didn't go well, but he his career with Boca Junior and Argentina were great.

The man was a headcase apparently and a bit of a diva. If I rembember correctly, he would skip practices often and his time was also when European football was phasing out the classical #10.

Other argentine busts, Andrès D'Alessandro, Javier Saviola and Marcello Gallardo.

Gallardo was an odd story. He was actually doing really well for Monaco but there was a crazy story where he was apparently jumped by a bunch of guys at halftime of a match in Marseille. Like litteraly got his ass kicked by a dozen of people in the stadium. @Evilo
would surely know more about this. He sort of tanked after that.

 

[John Pedro]

I agree about Aimar.

As for Riquelme, he was simply an artist. For some reason his club career abroad didn't go well, but he his career with Boca Junior and Argentina were great.

Riquelme was amazing, one of my favorite Argentine players after Marcelo Gallardo. Back in the day when it was a nightmare to face Boca Juniors in the Libertadores because of La Bombonera and Riquelme.