Edmundo. Pace, power, enormous skill - finished Fiorentina's outside shot at winning Serie A in 1999 because he preferred to attend the Rio Carnival, which neatly illustrated why more prestigious European teams were smart to give him a wide berth.
Stan Collymore. In terms of talent, arguably the best English striker of his generation.
It might sound odd to name Robbie Fowler, but consider that he never scored 20 league goals in a season after the age of 21 - an age at which he seemed a dead certainty to overhaul Shearer as the EPL's leading all-time scorer in time.
Julen Guerrero's career was always likely to hit a glass ceiling once he committed himself to Athletic Bilbao, but he went into a long decline that was sad to see.
Ivan de la Pena (I know there should be accents in his name, but I'm lazy) became a kind of footballing hero in the city of Barcelona, but not in the way hoped for him when he was 20 or so.
Much as Titus Bramble is mocked, it was brain cells he lacked, not talent.
Joe Cole's career ended up lucrative and successful, but nowhere near as glorious as had been projected when he was a teenager.
I loved to watch the Santos team of 2002-2004. Diego and Robinho were such fun to watch, but neither lived up to the hype that inevitably followed their winning the Brazilian title as teenagers with the club of Pele.
If we're allowing players whose careers were derailed by injuries:
Michael Bridges would not, I think, have been a star of the first rank, but an excellent player for Leeds and a useful asset to England backing up Rooney and Owen during the Wooden Generation era (surely better than Vassell and, I think, more useful than Heskey and Crouch, although very different player to each of them).
Jonathan Woodgate was not the brightest of lads off the field. On it, he oozed quality on the rare occasions when he was near to being healthy.
Stan Collymore. In terms of talent, arguably the best English striker of his generation.
It might sound odd to name Robbie Fowler, but consider that he never scored 20 league goals in a season after the age of 21 - an age at which he seemed a dead certainty to overhaul Shearer as the EPL's leading all-time scorer in time.
Julen Guerrero's career was always likely to hit a glass ceiling once he committed himself to Athletic Bilbao, but he went into a long decline that was sad to see.
Ivan de la Pena (I know there should be accents in his name, but I'm lazy) became a kind of footballing hero in the city of Barcelona, but not in the way hoped for him when he was 20 or so.
Much as Titus Bramble is mocked, it was brain cells he lacked, not talent.
Joe Cole's career ended up lucrative and successful, but nowhere near as glorious as had been projected when he was a teenager.
I loved to watch the Santos team of 2002-2004. Diego and Robinho were such fun to watch, but neither lived up to the hype that inevitably followed their winning the Brazilian title as teenagers with the club of Pele.
If we're allowing players whose careers were derailed by injuries:
Michael Bridges would not, I think, have been a star of the first rank, but an excellent player for Leeds and a useful asset to England backing up Rooney and Owen during the Wooden Generation era (surely better than Vassell and, I think, more useful than Heskey and Crouch, although very different player to each of them).
Jonathan Woodgate was not the brightest of lads off the field. On it, he oozed quality on the rare occasions when he was near to being healthy.
