skills hadnÂ’t been uploaded to YouTube? Thankfully all those things happened and now we get to see these players in all their glory
But what happens when hype surrounds a player and they donÂ’t fulfil that potential? Well, hereÂ’s a list of 10 of them, players who were dubbed to be the next best thing but never lived up to the hype.
10 Javier Saviola
Javier Saviola may be a strange pick as many who know him will know that he wasnÂ’t ever a bad player
In fact he played for both Real Madrid and Barcalona
However, when you find out that in 2004, aged just 22, Pele named Saviola in his top 100 best players currently playing
He ended up playing over 100 times for Barca but never became one of the best in the world
He has played for 9 clubs and is currently in the middle of his second stint at his boyhood club River Plate
He has definitely made a good name for himself but has nowhere near reached the heights that he was expected to.
9 John Curtis
John Curtis was a versatile defender who went through the ranks at Manchester UnitedÂ’s world renowned youth academy
In 1995 he was a big part of the Manchester United youth team that won the FA Youth Cup and was tipped for big things
However he only made 14 first team appearances for United and ended up being sold to Blackburn Rovers where he won promotion to the Premier League and the League Cup
However Curtis ended up bouncing around the English leagues and retired in 2011 after playing for Gold Coast United.
8 - Billy Kenny
Billy Kenny was dubbed the ‘Goodison Gazza’ which ended up a scarily accurate portrayal of his future
In 1992 he made his debut aged just 19 and looked to be set for great things but two years later he was ruled out for a prolonged amount of time
During this time he became added to drugs and alcohol and was released by Everton in 1994 as a result
Kenny then moved to Oldham Athletic but was yet again sacked for his substance abuse
After making a small number of appearances for Barrow and Royal Seaforth F.C Kenny retired from football.
7 Nii Lamptey
Nii Lamptey was one of the best teenage strikers in Europe when he played for Anderlecht but things soon derailed
Maybe he just wanted to collect stamps on his passport, or maybe he just flopped everywhere he went
I guess we will never really know the answer but what we do know is that he played for 13 clubs in 12 countries
He even made his way to England, in fact it was the only country that he played for two clubs in, playing for Aston Villa and Coventry City, but never scoring a goal for either.
6- Federico Macheda
Know by many Manchester United fans for scoring a last minute winner against Aston Villa on his debut, Federico Macheda was defiantly a player that many kept an eye on
However after the way his career has panned out those people would have wanted their eyes back
Macheda made 19 appearances for the Red Devils but made six loan moves from 2011 to 2014
He was released by United in 2014 and joined Cardiff City who had recently appointed former United youth coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Since joining the Bluebirds the Italian has struggled with injury and has seen yet another manager changed after Solskjaer was sacked.
5- Michael Johnson
From a young age Michael Johnson was tipped to be the next England captain and one of the bets midfielders of his generation
Unfortunately his attitude was his downfall
He made 44 professional appearance for Manchester City and Leicester (on loan) but he was never committed enough
He was released by Man City in 2012 aged just 24
City manager at the time of his release Roberto Mancini simply said "A guy with a big talent - I am sad for him".
4 - Cherno Samba
One that many football manager fans will be aware of, Cherno Samba was renowned the world over after his incredible potential on the football simulation game
It was a very different story in real life however
The Gambian national went through the ranks in Millwall but never made a first team appearance so moved to Spanish side Cadiz where he also failed to made it into the first team
He then returned to England to play for Plymouth and also had stints in Finland, Greece and Norway
Samba announced his retirement due to injury in July 2015.
3 Kerlon
Dubbed the new Ronaldinho, Kerlon made his name after footage of him performing his signature ‘seal dribble’, in which he flicked the ball up onto his forehead and juggled it while running in-between defenders, went viral
The youngster moved to Inter Milan but never made an appearance for them and was shipped off on loan several times
He has since played in Japan, the United States and most recently Malta.
2 Haruna Babangida
Haruna Babangida unbelievably spent six years in BarcelonaÂ’s second team, Barcelona B, where he was destined for great things
However after failing to impress to whilst on loan in Terrassa and Kadiz he was released and moved to the Ukrainian league
The Nigerian has moved a lot in his career, which is a common theme among this players, and has played in Austria, Greece, Cyrus, Germany, Holland and Malta, where he currently resides
1- Freddy Adu
Now letÂ’s face it, we all knew that Freddy Adu had to be number 1
Adu became the youngest ever American to be drafted into a professional sport ever, aged 14 when he was drafted by D.C
United
He went on to be the youngest ever players to play in the MLS, score in the MLS and to ever play a professional sport in America
This obviously gathered a lot of attention and he became the best player to sign on football manager for years to come
He signed for European giants Benfica aged 16 and spent three of the four years there out on loan before moving back to the US to play fir the Philadelphia Union in 2011
He then move around Europe for a few years before returning yet again to his homeland and now plays for the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
Source : DSG
Source: DSG