5 Players Who Saw Their Careers Take A Nosedive

Football fans have viewed them as promising talents destined for long successful careers, but unexpected factors have transformed them into average players whose names and performances have not lived up to expectations. So let’s have a closer look at a few of those players and at the reasons their careers turned upside down.

Michael Owen

The Englishman was regarded as one of the most exciting football talents, from his early years, and proved everyone right throughout his Liverpool spell. He developed as fan favorite as well as their top scorer for six consecutive seasons, until his transfer to Real Madrid in 2004. But at his new club he could never make a serious breakthrough as he failed to compete with the likes of Raul and Ronaldo for a starting berth. He lost his Liverpool form and could never regain it even after his transfer, until his early retirement, which was also partly due to injuries.     

Owen Hargreaves

Hargreaves is another English Owen who was forced to retire early due to injuries. But in his case injuries haunted him for longer periods of time.  His best days were with his youth and first senior team, Bayern Munich, where he put in some impressive performances attracting the attention of the likes of Manchester United. After breaking his leg and spending most of the 2006/07 season out, Bayern sold him the following season to Manchester United for a club record fee. It was a clever move from Bayern, as he only played one full season for Manchester United before he got injured again and could never really recover until he retired at the age of 31.

Giuseppe Rossi

His long-term injury didn’t force him to retire, but it changed the course of his career. After a very impressive season at Villarreal, the Italian seemed set for a big move as club giants such as Barcelona, AC Milan, Bayern Munich and Juventus were believed to be after him. But a long injury lay-off led all those teams to withdraw their interest and he ended up moving to Fiorentina. However, the American-born player is still 26 and one good season with his new Club in his home country could revive interest from big European clubs.

Marko Marin and Eljero Elia

These two players cannot be compared to the others as although they have both suffered injuries, the injuries cannot be blamed for the demise of their careers. From their early days they were both regarded, by many, as promising talents because of their strong dribbling skills. But after their moves to Chelsea (Marin) and Juventus (Elia) they have failed to make any impact, and therefore were respectively loaned out to Sevilla and sold to Werder Bremen only one season after they joined. Although they’re both also still young, the chance of them getting their careers on track seems slim at the moment.

This is only a short list of players who perhaps didn’t live up to expectations, whether due to injuries or other factors. There are plenty of names in football who have had similar paths to the players mentioned here. Some worthy mentions in my opinion are Pato, Sebastian Deisler, Yoann Gourcuff and Patrick Kluivert.

Simon Sammour