It's exciting to meet a 16-year-old young player who has been called a prodigy by the media, fans and even commentators, everyone is looking for the next Messi or Neuer, any young player who is more talented than his peers will be in the attention of the football world, but there are also many players who have not cashed in their talents due to injuries or off-field factors in their later developments, such as Cristanval, who was the best young player in Ligue 1 and won the league with Monaco in the 1999-2000 season. He later played for Barcelona, Marseille and Fulham, choosing to retire at the age of 29. There is also Harry Coville, who helped Leeds United reach the champions league semi-finals at a young age and wore a Liverpool shirt, but after five years of injury for the Reds, he traveled to Turkey, the Australian league, and finally retired in his home country, which is far from his career expectations. Today, Sportskeeda took stock of five talented players who fell due to off-field factors.
Ravel Morrison
In Ferguson's old saying, this is the best lower-age player he has ever seen, United's most talented player of the past 10 years, even surpassing George Best, known as the next Wayne Rooney. But Morrison's career quickly stalled, as he was unable to settle down at a club for a long time due to off-court chaos and drug abuse, playing for 11 teams before the age of 28 and now a member of Derby County, which is headed by Rooney and Morrison's former team-mate. It was too late for Morrison to reach the top, but he was still looking for opportunities in the Championship to save his future again.
4. Adriano
Adriano was the South American nation's brightest player before Neymar became the face of Brazilian football a decade ago, making his debut at Flamengo at the age of 17, moving to Inter Milan at the age of 19, joining the Nerazzurri first team before quickly becoming a superstar and helping Inter milan win four Serie A titles. Unfortunately, his father died of illness at the age of 22, Ade began to drink and clubbing, the Brazilian national team and Inter Milan both lost patience with him, and later he was loaned to São Paulo in Brazil, where prohibited acts and injuries constantly compressed his living space, and from 2010 to 2016, Ade played less than 50 games.
3. Balotelli
Italy's star player at Euro 2012, his growth path seems to be written into the annals of history, but now he is left with only consternation. Balotelli, who played in Serie A and the Premier League, signed a one-year contract with Serie B side Monza at the age of 30, but failed to help Berlusconi's side to successfully break into Serie A. Now he is at Demill Sport in Turkey, and after 2018, Balotelli has made only 58 appearances for 4 clubs.
In the Turkish Super League, Balotelli's controversial celebrations were evaluated by the opposing manager as "no brain", and disciplinary issues have always accompanied him through every club.
2. El Haji Diouf
Having had a glorious season at Ligue 1 club Lens, Liverpool bought the 21-year-old prodigy for £10 million in 2002, but all he brought to Anfield was controversy and was considered one of the worst strikers in Liverpool's history.
His performance in the Senegalese national team may be very outstanding, but he has never seen this glory at the club, Diouf once spat on an 11-year-old Middlesbrough young fan, competed with his teammates for penalties, and was disrespectful to Liverpool stars Carragher and Gerrard, all of which are his marks on Liverpool, and after 6 goals in 79 games, he also finally left Liverpool and finally retired in the Malaysian league.
1. Mutu
Mutu has made 36 appearances for Parma, scoring 22 goals, he started well at Chelsea, but after a divorce war, it began to decline, after Mourinho entered the home, the two sides had a conflict, the most fatal thing is that Mutu's drug test problems, was swept out by the Blues, in 2003, Chelsea to Mutu to collect a high penalty of liquidated damages, once sensational in football.
From 2004 onwards, Mutu had to devote great energy to litigation with Chelsea, further hampering his future and spending most of his subsequent career at Fiorentina.