I know it’s more of a gaming question than a football question. I have recently started playing football games again and there are those young players with the comment „has potential to be special“ or „an interesting prospect“.
Especially those that aren’t stars already like Musiala, Haaland or Pedri.
Players like currently Arda Güler, Gavi, Antonio Nusa, Ansu Fati or Youssoufa Moukoko.
The question/discussion I wanted to spark is which of those players that you remember from the past didn’t actually become stars/good players, or even, which players rated very low by the games in their early careers did become actually good players.
Bojan has crazy stats. In his peak years his stats is comparable to Ronaldinho
Lucas Moara and Jese Rodriguee from fifa 12 I think
After that hattrick against Ajax Lucas just disappeared
It’s got to damage your confidence to score a hattrick, then be immediately benched for someone so injured they can barely run.
Grimaldo, Kapino, Bojan,
Grimaldo been one of the best Left Backs in Europe the last couple years, why bigger teams didn’t pick him up I’ll never know
If only Benfica had offered enough to keep him… 😢
tbf he plays for Leverkusen now who seem like a real powerhouse under Xabi Alonso
Kasper Dolberg was supposed to be world class at some point but just didn’t.
16 goals in his debut season with Ajax, as just a 19 year old was certainly promising…
Leaving Ajax, in hindsight was a terrible decision. Nice was never the right fit, which the stolen watch just a few weeks into his stay maybe was a indication on lol. I’m excited for him in Anderlecht though.
Hachim Mastour
Adnan Januzaj
Ould chikh
Oh I remember Januzaj as one of those players.
Mastour came 3rd in Algerian player of the year without playing a professional game 😂
Halilovic was supposed to be the next messi.
Fun fact: he scored the winner for fortuna sittard in the Dutch cup yesterday
Still only 27!
Zelalem
Around 2019-2021 Houssem Aouar was FIFA’s favorite boy. In career mode he had like 90-91 potential and in Ultimate Team he was always getting those crazy good special cards, with insane all-around stats. The fact that he offerred a green link to Mbappe, or other popular guys like Kimpembe and Ben Yedder and his cards were pretty much the best midfielder in the game, made him extremely popular and some people actually believed he was gonna be world class irl as well.
Nowadays he is an okay-ish player, sometimes starting and sometimes getting benched for Roma. He also just changed his nationality to Algerian, so he could play a little in the NT as well.
One of the few talents (out of the ones that didn’t fulfil terecht potential) that I thought was insanely good in real life as well. Felt like he just became worse over night, what happened?
Jose Baxter was one of the best young strikers to buy in FIFA 09 or maybe 10 but his career fell off massively due to a dodgy personal life but I’m assuming he wasn’t a good professional either.
Great shout. Also Ryan Ledson, remember him?
Anderson had the highest potential on like fifa 08
Mario gomez fifa 12 I think, i remember scoring bangers with him, he was like prime adriano ingame and like niklas bendtner in real life.
He was a lot better than Bendtner lol
The guy was a starting striker for both Bayern and German NT for quite a good amount of time Missed the 2014 WC due to injury
Terry Dixon. Ever heard of him? No, me either. FIFA 08 he played for Spurs and got to 98 overall.
Unfortunately yes, Steve Staunton called him up for Ireland as a 16 year old who had never played senior football. He was compared to Rooney and hyped off the back of the callup.
FIFA 19 gave one to Arthur Melo and Guendouzi.
Maybe not total car wrecks but still slight misses.
Juan Manuel iturbe
Benzia