Biggest Wastes of Talents in Football

By: Eniko

Posted: March 31, 2020

Updated: March 31, 2020

Adriano was a big Brazil talent who throw it away after his dad’s death
Quaresma and Cassano had issues with rules
Arshavin and Owen suffered from injuries along their career

There are several players who were meant to be football’s next big players, often comparing them to previous great players. But sadly not everyone could bear the attention and pressure and ended up as an unfulfilled promise. In the biggest wasted talents in football, we can find early retired and continuously moving players who ended up in lower leagues at the end. Talent is not always enough for a football player to be successful and achieve a great career. You also have to work hard, be disciplined and work well in a team, as the greatest players all did. But if you think you can do anything, like not attending training or talking back to your coach, you might end up with no one calling for you.

Biggest wastes of talents in football often turned to alcohol or drugs

Adriano was a great talent of Brazil in the 2000s, playing for Parma and Inter in Italy, winning Serie A titles with the latter. He scored 42 goals in the 2004-05 season, and he was in his top form when his dad suddenly died. After that Adriano wasn’t the same, though he stayed at the club until the end of 2008. Then he returned to Brazil and played for Flamengo and Corinthians. He was signed by Roma in 2010, but his return to Serie A was very short-lived. He spent only 7 months in the capital. One of the biggest talents of Brazil football couldn’t resist the parties and wasted his talent. Not many Romanian players have been signed by top clubs like Inter or Chelsea as it happened with Adrian Mutu. But it looks like earning too much money is not always a good thing. It can also tempt a player to spend it on dangerous things. Mutu’s career was shadowed by his cocaine addiction, and he blew his career after suffering bans for his drug use. He even had to pay back £14 million to Chelsea which signed him earlier. But after a year Mutu was banned from football for 7 months and left England in shame. Online sportsbooks in Italy were also reporting his return to Italy. He played for Fiorentina until his next ban.

Discipline issues

With many great players, the discipline has been the biggest issue. They couldn't control their feelings and showed no respect for their coaches and teammates. Like a great Portuguese footballer, Ricardo Quaresma. He was regarded to be such a great talent as his teammate, Cristiano Ronaldo. But while Ronaldo worked hard and tried to follow his manager's advice, Quaresma chose another path. He was a very skilled player, and played for clubs like Barcelona, Inter and Chelsea, but got into confrontations with most of his managers like Frank Rijkaard and Jose Mourinho. Though he was part of the winning Portuguese team in the 2016 European Championship, his club career didn’t go so well. After playing for Porto and Besiktas, now he plays for another Turkish side, Kasimpasa. Portugal is the defending champion and can defend their title next year. Their odds are 18.00 to win Euro2021 at Unibet. Another heated player with similar issues was Italian Antonio Cassano. He was signed by Roma from Bari in 2001 and won the Italian Cup with the club. But he got into disputes with Roma’s captain Francesco Totti and the club’s manager Fabio Capello, who even named his bad temper 'Cassanata'. Cassano left Roma and joined Real Madrid, but his behavior didn’t change much. He returned back to Italy after a short period. But he didn’t fulfill his potential.

Suffering from injuries

biggest wastes of talents in football — Michael Owen in 2005 - Image source: Flickr

Some players couldn’t have the career they were dreaming of due to suffering injuries all the time. Like English talent Michael Owen, who was a great player, but could have achieved even more without his injuries. At Liverpool he was a top goal scorer, but he already suffered from a recurring hamstring injury. Later it became worse and had to leave out long periods to recover. He still became one of the best English players and held the record for the most goals scored in the English national team until Wayne Rooney took it over. England will host next year’s Euro2021 final, where the hosts are big favorites with the odds of 6.00.

Bad club choices

Some young players would have deserved a better career but made a few bad decisions at the beginning of it. Like Mexican Giovani dos Santos who joined Barcelona at the age of only 11. He was compared to Ronaldinho and had a great future ahead of him. But he left Barca for Tottenham where he was promised more playing time. Dos Santos' hopes were not met in London as he spent most of his time on loan at different clubs. Four years later he returned back to Spain, but only to Mallorca and Villareal. Then he signed for the American side LA Galaxy to be closer to his home. Now he is back in Mexico and got very far from the promise he once was. Russian talent Andrey Arshavin could have chosen any team to join after he won the UEFA Cup with Zenit in 2008. He signed for Arsenal which proved to be a wrong decision. His first season at the Gunners was quite successful although he could only play in the second half of the season. But after he suffered from injuries and couldn’t find his form again. He returned back to Zenit in 2012 on loan than on free transfer and stayed in Russia after. Arshavin’s foreign career didn’t certify the talent he had at home. Russian football is suspended like most leagues all over the world. But you can still make a bet on Belarus games on Unibet.

Mario is one of the biggest wasted talents in football

Surely everyone heard about Mario Balotelli, the biggest promise of Italian football in recent years. He started his career at Inter but had to leave soon due to his disciplinary issues. He couldn’t work with the new manager, Jose Mourinho and moved to Manchester City. Here Balotelli met with his former coach, Roberto Mancini, but fell out with him as well. Then came a return to Italy, to Milan this time and back to England, to Liverpool. As we can see he was signed by the biggest clubs which all hoped to profit from his great skills and also discipline him, but none of them succeeded. Online gambling sites in Italy were reporting about his latest move back to his hometown, Brescia. We will see if Mario can avoid scandals and concentrate only on football this time.