A Manchester United academy graduate better than Beckham and Giggs, an Arsenal Invincible and, of course, Robin Friday. These are ten lost Next Big Things.
Still only 34 but hasn’t played since 2021 and has only scored 31 times in 227 games. He has played for 15 clubs in nine countries. Aged 14 he was being called ‘the new Pele’ which is always a curse. He was the youngest player to sign a Major League Soccer contract. Everyone had heard of him. He was feted before he’d done anything. In 2007 he signed for Benfica for $2million but only made 14 appearances.
He was loaned to Torino and began an 11-club journeyman career which ended in Peru. Retired at 32 due to injury. Was cursed from an early age with the Maradona moniker. Played less than 250 games in total.Legendary name, unusual name, a total law unto himself. The original rock and roll footballer. An unreconstructed character whose reputation for sex and drugs and drinking sounds more like a tale from an Aerosmith tour of America in 1976.
Played mostly for Reading but also Cardiff. Retired at just 25, not through injury but because he was sick of being told what to do, and how to live. Looked like he should play guitar for Uriah Heep. Allegedly took loads of drugs and was a heavy drinker but saw Reading to promotion from the fourth to the third division. Sometimes it turned out he was not exactly sober when taking to the field but performed well anyway. But he remained fit and strong.
Died at just 38 of a heroin overdose. As Half Man Half Biscuit so memorably had it ‘the man don’t give a f**k’. Read Paolo Hewitt’s biography for all the glory details. It’s widely agreed he was good enough for England if he could sort his head out. But he couldn’t or wouldn’t.Graduated from Clairefontaine in France and signed for Arsenal for the 1999-2000 season.
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