There’s something a bit heart-wrenching about famous and talented soccer players that suddenly come into the limelight only to fade away into obscurity not long after. There are a lot of different reasons that this occurs within the game.
Sometimes it’s the incredible hype that’s generated, proving too overwhelming for the player and they deliberately decide to give up their professional career. Others might do extremely well during an event, only for it to be a one-time thing. Some have been injured permanently, disallowing them from pursuing their passion and career.
Throughout the history of pro soccer, there have been players that were suddenly world-famous, but within a few weeks or even years, they would disappear from the mainstream.
David Bentley
Sports experts at the time were calling David Bentley the next David Beckham, and that they would take English soccer by storm. And by all accounts, it very much started out that way, and Bentley showed enormous promise as he began his career.
He spent two years at Blackburn Rovers, proving his talent on the field, but after he made a 16 million pound transfer to Tottenham, his career began to unwind. For some reason, his skill just didn’t seem to transfer over to the new club, and it didn’t take long before he was seen as a liability. And following some money issues, Bentley’s career just never recovered.
Freddy Adu
Freddy Adu is remembered for a lot of things: partly his talent on the field early on, but mostly he’s remembered for being that player that just kind of faded away without any real reason.
When he first began gaining attention, he was only a teenager not more than 14 years old. He received an enormous amount of hype at the time – the kind of hype usually associated with the latest online casino games or Marvel movie – with many experts and fans alike believing him to be the next great player of his generation.
But cut to a decade later, and while Adu is no doubt a talented individual, he never reached the heights and aspirations that so many people had attached to him at a young age.
Robinho
Robinho drew attention due to his talent for dribbling, and it didn’t take long for the teenager to be called the next Pele. His career started out strong, and a number of career offers were made to him as he grew older.
In fact, he was able to leave his country of Brazil and begin participating in European football, but it quickly became apparent that he would eventually leave. A part of this was because of his attitude toward his coaches as well as the managers, leading to several altercations.
Robinho himself confessed that he had a problem with authority, and eventually it caused him to call it quits and fly back to his home country on a loan. While he would return to Milan further down the line, it was clear that he was not destined to be the next Pele or anything of the sort.
