What other players weren't highly praised as great youth prospects in their teens/early 20s but developed into superstars in their mid 20's+?
I hear it about Zidane but I'm not old enough to remember if he really was hyped as a kid because no internet.
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Drogba was pretty hyped, I remember every time a British team played Marseille the ITV commentators would spend most of the game noshing off DD
>yfw if drogba came back to the pl right now he'd still be a top striker
why is he so good brehs
just realised he only played there one year and I never watched Guingamp or whatever that teams called. Wonder why I knew Drogba for so long before Chelsea?
Drogba started professional football at when he was 20 years old. That's super late.
He was like 24/25 when he played for Marseille. He was unknown as a teenager.
Aubemeyang.
Hulk (was playing in Japan until 23).
Basically any Russian NT player that is now between 35-40 years old played in the second division until they were like 24 or something.
he was also fairly shit in his first couple of seasons at Chelsea
Vardy. Played in lower leagues in his early twenites and only became famous when he was already almost 30.
Zidane was always considered a good youth prospect but there wasn't the same hype over kids back then, with clubs tripping over each other to sign the next big superstar before they turn 22 or whatever, so that's why he wasn't a big name until his mid 20s.
...
Luca Toni had his breakout season in 03/04 serie b when the rest of his generation were already superstars
Aubameyang definitely. I remember him being at AC Milan and literally nobody talked about him.
Thuram.
Vardy but good
le good for one season man
David Villa comes from a tiny mining village near me and started playing in the Third Division before going to Sporting, Zaragoza, Valencia then Barcelona
He also didn't make his debut for the Spain national team until 24
This, Wright is underrated as fuck
eh, not really the same, but Gary McAllister won the league with Leeds in the 91/92 season, then went on to do nothing of note until he moved to Liverpool at the age of 35 and scored some of the most important goals for Liverpool to win the most odd treble ever of League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup. And also a really good freekick vs Everton.
He was really old, so he didn't play all the time, and didn't score a load of goals, but they wouldn't have won the cups without him.
Toni, Di Natale, Robben, Xavi, Diego Costa
Ruud van Nistelrooy.
He and Patrick Kliuvert were born on the same day, but van Nistelrooy peaked much later and for longer.
You don't need to start a sentence with 'eh' it's completely uneccessary
eh, that's just like, your opinion, man
Wasn't that just because he broke his leg? I remember United were about to sign him a couple of years before but he got rekt
bit of a bellwhif aren't you, eh?
as was this post
Redditors aren't welcome here you'll have to do a better job of disguising yourself in the future
This, it's a fucking stupid yankism and further degrades the language like Americans are so fond of doing
Pussy.
If I had to bet, I would assume your dad is not proud of you.
It's actually more of a northern Midwest, Canadian thing exclusively to say "eh" consistently
>reminder that drogba only had one or two good seasons at chelsea
its not american at all, idiot
I am 23 , is it too late for me?
>I remember him being at AC Milan and literally nobody talked about him.
He was like 18 then. I doubt he even played a senior game. He was decent at St Etienne, where he was in his early 20s. Definitely not a late bloomer like OP is asking.
I remember a crazy game he had against Barcelona. Not sure if it was with Sporting or Zaragoza, but I think it was a CdR semi final maybe. He ran like crazy and the swedish commentators were laughing because they didn't think he showed any respect.
I think he became really famous a year or so later, but he had probably already played for the u21.
Toni.Literally who in his early 2oes hit it big at 27 and won a world cup and became famous
Milito. Literally who who hit it big at 30 for a couple of seasons and won the treble to then disappear again
>Di Natale
He never became a superstar though, and he was terrible with the NT
>Robben
even though he looked 30 he was young when he became a superstar
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
After a career in random teams in lower leagues he has had his big break at 35 when he was finally called to play in the EPL for a great team as Manchester United along with a champion like Roooney.
Of course he still has trouble adapting to such a difficult league but he's finally become famous now and has the chance to actually prove himself.
Harry Kane was considered a "useless lumbering cunt" by his own fans up until 2014. All the Spurs blogs, forums, podcasts predicted that he'd be nothing more than a Championship-level player. And now he's had consecutive 20+ goal seasons at the age of 23.
I hate so much the things that you choose to be.
Diego Milito
Luca Toni?
This most often happens to strikers who have to develop skills off the ball, develop a physical niche, and learn little tricks in order to be successful, which don't usually develop until a bit later. They get passed-up on the hype train because they're unable to do everything on the ball like a wonderkid AMC.
He started to get good at the age of 22 though, not really sure if that counts. That's the age when most top strikers started scoring a lot of goals.
...
Looks like whoever this guy is, he played his entire career in Mexico. Doesn't sound like a superstar to me.
He's a superstar here. Anyway he was pretty mediocre until he turned 26-27. He would have definitely played in Europe if he had developed earlier.
>yankism
purely fucking canadian
Nolito
Who is it?
Wrighty you're a legend
>Mexicans superstars in anything other than drug dealing and beheading
This. I thought he fucking sucked lol.
Peralta
>Britshits in general
Milito had 4 or 5 decent seasons in La Liga before he went to Inter though.
Yeah but that one good season brought him a champions league trophy
Diego Costa, plus Falcao for the 1 and a half seasons he was actually good.
>complains about language being watered down
>90% of brits don't even pronounce the "er" sound
people from Dundee and Fife say ehhh at the end of sentences all the time.
fuck all to do with America, Abdul
>pl
The answer is right there in your post.
Nobody takes Scotland as an example of intelligent English.
Amerifats can't even pronounce ts
>war-der
>mow-un
Absolutely exceptional post
10/10
"WATAH" is much farther away than "wader", you found one example while brits mispronounce one of the most important word endings in the entire language.
But Wet Spam specific, but Di Canio meets the above.
>WATAH
I didn't know Bruce Lee was still alive.
wtf are you on about?
when he played in serie a it was the best league in the world and he effortlessly carried first Juve then inter to several scudettos
then he went to spain just to notice that his barca side became lazy hacks after winning the treble so he had to carry them for half a season and became the best player in the league even outshining messi and ronaldo but pep didn't like it because hes a missi fanboi
he went back to italy because he wanted to eat some more delicious pasta before going to paris to become a god which he accomplished without breaking a sweat. he could've been asleep while on the field and still easily score goals when he wanted and you tell me after all these huge accomplishments he has to "prove" himself in the "english" "premier" league?
top kek
nice try, but starting a sentence with "eh" has nothing to do with canada. we only use it at the end of phrases
>not understand sarcasm if though it was blatant
damn you people really are humourless robots
shut the fuck you ugly alcoholic inbred cunt
he insulted my idol kay? I can say whatever i want you dumb fuck
>having a hook nose muslim choker as your idol
modern germans man
not even once
whatever
I'm just glad I'm not born an englishman, that must be the worst.
kek
Lmao oh the irony xd
Not a superstar, but Nolito did not make it to a first division league until age 25. Pretty crazy that he plays now for one of the best teams in the world.
Koscielny, I guess. Came from the French amateurs, didn't sign for a first division club until he was 24, moved to Arsenal at 25.
Lucas Vazquez sort of, Nacho Fernandez sort of, yeah, they rose through the ranks at Real Madrid, but were never rated highly and broke through in the first team around 23, 24.
Florent Malouda joined Lyon at 23, then Chelsea at 27.
Sami Hyypiä joined Liverpool from Willem II at 26.
Why has nobody said Bale?
He was shit for like 5 seasons after Tottenham signed him, now he's all £80m star.
Also, I think Clint Dempsey was ~24 when he first came to England.
Though to be fair he started playing really really late, like 16-17
Bale got good at around 21, didn't he? The Inter hat trick and all that?
I'm so used to American English that when I hear British speaking English it sounds like churka speaking Russian.
>prescriptivists actually believe language is degrading
Zola only really became GOAT in his 30s
Is this the case of cockneys not having a clue, I think so, the worst fans ever who ever they support, 'ah he can't even kick a ball for fack sake' next weeks plays a blinder. ' ah I told ya, class'
Ouch this goy really burnt you man, te he
He was a beast at Guingamp where he played with Malouda.
this fucking beast was playing in ukraine at one point
How does my big stronk american dick taste?
>this troll
clint dempsey is different. we just have a different system where every goes through college athletics
This guy right here.
He only started to play professional football at the age of 21 and only really had his breakthrough when he was 23