Football is a team game. However, fans regularly prefer to single out individual football players. These players tend to become real stars and are recognized by many organizations around the world. They are honored with various prizes and given very good contracts.
Finding a rising star is as difficult as predicting the correct score in a match because even football tips from experienced experts cannot unlock the potential of young stars. Many players who showed a good level of football in some teams forever remained just good footballers.
However, it is extremely sad when a talented footballer fails to fulfill his potential during his football career. Let's look at the unsung heroes of football, who showed themselves brightly, but over time simply disappeared from the radar of the football community.
Lukasz Piszczek
At the level of Poland, he is indeed a star, but he could have developed his potential much more. After showing his best at Gwarek Zabrze, he got a contract with Hertha, but he didn't play in Berlin and was loaned out to Zaglemba. After winning the Polish championship he returned to Hertha and started to play on the pitch, but regular injuries did not allow him to play 70 matches in 6 years of his contract. Therefore, having received the status of a free agent Lukasz moved to Borussia Dortmund.
In 2013 he played in the Champions League final, but at the end of the season, he suffered a recurrence of a thigh injury. In total, he played 11 seasons in Dortmund and during this time he played 264 matches. Until 2018, he was a stable player for the Polish national team but also did not play 70 matches for Kadra. Undoubtedly, injuries have significantly prevented Lukasz from reaching greater heights.
Mario Götze
He was called "Super Mario" and expected to be the best German footballer in 2010-2020. A classic 'ten', a player who didn't have to help in defense and despite his short stature played well with his head. At a young age, he was under a lot of scrutiny and was even banned from interviews. In 2009 he won the Golden Boy award as the best young player and was an active player in the German national teams at all ages.
In 2014, it was he who scored the decisive goal in the World Cup final. However, instead of a career surge, there was a slump at Bayern, where Guardiola stopped believing in him. As a result, Mario did not go to the next World Cup and played for Eintracht Frankfurt.
Niko Kranjcar
Another footballer who has been plagued by injuries. Niko was the successor of a football dynasty and at the age of 17 was the captain of Dinamo Zagreb. But in 2005 he moved to Hajduk and with them, he became a champion. Niko's expressive game made the coach of the Croatian national team pay attention to him. Moreover, he got a contract in England in Portsmouth. Already after 2 seasons, he became a Tottenham player, but after a successful season, he could not find common ground with coach Harry Redknapp. As a result, he was put up for transfer. In 2012 he unexpectedly ended up at Dynamo Kyiv, but there was no more expressive play from Kranjcar. As a result, he returned to England where he played 2 more seasons for KPR and left for the USA. But even there he did not do well and moved to Scotland, where he spent 2 seasons.
Unfortunately, Kranjcar's career didn't pan out as expected. He is a good player and when he was in a good mood, he showed incredible results. But no one could predict the correct score with Niko on the pitch, even Kranjcar himself and the advice of football tips experts to pack up and reset his career did not save the situation.
Yevhen Konoplianka
One of the saddest stories of Ukrainian football. Konoplianka showed a very good game in his native FC Dnipro. He started to be called up to the national team, and his goal to the England national team was remembered by everyone. Before the war, Yevhen shone with Dnipro, the team regularly played in Eurocups and even reached the final of the Europa League, where in a dramatic match lost to Sevilla.
After that Konoplianka found himself in the same Sevilla and the first match for the UEFA Super Cup against Barcelona he managed to score a goal. Then he alternated successful matches with not the best. However, he was still a regular rotation player for Sevilla. Konoplianka was not satisfied with this and after the arrival on the coaching bridge of Jorge Sampaole, he went to Germany.
Here he signed a contract with Schalke 04. He played one good season in Germany but also didn't take the field regularly and started criticizing the coach, for which he got a penalty. At the start of the 2018-2019 season, he had an injury and the team went into a slump. As a result, he already started the next season in Shakhtar Donetsk, but even there Mudryk shone in his place, and Konoplyanka did not show the former game. Today, the best footballer in Ukraine is without a club.
Artem Milevskiiy
He was a super-talented guy. In the era of romantic football, he could stand in line with the top strikers, because his unconventional technique amazed everyone. Milevskiiy became the talk of the town after the European Youth Championship, where he became the top scorer and surpassed even Cristiano Ronaldo.
Having not played a match for the national team, he was taken to the World Cup, where in the 1/8 finals he scored a goal in a series of penalty shootouts. Then everyone began only to praise his cold-bloodedness. Unfortunately, Artem's career was ruined by his love for alcohol and the fact that he spent a long time in his native Dynamo Kyiv. If he had gone to Europe earlier, he would have been able to fulfill his potential much more. However, he has been to average teams in Romania and Turkey, played in Belarus, and returned to Ukraine to play for league outsider Minai.
Conclusion
As can be seen, football players' careers take different paths. For many players, the reasons for failure can be attributed to the fact that they:
- failed to cope with the pressure;
- burst into flame but failed to maintain a high level;
- over-sat at previous clubs.
Undoubtedly, there will still be many players in football who have failed to fulfill their potential, but a lot will depend on the players themselves.