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Football wonderkids who crashed and burned

greg lea

Sun, 9 Feb 2025, 0:15 pm

The following prodigies were tipped for superstardom but they all failed to live up to the early hype

Macauley Chrisantus

Francis Jeffers

Keirrison

Gai Assulin

Kerlon

Souleymane Coulibaly

Sebastian Deisler

Nick Powell

Sergi Samper

Paulo Henrique Ganso

Josh McEachran

Ibrahim Afellay

Michael Johnson

Nii Lamptey

Anthony Le Tallec

Denilson

Alexandre Pato

Bojan Krkic

Hachim Mastour

Royston Drenthe

Gael Kakuta

John Bostock

Ravel Morrison

Adriano

Federico Macheda

Freddy Adu

The following prodigies were tipped for superstardom but they all failed to live up to the early hype

There is nothing that excites football fans quite like the emergence of a gifted young player. When the wonderkid in question has exceptional quality, it is only natural that hype quickly builds.

But not every young talent lives up to that billing. Here are the most famous young football talents who crashed and burned.

Getty Images

The following prodigies were tipped for superstardom but they all failed to live up to the early hype

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