Players you had forgotten existed

SalfordRed18

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Yeah, I remember that Euro 2007 championship well. I still have loads of files on my computer with notes I made about players over about a decade - mostly youth tournaments. I had a dream of getting a job at a club as some kind of analyst or something - it never happened of course.

Anyway, just looked up that tournament and yeah, Holland had the likes of Krul, Aisatti, Drenthe, Babel.
England had Hart, Cahill, Milner, Noble, Young.
Portugal: Moutinho, Nani, Veloso.
Italy: Chiellini, Montolivo,
Serbia: Ivanovic, Kolarov, Krasic...
Insane amount of talent in that tournament. I remember I really wanted United to sign Veloso, we were constantly linked and I thought it was a given. Signed Hargreaves instead I guess.
It could have easily been me :lol: However I doubt it since I never even thought of saying he was to be as good as Messi, that is borderline blasphemy.



Great shout with Drenthe, I thought he was going to develop the same way as Alaba later on, starting out on the wing and then moving into a cracking DMF. Safe to say my footballing opinions do not hold much values.

On a side note, if you don't mind, are you in your early 30s? Your suggestions give me the impression that we started to really follow football around the same time.
Late 20s so close!
 

FootballHQ

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Can anybody remember a short, stocky winger/attacker from 10~20 years ago who played for (I think) Wigan?

Been going mad trying to remember him, although I may have the wrong club which wouldn't help! :lol:
Calum McManaman perhaps. Got MOTM in the cup final v Man. City and people were going mad calling for England to call him up. Then went to West Brom and flopped under Pulis and journeyman career since, probably just not good other than fast.

Duncan Watmore another from around that time although he's had injuries in fairness and doing alright at Boro.
 

FootballHQ

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Yeah, I remember that Euro 2007 championship well. I still have loads of files on my computer with notes I made about players over about a decade - mostly youth tournaments. I had a dream of getting a job at a club as some kind of analyst or something - it never happened of course.

Anyway, just looked up that tournament and yeah, Holland had the likes of Krul, Aisatti, Drenthe, Babel.
England had Hart, Cahill, Milner, Noble, Young.
Portugal: Moutinho, Nani, Veloso.
Italy: Chiellini, Montolivo,
Serbia: Ivanovic, Kolarov, Krasic...
That tournament really messed Holland up in the long run. Can remember Marco Rigters who was top scorer or something and Blackburn picked him up and he did nothing there and generally little in his career.

2007 lot should've been at their peaks after 2014 when Van Persie, Snejider and Robben all started to decline but instead Holland had massive void while waiting for likes of De Jong and De ligt to develop so missed out on the two tournaments.

Zuiverloon, Erik Pieters, Maduro, Babel, De Ridder, Ryan Donk all had journeyman careers. Of outfielders would probably say Ron Vlaar had best given he stepped up nicely for Holland in 2014 world cup but he was pretty average and injury prone for us in premier league and I wouldn't rate him in ten best CBs I've seen play for us. Would say Mings is better and I don't even rate Mings that highly compared to much of our fanbase.
 

Bertie Wooster

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That tournament really messed Holland up in the long run. Can remember Marco Rigters who was top scorer or something and Blackburn picked him up and he did nothing there and generally little in his career.

2007 lot should've been at their peaks after 2014 when Van Persie, Snejider and Robben all started to decline but instead Holland had massive void while waiting for likes of De Jong and De ligt to develop so missed out on the two tournaments.

Zuiverloon, Erik Pieters, Maduro, Babel, De Ridder, Ryan Donk all had journeyman careers. Of outfielders would probably say Ron Vlaar had best given he stepped up nicely for Holland in 2014 world cup but he was pretty average and injury prone for us in premier league and I wouldn't rate him in ten best CBs I've seen play for us. Would say Mings is better and I don't even rate Mings that highly compared to much of our fanbase.
Yeah, good points.

On the subject of Ryan Donk: he's just become an international, aged 34, by being called up for Suriname. They've always resisted picking all the Dutch qualified players not born in Suriname but have recently started doing so and have won their first two CONCACAF qualifiers - Donk scoring in both the games.

They've also included the likes of Nigel Hasselbaink (Jimmy's nephew), Diego Biseswar and Florian Jozefzoon.
 

Lay

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I thought Drenthe was amazing that tournament but speaking to some Dutch football fans during that tournament, they warned that he normally isn’t that good at club level (at feyenoord I think?) and that he’s just a flash in a pan.

I thought they were bonkers :lol:
 

Bertie Wooster

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Another forgotten player that I really rated having seen him at youth tournaments with Spain was Diego Capel. He was a really quick, skilful winger with flowing hair who always looked a threat running with the ball.

He did well at first with Sevilla but then his career went backwards and I'd forgotten all about him until thinking about those youth tournaments while posting on this thread.

He impressed at the 2007 U20 World Cup in the same Spanish team as Pique and Mata. That was a great youth tournament - and especially included some really good South American talent...

Argentina were quality to watch and had the likes of Romero, Banega, Di Maria, Maxi Moralez, Aguero.

Brazil had Marcelo, David Luiz, Willian, Pato, Jo.

Chile: Vidal, Medel, Alexis Sanchez.

Uruguay: Cavani and Suarez as a strike force.
 

simonhch

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So many from the past that when the name comes up you are “gosh I forgot about him”, and not even because they were bad but because back then there weren’t highlights on YouTube or massive TV deals. Players you saw flashes of but never lit up the world stage to the extent you’d see much of them. Players like Darko Pancev or Rai - although the latter was Brazil captain at one point, he still had this air of mystery about him as I rarely ever saw him play.

In the modern era players have so much exposure it’s hard for them to just disappear. One name is Odriozola. Saw him on the bench the other day and had genuinely forgot he existed. He was supposed to be an amazing right back when they signed him, and he must still be in his prime.

There was tons of fanfare about Nabil Fekir. I know he’s at Sevilla now, but you never hear shit about him.
 

Grylte

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That striker guy from eh... Torino?
That everyone on here wanted us to buy for £300M. Number may be exaggerated.
Don't think i've heard or seen his name since we were linked to him.
B....something
 

matherto

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That striker guy from eh... Torino?
That everyone on here wanted us to buy for £300M. Number may be exaggerated.
Don't think i've heard or seen his name since we were linked to him.
B....something
Belotti
 

Synco

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Not that I've exactly forgotten him, but was surprised to see Falcao still playing (at Galatasaray).
 

Cloud7

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Does anyone remember Ricky Van Wolfswinkel?

One of the best footballer names I've ever heard
 

FootballHQ

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That striker guy from eh... Torino?
That everyone on here wanted us to buy for £300M. Number may be exaggerated.
Don't think i've heard or seen his name since we were linked to him.
B....something
Similar case to Kane, just remained a bit too loyal to them. He still gets 15-20 a season but Torino could well get relegated this season. Surely one of the top 6-7 in Serie A will finally pick him up end of the season.
 

Solius

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Goran Pandev scored for Macedonia against Germany. How the hell is he still a thing.
 

stefan92

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He was nicknamed the German Messi, the hype around him at Bremen was real as I remember making a long long thread in another forums convinced that we have to sign him. Made myself look a right idiot 2 seasons later.
That misjudged hype about Marin really was the beginning of Bremens downfall from title contender to relegation danger zone. They alway relied on having great No 10s (won the Bundesliga with Micoud, replaced him with Diego, then they had Özil). They expected Marin to step up to replace Özil, and he completely failed at this task. Why Chelsea then bought him I will never understand.
 

TheReligion

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That striker guy from eh... Torino?
That everyone on here wanted us to buy for £300M. Number may be exaggerated.
Don't think i've heard or seen his name since we were linked to him.
B....something
27 years old now but seemingly still banging them in. Wonder why it went quiet on his move?

90 in 200 for Torino and 11 in 32 for Italy.

Not bad figures.
 

Grylte

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27 years old now but seemingly still banging them in. Wonder why it went quiet on his move?

90 in 200 for Torino and 11 in 32 for Italy.

Not bad figures.
When we were in for him, it seemed like half of Europe wanted him, and they wanted... was it £80 mill?
Can't remember seeing or hearing his name since.

But definitely good stats... must be so frustrated he didn't get his big move before entering his prime, it might be too late now.
 

TheReligion

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When we were in for him, it seemed like half of Europe wanted him, and they wanted... was it £80 mill?
Can't remember seeing or hearing his name since.

But definitely good stats... must be so frustrated he didn't get his big move before entering his prime, it might be too late now.
Yeah he's been consistently prolific by the looks of it but was priced out of a big move. Unsure what is contract situation is now mind and if it could be resurrected?
 

Ramos

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So many from the past that when the name comes up you are “gosh I forgot about him”, and not even because they were bad but because back then there weren’t highlights on YouTube or massive TV deals. Players you saw flashes of but never lit up the world stage to the extent you’d see much of them. Players like Darko Pancev or Rai - although the latter was Brazil captain at one point, he still had this air of mystery about him as I rarely ever saw him play.

In the modern era players have so much exposure it’s hard for them to just disappear. One name is Odriozola. Saw him on the bench the other day and had genuinely forgot he existed. He was supposed to be an amazing right back when they signed him, and he must still be in his prime.

There was tons of fanfare about Nabil Fekir. I know he’s at Sevilla now, but you never hear shit about him.
Was reading about him the other day and i completely forgot he was Socrates' kid brother!
 

Schmeichel's Cartwheel

Correctly predicted Italy to win Euro 2020
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That striker guy from eh... Torino?
That everyone on here wanted us to buy for £300M. Number may be exaggerated.
Don't think i've heard or seen his name since we were linked to him.
B....something
Belotti. He’s actually a good player, just in a really shit team. Not sure why it went so quiet around him.
 

BrilliantOrange

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Freddy Adu

This is probably the only valid answer here
Probably not, as no-one ever forgets him due to him being such a well-known cult-figure and example of teenage superstar..

He gets posted here every other month..
 

Jaxa

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What about Marco van Ginkel who amazingly is still a Chelsea player , the feck :eek:

I remembering being quite impressed when they signed him but he done his ACL and his career never really picked up after that, looked a tidy player at the start.
 

Tottenhamguy

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Balotelli

Now plying his trade playing for Monza in Serie B. He has 8 appearances and has scored 2 goals for them. Generally not heard or seen anything about him in ages, defiantly forgotten about him, he is 30 years old now.
 

ZolaWasMagic

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Paulo Futre. Viorel Moldovan, decent but shite at Coventry

Eirik Bakke. Titi Camara. Sonny Anderson (rated him highly), Jens Jeremies, Samuel Kuffour, Branco at Boro, Doriva too.

The other Emerson who played for Roma and Madrid.