steve zizou
It's bigger than that, honest!
Inspired by the Jamie Vardy story.
You may have struggled to miss it recently, but as the media countlessly reminded us; 3 years ago, Vardy was playing for Fleetwood Mac in the conference. Yet there he was, strutting his stuff in the premier league, and scoring against Manchester United! The ultimate rags to riches story. Or is it?
You hear about such stories in football like Chris Smalling's* rise through the leagues, or Dwight Gayle, who used to play for Stansted Airport 11. As impressive as they sound, none of them will ever match that of Santiago Munez. Well, that's because he's fictional! Also because the afore mentioned players are all bang average. This goes to show that there are no "real" rags to riches football stories.
But alas, I could wrong. In which case, has there been a player who has risen from the doldrums of mediocrity to becoming a elite footballer?
The best example I can give is Robert Lewandowski. From the Polish 3rd division to Bayern Munich.
*Also, although Smalling moved from Maidstone United to Manchester United (via Fulham), we cannot really count him as an elite player (yet).
So, are there any others? Feel free to chronicle the player's playing history.