Sonny Pike, Cherno Samba, and other wunderkinds who didn't make it

Samba's family moved to Watford, England when he was seven, and then to Peckham, South London. He came to prominence when as a 13-year-old teenager, he scored 132 goals in 32 games[2]. He rejected a £1.5million move to Liverpool when he was 16, he instead took a two-year deal with Millwall, where ne never played.

Never heard of either of them

Nii Lamptey career history:

Anderlecht
PSV Eindhoven
Aston Villa
Coventry City
Venezia
Union de Santa Fé
Ankaragücü
União Leiria
Greuther Fürth
Shandong Lu Neng
Al Nassr
Asante Kotoko
Jomo Cosmos

The last five are people not football clubs surely?

Al Nassr, runs Al's Sandwich Bar just off the high street

Owen Price, kept Wayne Rooney out of the England schoolboy team, youngest ever footballer to sign a deal with Adidas, now playing in the Swedish second division

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Deisler

That's a shame

While Googling for Johnnier Montano, I found this message board post from 2001 listing the top 100 young players in the world:

http://www.redcafe.net/archive/index.php/t-30449.html

So SO many lolz, mainly due to how many guys are ahead of Kaka (including DARREN FLETCHER and JAY LUCAS)

5. Jermaine Pennant (R/WNG, Arsenal)

LOL

Also LOL at how many have played for Liverpool!

Surprising number of Spurs strikers past and present in there as well. LOL Helder Postiga.

(To be fair that does appear to have been compiled by Liverpool fans, although had Le Tallec and Sinima-P arrived by then?)

Wiki sez Le Tallec signed in 2003, but I could swear he's been in Liverpool's reserves on CM/FM since about 1984.

Where is Cinema-Paradiso now?

bosko balaban stats for season to thread

How long do we have before we can say 'Freddy Adu'?

http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/155276/2/istockphoto_155276_five_seconds_to_midnight.jpg

Nah, one goal in eleven games for Real Salt Lake, those are worldbeater stats.

Not every player who goes to Real makes it. The pressure of expectation is so high.

That list is gold! Mark Fotheringham?!?!

Also 81. Tuomas Aho (CB, My-Pa) - there's an L missing, surely?

I like the idea of Tuomas being one of the most promising international footballers of his generation, somehow :-)

He gave it all up for feminism

australian football is full of these, perma-injured hayden foxe probably the best example.

Does Carlton Cole ever qualify for this? I remember when his goals per minutes on pitch ratio was better than any player in the world.

On PES4 Carlton Cole had a shot technique of 96 after one season in my Master League, and scored about 30 goals a season

"In 1967, Marcello Carlin made the headlines as a four-year-old who read fluently at three, enjoyed G. B. Shaw plays, and was obssessed witht the classical age, devouring Livy's Early History of Rome. Now, at 31, he is working as an office manager with a low salary; he was a dropout at university; spent two years on the dole."

^^^ A* post.

serge makofo, last seen turning out for charlton reserves.

Tonton Zola Mokouko

Ibrahima Bakayoko as well, going from "POTENTIALLY THE BEST AFRICAN FOOTBALLER EVER" to four goals for Everton to his current position in the Greek midtable.