{"id":29,"date":"2023-12-05T16:01:58","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T16:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/?p=29"},"modified":"2024-01-03T13:50:12","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T13:50:12","slug":"footballs-top-three-youth-prospects-who-never-made-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/2023\/12\/05\/footballs-top-three-youth-prospects-who-never-made-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Football’s top three youth prospects who never made it"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Ross Cashmore<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

Football can be a cruel game as we all know. To be robbed of three points by a 90th minute equaliser, to see your club\u2019s star man swan off to one of the league\u2019s giants, or maybe it\u2019s to see your country bow out of a tournament through a penalty shootout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what is crueller than watching a young star who had the world at his feet fizzle into disillusion? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are the three most disturbing cases of young starlets flopping. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Jack Rodwell <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jack Rodwell at Manchester City. Picture by Leon Queeley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At just 16 when he broke into Everton’s first team and after an impressive four seasons for the Toffees, Rodwell secured a \u00a312million move thirty miles down the road to Manchester City. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Manuel Pellegrini picked up the tools left by his predecessor Mancini, Rodwell became a tool that was never seen fit for any purpose and he was shipped off to Sunderland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Black Cats saw back to back relegations, Rodwell was emerging as the whipping boy of the club\u2019s humiliation. The \u2018Sunderland \u2019Til I Die\u2019 Netflix documentary captured his refusal to terminate the excessive \u00a370,000 weekly salary that was contributing to the club\u2019s financial turmoil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a cap for England at age 20 and a Premier League winners\u2019 medal at 23, Rodwell\u2019s career took an unlikely downwards spiral to Down Under, where he now plays in the A-League for Sydney FC.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take a listen to my honourable mention, who didn’t quite make the list! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Hachim Mastour at Milan. Picture by Haider Alhuraifi <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hachim Mastour took the Internet by storm in 2012 when the viral compilation of his trickery in a youth match was titled \u201cThe best 14-year-old in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After AC Milan blew an astonishing \u20ac500,000 on Mastour and he was pictured alongside Neymar Jr in a Red Bull advert, the young Italian-Moroccan had a lot to live up to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a failure to cement any position in an already drab Milan side, Mastour took up a two year loan offer from Malaga. But Mastour never tore up the La Rosaleda like he tore up the bumpy pitch in Reggio Emilia where the foundations for potential stardom were laid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By June 2022, Mastour found himself in the second division of his parents\u2019 native Morocco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A player who\u2019s worshipped youth blurred what it really takes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps Hachim should have listened to his Milan manager Gennaro Gattuso more closely, who threatened to \u201cknock his teeth out\u201d if he didn\u2019t buckle down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Ravel Morrison <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Ravel Morrison at Cardiff City. Picture by Jon Candy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Described by Sir Alex Ferguson as one of the best talents he\u2019d ever seen and suggesting he was better than Ryan Giggs at the same age, Ravel Morrison really is the one that got away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morrison\u2019s talent is a talent that is still lauded today and has been since Phil Brogan spotted the eight year old for his local team in Wythenshawe. His troubled youth however is the root of his unsatisfactory stints at the thirteen clubs he has come across. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His 2011 charge of witness intimidation created an irremovable reputation, leaving clubs to take unconsidered \u2018punts\u2019 on Morrison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former director of football with him at \u00d6stersunds, David Webb, suggested that Morrison needed \u201csomewhere he feels appreciated\u201d and a \u201csolid structure to his day\u201d1<\/a><\/sup>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a lack of real investment into the Mancunian from the clubs he\u2019s been across, and he himself never quite matching a professionalism with his ability, has left him fruitless in what was surely going to be a world full of possibilities. <\/p>\n\n\n

  1. https:\/\/sport.optus.com.au\/news\/premier-league\/os28570\/ravel-morrison-story-derby-misunderstood#:~:text=But%20Morrison%20quickly%20developed%20a,and%20an%20unstable%20family%20environment. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Football can be a cruel game as we all know. To be robbed of three points by a 90th minute…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":1,"footnotes":"[{\"id\":\"1519e77c-7181-4707-b826-0f6f33f18e03\",\"content\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sport.optus.com.au\\\/news\\\/premier-league\\\/os28570\\\/ravel-morrison-story-derby-misunderstood#:~:text=But%20Morrison%20quickly%20developed%20a,and%20an%20unstable%20family%20environment.\"}]"},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[3,4,6,7,5],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home","category-football-stories","tag-football","tag-football-youngsters","tag-hachim-mastour","tag-jack-rodwell","tag-ravel-morrison","wpcat-12-id","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}