It has long been an established custom in football that any youngster who breaks through and shows even a modicum of ability will be hyped to kingdom come.
That they very rarely fulfil such exaggerated praise and high expectation is neither here, nor there. What matters is the promise, the potential.
The tantalising glimmer of the chance of greatness. It makes us fans and journalists alike go giddy at the knees and lose all sense of proportion. And we never, ever learn.
This was evident before the Premier League came into being of course but certainly since its formation – in doing so enlarging everything, from fanfare to ticket prices - the practice of hyping talented teens has well and truly gone hyperbolic, at times nudging levels of sheer lunacy.
Factor in too, the hugely significant introductions of click-bait media and social media to our brave new world and is it any wonder that youngsters these days are no longer deemed to be merely ‘promising’ but instead are damned as the ‘next Messi’.
Take Marko Marin who arrived at Chelsea in 2012 already dubbed the ‘German Messi’ for his propensity to twist the blood of beleaguered opponents in the Bundesliga.
Marko Marin was once tipped as the future of German football along with Mesut Ozil 🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/2IuJTiqvMM
— GOAL (@goal) September 2, 2021
Prematurely acclaimed as a superstar-in-the-making Marin went on to make a meagre six appearances in royal blue, elsewhere loaned out several times to minimal impact. Boy, did we get that one wrong.
Or what about Ryan Gould, Dundee United’s ‘Baby Messi’ who burst onto the Scottish scene a decade back by putting in a series of impressive displays while still a bairn.
To his enormous credit, Gould laughed off the comparisons with the greatest player who has ever donned a pair of football boots but still, we can only imagine the additional burden of pressure placed upon slight shoulders.
After failing to make any sort of mark at Sporting Lisbon, the winger is now playing his trade with Vancouver Whitecaps.
Then there’s Jose Angel Pozo and Patrick Roberts, Manchester City starlets both, who each were saddled with the ridiculous tag.
If the former leads us to Wikipedia, at least the latter carved out a pretty solid career in the Championship.
If the curse of Messi has struck several times in the Premier League era, comparisons with Cristiano Ronaldo also abound.
In the early 2000s, an otherwise respected Liverpool journalist wondered in print why CR7 was getting people’s knickers in such a twist when down the M62, Anthony Le Tellec was an ‘equally stunning talent’.
Save to say, that one of the duo went on to win five Ballon d’Ors and it wasn’t the 17-year-old winger signed from La Havre. He went on to make seven appearances at Anfield before sliding into obscurity.
A good ten years later, an otherwise respected footballing website had this to say about Manchester United’s teenage prodigy Adnan Januzaj, who at that particular juncture had put in barely half a season of handy showings, including it must be said two goals on his full league debut – ‘In just 16 appearances for the Red Devils, Januzaj has already won comparisons with some of United’s best ever players – Cristiano Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs, and George Best.’
At the risk of succumbing to one-upmanship, that’s why you come here for your football bet tips, and not there, because in what should be the prime of his footballing journey, Januzaj is presently on loan at Istanbul Basaksehir.
His 15 caps for Belgium is a sixth of the number won by Marouane Fellaini.
The hastily acclaimed Belgian is the first occasion we’ve mentioned a player hyped, then forgotten about who at least did something memorable before fading to black.
#EURO2020 x #GoalOfTheDay 🇧🇪
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) June 17, 2021
This volley from @AdnanJanuzaj 👌#MUFC pic.twitter.com/bMSLFsbbW1
If, that is, scoring twice against Sunderland constitutes doing something memorable. It is also the first Manchester United prospect under discussion.
Naturally it follows that the bigger the club, the sillier the bluster and young pretenders to the Old Trafford throne have long been elevated way beyond their capabilities.
Ravel Morrison is one such example, though perhaps with him a proclivity to self-combust explains his failure to fulfil his potential.
Elsewhere there is the most famous illustration of all of ill-considered puffery when we recall Federico Macheda’s upsetting of the sports betting with a last-minute winner for the Reds in 2009.
A swivel and a accurate shot against a tired Aston Villa defence led to all manner of amplified estimations of the 17-year-old Italian who is presently on loan with the Greek club APOEL. He has scored one goal in the last three years.
From Jordan Ibe to Josh McEachran, from Gael Kakuta to John Bostock, the Premier League is strewn with talented youngsters who ultimately came to very little, and though there is an ethical consideration in hyping them beyond all reason, the harsh truth is it will always be this way.
The harsh truth is, we will never, ever learn.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
FIRST PUBLISHED: 21st February 2023
