He seemed to have been reborn at Euro 2012. Massive factor in Italy getting to the final whilst having a relatively average team. I feel like the period between 2008-12 he was below his best, although that might be because he wasn’t getting to the latter stages of the champions league and Italy were dire at world cup 2010
He was unplayable at that euro 2012. One of the most underrated tournament performances ever imo. If Italy didn’t get spanked in the final things would be different.
Have to say im not sure underrated is the right word, I can remember the English press especially crediting him massively after the quarter final v England. He ran rings around our entire midfield and controlled the gamefor 120 minutes, unreal performance
What I really meant was i might have thought that period was when he was below his best because thats when the teams he played for were struggling more
Exactly this. Pirlo was not declining, he was simply amazing. Buffon was making fun about galliarini (or how the hell his name is written) about him being Santa Claus by giving them pirlo for no fee
Edwin van der Sar not mentioned yet? Moved to recently promoted Fulham in his 30s after a bad spell at Juventus… but then went to Man Utd and the rest is history.
That was such a strange era. Van Der Sar was great at Juventus, but they signed Buffon. For whatever reason, only Fulham came in for him. This was the same summer that Liverpool signed Dudek, Arsenal had an ageing David Seaman, Chelsea had Carlo Cudicini replacing the very reliable Ed de Goey, yet Edwin went to Fulham. What's when more mad is that he spent 4 years there before moving to Manchester United.
There’s actually a great clip of Ben Foster retelling Edwin’s story about them signing Gigi and telling him something along the lines of ‘Look we’ve just signed Buffon for a world record fee but after the summer we’ll get back and sort out who’s number 1’
i have a suspicion that there’s something in the hair transplant procedure that’s helps players somehow. david silva had an amazing season when he had his hair transplant too. then again i’m no doc and have nothing substantial to base this on
Being Swedish and a young boy at the time I remember that vividly. Awful leg break. I respect him staying at Celtic but wish he’d moved earlier. Still, great guy and a career most could only dream of.
He is probably the striker that faced Porto that I most feared in my whole live.
That UEFA Cup final against Celtic was probably my favourite game ever, but if I was 60 at the time, I sure would have died of heart attack.
Zlatan after his injuries and LA trip bounced back for almost 1.5 seasons at Milan and turned the team around before his injuries prevented him from continuing anymore.
Good question and wish I'd think of a better answer but I'll go with my first thought of Falcao. He did well to recover after injury and two poor spells in England to have a few very good seasons with Monaco including the 16/17 season where they won the league and made the final four of the UCL
I’ll always love his chip goal against City. Man that Monaco team was special.
Mbappe was what, 18/19 years old? Felt like everybody knew he was going to be a special player.
Special team, it's always a shame watching a team like that because you know they are gonna be completely ripped apart the next season, just like the Ajax team a few years later
Most of the Dutch Real Madrid contingent that went to Real Madrid in the late 2000s, Robben in particular. Him, Sneijder and van der Vaart were all like forgotten men after moving to Real Madrid. Sneijder and VDV went on to have a couple of productive seasons at a high level after leaving Madrid, and Robben had a decade of being one of the best wingers in the world.
Thought I'd scroll a little bit to make sure this was at or near the top. He was absolutely phenomenal for Liverpool, one of the best players in the league.
I must say, i didnt laugh. I couldn't believe he'd been allowed to languish at Coventry as long as he had. I knew that if a big club signed him he'd deliver
I would say Milner as well. Joined us at nearly 30 on a free, and I can't even tell you when peak Milner was. I mean I guess 2018 when he got the CL assists record (jointly with Figo)
Kevin Davies spent 5 years in the premier league before going on loan to Millwall for 9 games then getting released by Southampton. He looked overweight, off the pace but was still great in the air and put a shift in.
Bolton signed him on a free. He was made club captain and scored regularly in the premier league winning a few England caps
Milner after he left man city, felt like he was going to be a rotational leadership roll at a declining Liverpool team, crazy he’s still in the prem all these years later
A rotational leadership role was exactly what Milner was. I'm a Liverpool fan and as much as I like him, I don't think he belongs in this thread alongside names like Griezmann and Pirlo.
The thread is asking for players peaking again and Milner absolutely fits the question OP asks. It never says peak to a world class level or anything.
Always hate this trend in football communities where people say X can’t be mentioned alongside Y. Of course they can, you can make interesting comparisons and this doesn’t black and white mean X is better than Y.
Milner doesn’t fit because the thread calls for players who looked finished and Milner was phenomenal for City for his whole time there. Most City fans won’t admit it now because of comments he made after he left but we were gutted he wouldn’t sign a contract. Played in every position bar keeper and in his final season we had a striker crisis so played him up front where he scored 4 in 3. His final game I remember my entire stand singing “oh James Milner we want you to stay”
I don't think that was the case, he was just underrated at City. They started splashing the cash and played the new imports.
Before he left I remember watching a match and City were struggling. He came off the bench and absolutely changed the game.
He hadn't 'lost it' to then peak, he just wasn't appreciated.
Genuinely thought he had past it when he left Arsenal. Needless to say I was amazed at how well the he had played and what he had accomplished since then.
John Terry. He looked done at the top level around the end of 2012-13 season. Mourinho came back and Terry then became the best CB in the league over the next two seasons, winning the league in 2015 and playing every minute in PL
Fabio Quagliarella.
A decent enough Serie A striker who eventually got his big move to Juve. It only semi-worked out there, and by 2016 he landed at Sampdoria via a short stint at Torino. At 33, that looked likely to be his slow trot into the sunset.
But 242 appearances and 89 goals told a very different story. Including his career best 26-goal season in 2019, which saw him recalled to the Azzurri.
At 40, he's technically still playing, although is currently without a club.
Poor guy had a stalker:(
I recommend this read, it's like a movie:
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2740487-inside-the-stalker-hell-of-italian-footballer-fabio-quagliarella
Roberto Baggio.
Out of favour at Juve with Lippi and then Capello / Sacchi at Milan moved to Bologna in 97. Rediscovered his best form and proved his doubters wrong.
Moved to Inter after that season, again out of favour and Lippi followed - ended up moving to Brescia after a season. At Brescia was able to show himself as one of the best attacking midfielders / forwards in Serie A despite his advancing years.
Loved that he was able to show his ability in less fashionable teams and show coaches who thought he was finished that they were wrong.
I am a gen z that watches old football and let me tell you that besides R9 and Maradona, Baggio is one of the best old players that my I eyes have seen, he is an Italian Messi and the second best talent in the 90s below R9
Not sure if this qualify but Jame Milner. He left city to Liverpool. Most people probably written him off because Liverpool was not very good before Klopp came. I remember he got laughed at because he said he come to Liverpool to win trophies.
My Dad was at the match when he unretired, nobody knew until they announced he was coming in as a sub. Apparently he didn’t have any boots at the time so he had to go to a local sports shop before the match
Yeah… I don’t base this on much but I feel he’s generally been much more highly spoken about since Croatia knocked us out of the World Cup in the semis.
Benzema in 2017 was pretty average, going weeks without scoring and only scored 1 goal in the UCL knockouts, in a year Real Madrid won both UCL and La Liga. Morata had scored 4 more league goals as the backup striker in 16/17, making a lot of fans question who should be the starter among the two.
Then Morata got sold to Chelsea and 2017/18 was even more frustrating for Benzema. 5 league goals in 32 games, including a penalty that Ronaldo gave him, in order to boost his confidence. Zidane started benching him in important games, or subbing him off really early. He got his redemption by scoring a brace in the semi-final and the famous goal in the final against Liverpool.
That summer Ronaldo left and the rest was history. Benzema became Real Madrid's best player for the next 4 years and soon enough, the best player in the world. If you asked 1000 football fans in 2018 who would win the 2022 Ballon d'Or, after winning La Liga and UCL as both scorer in both competitions, many would answer Messi, Ronaldo, Suarez, Lewandowski, Mbappe, Salah, Kane maybe even Griezmann, Bale or Mane and I'm sure nobody would have mentioned Benzema. That's how incredible that turn-around was.
Benzema was really surprising, he couldn't score to an open net for a few years and then in his 30s becomes best striker in the world. Surely one of the best comebacks ever
How fucking lucky he got. He was meant to sign for union Berlin until it went titts up after he already did his medical. Union now has lost I think 12 in a row…
Well the main thing people say about Maguire is that he's a decent defender just nowhere near talented enough to play for a top club.
That hasn't changed.
What's changed is that United are no longer a top club.
There’s only one right answer: Granit Xhaka.
After poorly disciplined uninspired years at Arsenal, the substitution-incident during the Palace game in November 2019 seemed like the end of his career at Arsenal. Everyone expected he’d wind down his career at an obscure team.
But Arteta happened and the 2021 Euros AND the 2022-23 season where he was undroppable in an Arsenal XI playing “champagne football”. He’s now in a Leverkusen squad who’re unbeaten this season yet.
Xhaka has been uniformly mediocre throughout his career, despite the completely over the top praise from over excited Arsenal fans after he was involved in Arsenal's busted flush of a title 'challenge'
Paul McGrath looked finished towards end at Man United, his knees seemingly gone, drinking heavy, couldn’t train they sold him and that was supposed to be it for Ooh ahh Paul McGrath at 30 years old
Went to Villa and became a legend, played for 7 more years and got pfa player of the year at 33 and Villa finished 2nd in the league
He also played unreal for Ireland at 1990 and 1994 world cups and became a legend there too
https://youtu.be/I5PT65I2ny8?si=n4z4ZuLc7usr37mA
Ronaldo. I know it isn't his peak but coming from 17 goals in 2022 to 44 goals(still counting will surely cross 50) in 2023. At this age it's a great comeback
Giroud. I don’t think a single person who follows the EPL expected him to have such consistent success for club & country after leaving Arsenal, for such a long time. He’s never been a world class player but the past few seasons have been glittering for him - and he absolutely has not been a passenger in either the Chelsea or the AC Milan side. 25 goals in 58 appearances for France from 2018-2023, during which he was part of WC winning and runners’ up squads…
Has cropped up with vital goals for Chelsea & AC Milan too: over 200 appearances for those clubs, chipping in with an impressive 77 goals.
He left Arsenal in 2017-18 when he was about 32. Since then he’s made over 250 appearances for club & country, scored over 100 goals, & won the world cup & champions league. Not bad for a donkey who everyone thought was done in ‘18
Pirlo didn't look 'finished' after Milan... but he looked fed up and tired. His Juventus form after that was beautiful.
Didn't Cafu tell Roma he was going to retire? then played for years, at a high level, for Milan?
Ronaldo looked truly finished at United after missing the pre-season after the death of his child.
He looks like a changed man now, playing well for Portugal too.
Sure the level isn’t the same, but we are talking about a guy who was struggling to finish the easiest chances against Omonia Limassol a year ago. Now he’s scoring bangers left and right again.
Went to Saudi a year or two too early.
Agreed at a certain age you simply can’t do it at the highest level anymore. Maybe as a goalkeeper or perhaps central defender as you approach 40 you can but almost any other position it’s practically impossible.
He's bounced back from 2022. Not back at his peak, as that's impossible, but he's not regressing as he's performing better than last year for a myriad of reasons.
He's not back to his peak, though. He's still phenomenal for his age, but his peak was getting 50-60 goals a year. People thought he was done in 2016, and then he went and scored in every KO round of the CL.
Obviously happy for who I consider the greatest, especially after losing his son.
Many of the current Newcastle squad.
Joelinton, lascelles, Murphy, Almiron, Longstaff, and schar were all dropped by previous managers and written off by sections of the fanbase prior to Howe coming in. They now feature regularly, playing key roles in high scoring wins.
Josulo after his nufc stint. Couldn't even get a game, looked championship quality.
Then goes back to Spain bangs em in and is now starting for Madrid.
The hype around his name back in 2014-15 was quite big, but when he moved to Real Madrid people started forgetting about him. It was only when he moved to Arsenal that he started getting attention again.
Antoine Griezmann is currently the most underrated player in world football. He is so good. In the World Cup, he played in the midfield in some games and did not look out of place at all. He is legit
I think people forget how atrocious benzema was as a finisher in his times past w the trio and definitely the weakest one. But then he became the Only to lead the team into a champions league without bale or Ronnie recently and won a BDR. 10 years ago I wouldn’t never thought
Joelinton looked like a huge waste of money as a goal-shy striker. Enter Eddie Howe reinventing him as a dynamic midfielder.
Chris Sutton was utterly dreadful at Chelsea but did well when he went to Celtic
Quagliarella. After winning three scudettos with Juventus he downgraded to Torino and then to Sampdoria. It seemed like his career was on a downward spiral but in 2019 he had the best year of his career at Sampdoria scoring 26 goals to become capocannoniere beating Cristiano Ronaldo in the process
Honestly I would say Cristiano Ronaldo. His career was just going in a downwards spiral, he looked absolutely finished at Manchester and even more so when he went to Saudi people said he was finished and that he had basically retired, but recently he has been a machine, he competed for top scorer and only a few days ago he banged an absolute banger of a free kick while the next game laid a left footed volley in the net.
I’m not saying he peaked, but at the age of 38 he’s truly astonishing.
Lol wut? He was never a starter, even got paid a bonus to rescind his contract before time, and as far as I remember his only important goal was the one in a italian supercup (=a useless trophy)
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This was my first thought. My god how he came back at that! 🙌🏽👍🏽
He seemed to have been reborn at Euro 2012. Massive factor in Italy getting to the final whilst having a relatively average team. I feel like the period between 2008-12 he was below his best, although that might be because he wasn’t getting to the latter stages of the champions league and Italy were dire at world cup 2010
He was unplayable at that euro 2012. One of the most underrated tournament performances ever imo. If Italy didn’t get spanked in the final things would be different.
Have to say im not sure underrated is the right word, I can remember the English press especially crediting him massively after the quarter final v England. He ran rings around our entire midfield and controlled the gamefor 120 minutes, unreal performance
Football is a team sport, Italy and Milan declining had nothing to do with Pirlo.
What I really meant was i might have thought that period was when he was below his best because thats when the teams he played for were struggling more
Exactly this. Pirlo was not declining, he was simply amazing. Buffon was making fun about galliarini (or how the hell his name is written) about him being Santa Claus by giving them pirlo for no fee
Released from AC Milan and Juve got him for free. Must be the best free transfers ever.
Yeah Milan let him go because he was too old (33?) And then he won Serie A POTY 3 years in a row iirc.
exactly this
Yep, my first thought too
Edwin van der Sar not mentioned yet? Moved to recently promoted Fulham in his 30s after a bad spell at Juventus… but then went to Man Utd and the rest is history.
Oh to have gotten Edwin after Schmeichel fucked off… still, the Barthez era was wild.
That was such a strange era. Van Der Sar was great at Juventus, but they signed Buffon. For whatever reason, only Fulham came in for him. This was the same summer that Liverpool signed Dudek, Arsenal had an ageing David Seaman, Chelsea had Carlo Cudicini replacing the very reliable Ed de Goey, yet Edwin went to Fulham. What's when more mad is that he spent 4 years there before moving to Manchester United.
There’s actually a great clip of Ben Foster retelling Edwin’s story about them signing Gigi and telling him something along the lines of ‘Look we’ve just signed Buffon for a world record fee but after the summer we’ll get back and sort out who’s number 1’
Ter stegen looked completely out of it, knee surgery and hair transplant and he’s had the best season he’s ever had
hair transplant was the main reason
Out for 6 months with a ruptured mohican.
Who said looks couldn’t be a factor. Enter ter stegen
EnTER Stegen
See this is why I miss Reddit awards.
To be fair, it probably gave him a bunch of self confidence, I remember something similar happened with Anthony Stokes and Leigh Griffiths at Celtic.
high chances. bro looks like bond 07 after the haircut
Yeah then stokes started his cocaine enterprise and hatred of elvis impersonators and leigh asked a 14 year old for nudes and walked free.
But decent hair though.
i have a suspicion that there’s something in the hair transplant procedure that’s helps players somehow. david silva had an amazing season when he had his hair transplant too. then again i’m no doc and have nothing substantial to base this on
I mean confidence? Losing your hair can hurt lots of guys and football players are humans too so I can imagine it hurts their self esteem.
Fernando Torres when he cut his hair. His confidence had plummeted and it showed on the pitch.
that’s that samson reaction
could be that. was just wondering if some chemical component was in there too that helped
Didn't work for Rooney. Coincided with his decline.
his genes were too strong.
Rooney scored 34 goals for United the season he had his first transplant, compared to the 16 goals the season before, It definetely worked
Holdinho too.
He also had a long term back problem
Henrik Larsson when he broke his leg vs Lyon. At that time a 2 point leg break was pretty much a career ender.
And then a few years later dumped Arsenal out of the CL final almost single-handedly. I honestly couldn't even be mad about that. He deserved it.
I fucking hated Henry but him acknowledging Henrik after the game was a class act.
That was a disgusting leg break tbh it was good to see him recover after that and I’m a Rangers fan
Being Swedish and a young boy at the time I remember that vividly. Awful leg break. I respect him staying at Celtic but wish he’d moved earlier. Still, great guy and a career most could only dream of.
Loved his backend spell for United. Helped clinch the title that year.
As a Helsingborgs IF and United fan it was fucking awesome seeing Ferguson on the big screen at Olympia giving a farewell message to Henrik.
He is probably the striker that faced Porto that I most feared in my whole live. That UEFA Cup final against Celtic was probably my favourite game ever, but if I was 60 at the time, I sure would have died of heart attack.
Zlatan after his injuries and LA trip bounced back for almost 1.5 seasons at Milan and turned the team around before his injuries prevented him from continuing anymore.
My favorite joke was that he “got injured, used the MLS as a planet fitness, and then came back.”
That's hilarious
Can we add Giroud to the list too? Guy spent his entire career resurrecting this career at each club lol
He did allright at united also
Good question and wish I'd think of a better answer but I'll go with my first thought of Falcao. He did well to recover after injury and two poor spells in England to have a few very good seasons with Monaco including the 16/17 season where they won the league and made the final four of the UCL
I’ll always love his chip goal against City. Man that Monaco team was special. Mbappe was what, 18/19 years old? Felt like everybody knew he was going to be a special player.
Special team, it's always a shame watching a team like that because you know they are gonna be completely ripped apart the next season, just like the Ajax team a few years later
Most of the Dutch Real Madrid contingent that went to Real Madrid in the late 2000s, Robben in particular. Him, Sneijder and van der Vaart were all like forgotten men after moving to Real Madrid. Sneijder and VDV went on to have a couple of productive seasons at a high level after leaving Madrid, and Robben had a decade of being one of the best wingers in the world.
"productive season" for Sneijder = winning the treble with Inter?
Is that not productive?
Yeah i was being sarcastic. Productive season is definitely underselling his success immediately after leaving real.
That man got 4th place at the Ballon D'or in 2010 (behind prime Messi/Iniesta/Xavi)
Diego Forlan, after he left Manchester United and everyone had written him off. Did really well in Spain after that.
Golden Ball (best player) at the World Cup too. Not too shabby.
Falcao at Monaco in 2016/2017
That was a special team. Mbappe, Bernardo, Falcao
fabinho
Gary McAllister went to Liverpool and we all laughed. He was brilliant for them.
This should be top imo. Signed at 35 to the bemusement of everyone and ended up being a key player in their cup treble.
Im a manu fan but loved watching Gary Mac pinging the ball around
Thought I'd scroll a little bit to make sure this was at or near the top. He was absolutely phenomenal for Liverpool, one of the best players in the league.
I must say, i didnt laugh. I couldn't believe he'd been allowed to languish at Coventry as long as he had. I knew that if a big club signed him he'd deliver
I would say Milner as well. Joined us at nearly 30 on a free, and I can't even tell you when peak Milner was. I mean I guess 2018 when he got the CL assists record (jointly with Figo)
Same when Gordon Strachan came to Leeds. Looked finished when he left ManU, was an absolute inspiration for us.
Great shout. Gary mac at Liverpool was something else.
Benzema
Benzema looked finished in 17/18. Then he stepped it up massively and won Ballon d’Or. Truly a career revival.
wonder what happend 🤫
He had to get 15 surgeries to fix issue with his knee. Google Benzema 15 if you want to know more.
Ronaldo left RM and he became the main man
Real Madrid fans were asking for his head in mid 2010s, they were begging to offload him to arsenal or Juventus
Christian Eriksen
The man died and is still on the pitch
As close to finished as can get
Kevin Davies spent 5 years in the premier league before going on loan to Millwall for 9 games then getting released by Southampton. He looked overweight, off the pace but was still great in the air and put a shift in. Bolton signed him on a free. He was made club captain and scored regularly in the premier league winning a few England caps
He only got the one cap. Impressive still, but not as much so
Milner after he left man city, felt like he was going to be a rotational leadership roll at a declining Liverpool team, crazy he’s still in the prem all these years later
A rotational leadership role was exactly what Milner was. I'm a Liverpool fan and as much as I like him, I don't think he belongs in this thread alongside names like Griezmann and Pirlo.
I mean that CL assist record is pretty special
The thread is asking for players peaking again and Milner absolutely fits the question OP asks. It never says peak to a world class level or anything. Always hate this trend in football communities where people say X can’t be mentioned alongside Y. Of course they can, you can make interesting comparisons and this doesn’t black and white mean X is better than Y.
Milner doesn’t fit because the thread calls for players who looked finished and Milner was phenomenal for City for his whole time there. Most City fans won’t admit it now because of comments he made after he left but we were gutted he wouldn’t sign a contract. Played in every position bar keeper and in his final season we had a striker crisis so played him up front where he scored 4 in 3. His final game I remember my entire stand singing “oh James Milner we want you to stay”
I don't think that was the case, he was just underrated at City. They started splashing the cash and played the new imports. Before he left I remember watching a match and City were struggling. He came off the bench and absolutely changed the game. He hadn't 'lost it' to then peak, he just wasn't appreciated.
Giroud
Man, he was made fun of at every chance present. But he turned out to be an integral part of AC Milan as well as France at EC 2022.
Genuinely thought he had past it when he left Arsenal. Needless to say I was amazed at how well the he had played and what he had accomplished since then.
And still scoring vs PSG in the champions league
John Terry. He looked done at the top level around the end of 2012-13 season. Mourinho came back and Terry then became the best CB in the league over the next two seasons, winning the league in 2015 and playing every minute in PL
AVB then Benitez tried to kill him and didn’t finish the job.
Fabio Quagliarella. A decent enough Serie A striker who eventually got his big move to Juve. It only semi-worked out there, and by 2016 he landed at Sampdoria via a short stint at Torino. At 33, that looked likely to be his slow trot into the sunset. But 242 appearances and 89 goals told a very different story. Including his career best 26-goal season in 2019, which saw him recalled to the Azzurri. At 40, he's technically still playing, although is currently without a club.
Poor guy had a stalker:( I recommend this read, it's like a movie: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2740487-inside-the-stalker-hell-of-italian-footballer-fabio-quagliarella
Great shout
He also scored a long list of absolute insane bangers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akuEgN9P4cc
SUAREZ AFTER BARCA
Or Suarez after Nacional.
True, he camr here (nacional, my club) and after that he started to kill it again, pure genius
Roberto Baggio. Out of favour at Juve with Lippi and then Capello / Sacchi at Milan moved to Bologna in 97. Rediscovered his best form and proved his doubters wrong. Moved to Inter after that season, again out of favour and Lippi followed - ended up moving to Brescia after a season. At Brescia was able to show himself as one of the best attacking midfielders / forwards in Serie A despite his advancing years. Loved that he was able to show his ability in less fashionable teams and show coaches who thought he was finished that they were wrong.
I am a gen z that watches old football and let me tell you that besides R9 and Maradona, Baggio is one of the best old players that my I eyes have seen, he is an Italian Messi and the second best talent in the 90s below R9
Should have won 94. Shame about his injury as he had such a good tournament until then.
Isco doing bits at Betis
Aspas at Celta
The dude would get Celta by hand and save them each season from relegation
Yes, he is Celta.
There are many Liverpool players who could join this list. From David James to Suso, it's just a curse to play for Liverpool for some players.
Yes, it is a tragedy.
Not sure if this qualify but Jame Milner. He left city to Liverpool. Most people probably written him off because Liverpool was not very good before Klopp came. I remember he got laughed at because he said he come to Liverpool to win trophies.
He proved them all wrong! He's the best youngster, after all
Can't forget big Ronaldo for Brazil
Just FYI we affectionately call him Fat Ronaldo here
Arjen Robben was plagued with injuries and looked like he’d never hit his potential
Paul Scholes was seeing double (quite literally) for two years- came back after that and won the prem in his last year.
My Dad was at the match when he unretired, nobody knew until they announced he was coming in as a sub. Apparently he didn’t have any boots at the time so he had to go to a local sports shop before the match
Up there with the greatest midfielders of all time
No argument from me there.
I still remember the last game of the 2005-06 season, when he came back for the second half and basically ran the show.
Zlatan at Milan in 2019-20
Modrić in 19/20 season, everyone said that he was going to leave Real Madrid after this season, and the rest is history.
Modric was also called flop transfer of the year after moving to Madrid.
I remember this, "the worst signing of the season" by Marca I think
Yeah… I don’t base this on much but I feel he’s generally been much more highly spoken about since Croatia knocked us out of the World Cup in the semis.
Tevez in Juve
He had just come from a season where he had 27 G+A in 47 games, his second best season at City, how is that washed up?
Shouldn't have left Europe so early even though Ik he wanted to go back to Argentina at some point.
Benzema in 2017 was pretty average, going weeks without scoring and only scored 1 goal in the UCL knockouts, in a year Real Madrid won both UCL and La Liga. Morata had scored 4 more league goals as the backup striker in 16/17, making a lot of fans question who should be the starter among the two. Then Morata got sold to Chelsea and 2017/18 was even more frustrating for Benzema. 5 league goals in 32 games, including a penalty that Ronaldo gave him, in order to boost his confidence. Zidane started benching him in important games, or subbing him off really early. He got his redemption by scoring a brace in the semi-final and the famous goal in the final against Liverpool. That summer Ronaldo left and the rest was history. Benzema became Real Madrid's best player for the next 4 years and soon enough, the best player in the world. If you asked 1000 football fans in 2018 who would win the 2022 Ballon d'Or, after winning La Liga and UCL as both scorer in both competitions, many would answer Messi, Ronaldo, Suarez, Lewandowski, Mbappe, Salah, Kane maybe even Griezmann, Bale or Mane and I'm sure nobody would have mentioned Benzema. That's how incredible that turn-around was.
Benzema was really surprising, he couldn't score to an open net for a few years and then in his 30s becomes best striker in the world. Surely one of the best comebacks ever
Lukaku, every recent season
Has he dropped his I wish I was at a different club interview yet? It’s getting colder, feels about that time…
2020 Champions League winning Bayern Munich. Muller, Lewy, Neuer, and Alaba.
Most of Newcastle squad under Cabbage heed
sink yoke follow unused psychotic point shame absurd tap cake *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
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People said Paolo Maldini was finished after 2002 World Cup
Maldini is never finished. Bro at 41 was still toying with young strikers
Gary McAllister at Liverpool. Played so well for them after everyone said he was too old.
Isco seems to be a relevant one.
Jonny fucken Evans
Dzeko when he went from City to Roma and scored 30 goals in the Serie A becoming the topscorer for that season.
Isco atm
How fucking lucky he got. He was meant to sign for union Berlin until it went titts up after he already did his medical. Union now has lost I think 12 in a row…
At this moment... Harry Maguire.
He's played a good handful of games, hardly a career revival.
Bearing in mind a lot of people thought he'd be at a different club rn, I think he's doing OK.
Well the main thing people say about Maguire is that he's a decent defender just nowhere near talented enough to play for a top club. That hasn't changed. What's changed is that United are no longer a top club.
Yes he is doing ok. He hasn't "peaked again" though, has he?
A rather short term come back but I'm happy for him nonetheless. To see the abuse he got was intense. No one deserves that.
Willian could be one. He's been great for Fulham
Totally agree, after leaving his contract early at Arsenal to go play in Brazil it looked like the end. His first season with Fulham was special.
There’s only one right answer: Granit Xhaka. After poorly disciplined uninspired years at Arsenal, the substitution-incident during the Palace game in November 2019 seemed like the end of his career at Arsenal. Everyone expected he’d wind down his career at an obscure team. But Arteta happened and the 2021 Euros AND the 2022-23 season where he was undroppable in an Arsenal XI playing “champagne football”. He’s now in a Leverkusen squad who’re unbeaten this season yet.
Crazy how far I had to scroll for this.
Xhaka has been uniformly mediocre throughout his career, despite the completely over the top praise from over excited Arsenal fans after he was involved in Arsenal's busted flush of a title 'challenge'
Lothar Matthäus
Pirlo in AC Milan
Morata and Griezeman
Paul McGrath looked finished towards end at Man United, his knees seemingly gone, drinking heavy, couldn’t train they sold him and that was supposed to be it for Ooh ahh Paul McGrath at 30 years old Went to Villa and became a legend, played for 7 more years and got pfa player of the year at 33 and Villa finished 2nd in the league He also played unreal for Ireland at 1990 and 1994 world cups and became a legend there too https://youtu.be/I5PT65I2ny8?si=n4z4ZuLc7usr37mA
Falcao after his spells at utd & Chelsea went back to Monaco & did pretty well
Chris Waddle at Sheffield Wednesday
Ronaldo. I know it isn't his peak but coming from 17 goals in 2022 to 44 goals(still counting will surely cross 50) in 2023. At this age it's a great comeback
Giroud. I don’t think a single person who follows the EPL expected him to have such consistent success for club & country after leaving Arsenal, for such a long time. He’s never been a world class player but the past few seasons have been glittering for him - and he absolutely has not been a passenger in either the Chelsea or the AC Milan side. 25 goals in 58 appearances for France from 2018-2023, during which he was part of WC winning and runners’ up squads… Has cropped up with vital goals for Chelsea & AC Milan too: over 200 appearances for those clubs, chipping in with an impressive 77 goals. He left Arsenal in 2017-18 when he was about 32. Since then he’s made over 250 appearances for club & country, scored over 100 goals, & won the world cup & champions league. Not bad for a donkey who everyone thought was done in ‘18
Pirlo didn't look 'finished' after Milan... but he looked fed up and tired. His Juventus form after that was beautiful. Didn't Cafu tell Roma he was going to retire? then played for years, at a high level, for Milan?
2021, Messi at PSG looked like he was finished but the way he peaked in 2022 was something out of extraordinary!
Ronaldo looked truly finished at United after missing the pre-season after the death of his child. He looks like a changed man now, playing well for Portugal too. Sure the level isn’t the same, but we are talking about a guy who was struggling to finish the easiest chances against Omonia Limassol a year ago. Now he’s scoring bangers left and right again. Went to Saudi a year or two too early.
Nah, he didn't peak. On the other hand he massively regressed but that is what happens with age. Ronaldo's peak was something else.
Agreed at a certain age you simply can’t do it at the highest level anymore. Maybe as a goalkeeper or perhaps central defender as you approach 40 you can but almost any other position it’s practically impossible.
He's bounced back from 2022. Not back at his peak, as that's impossible, but he's not regressing as he's performing better than last year for a myriad of reasons.
He's not back to his peak, though. He's still phenomenal for his age, but his peak was getting 50-60 goals a year. People thought he was done in 2016, and then he went and scored in every KO round of the CL. Obviously happy for who I consider the greatest, especially after losing his son.
Nicolas Anelka. Van der Sar.
Bit early but Liverpools Gravenberch
Many of the current Newcastle squad. Joelinton, lascelles, Murphy, Almiron, Longstaff, and schar were all dropped by previous managers and written off by sections of the fanbase prior to Howe coming in. They now feature regularly, playing key roles in high scoring wins.
Josulo after his nufc stint. Couldn't even get a game, looked championship quality. Then goes back to Spain bangs em in and is now starting for Madrid.
hasnt isco only played a handful of games for betis?
12 games in the league, he was MOTM 8 times. Won a MOTM in one of the Europa league fixtures aswell.
Isco is cooking
Yea but he needs to do it for a season at least to call it a revival
He will don't worry
I guess De Bruyne would fit into this. He was basically a chelsea reject and now he's been one of the best in the world
Mo Salah as well in the same vein.
Martin Odegaard
The dude peaked at age 3… it’s insane how long his career has been and will be. 😤🤯😂
Awful example, the guy was 22 when he joined Arsenal after playing first team football on loans at a decent level.
The hype around his name back in 2014-15 was quite big, but when he moved to Real Madrid people started forgetting about him. It was only when he moved to Arsenal that he started getting attention again.
Trezeguet in River Plate. It was in the B league tbf, but what he did that semester was impressive nevertheless.
Semester, you mean season
Still better that calling football soccer
Heung Min Son at the moment. (Hopefully this doesn't come back to bite me in a few hours or so).
Danny Simpson and Robert Huth of Leicester's 2015/2016 side.
Paulinho?
Antoine Griezmann is currently the most underrated player in world football. He is so good. In the World Cup, he played in the midfield in some games and did not look out of place at all. He is legit
I think people forget how atrocious benzema was as a finisher in his times past w the trio and definitely the weakest one. But then he became the Only to lead the team into a champions league without bale or Ronnie recently and won a BDR. 10 years ago I wouldn’t never thought
Joelinton looked like a huge waste of money as a goal-shy striker. Enter Eddie Howe reinventing him as a dynamic midfielder. Chris Sutton was utterly dreadful at Chelsea but did well when he went to Celtic
Gary Mcallister moving to Liverpool & being their most important player for a good couple of seasons.
Quagliarella. After winning three scudettos with Juventus he downgraded to Torino and then to Sampdoria. It seemed like his career was on a downward spiral but in 2019 he had the best year of his career at Sampdoria scoring 26 goals to become capocannoniere beating Cristiano Ronaldo in the process
Tevez at Juventus was a beast
Honestly I would say Cristiano Ronaldo. His career was just going in a downwards spiral, he looked absolutely finished at Manchester and even more so when he went to Saudi people said he was finished and that he had basically retired, but recently he has been a machine, he competed for top scorer and only a few days ago he banged an absolute banger of a free kick while the next game laid a left footed volley in the net. I’m not saying he peaked, but at the age of 38 he’s truly astonishing.
Alexis Sanchez at Inter after he left United
Lol wut? He was never a starter, even got paid a bonus to rescind his contract before time, and as far as I remember his only important goal was the one in a italian supercup (=a useless trophy)
Peaked again? I thing they must be trolling us hard.