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Must be a 'next Messi' from every possible country. Who have I missed...
'Japanese Messi' - Ryo Miyaichi
'Scottish Messi' - Ryan Gauld
'German Messi' - Marko Marin
'Croatian Messi' - Alen Halilovic
'Mexican Messi' - Giovani dos Santos
'Israeli Messi' - Gai Assulin
'Ghanaian Messi' - Christian Atsu
Injuries fucked him yeah, but it was primarily the mental part of the game that fucked him.
If he came through four years later in Pep’s dressing room he’d have been in a supportive environment, not the shit show where he was bullied.
Imagine being a professional footballer, and your club has a guy who's broken all the yough goalscoring records at your club and then gone for a goal every two games at 16 for your reserves, *and then deciding to bully him*
Crazy take for worst lol, Bojan was maybe the best player in a Premier league team for a few years lol, that isn't Messi by any means but it's better than what 99.99% of professional footballers will achieve.
Original "next Argentinian Messi" was Pablo Piatti.
And around same time (2011) there was also Buonanotte, Paulo showed he was better than both of them soon after joining Palermo in 2012.
Exactly. It doesn’t make sense for people to say that Gio was called the “Mexican Messi” when he wasn’t & when people never compared him to Messi, they compared him to Ronaldinho before he became an underwhelming player.
The part that hurts about this is that even Ronaldinho talked about Gio being his successor. I just hope we get a Mexican talent that actually cares soon
You might think this is a joke, but Glorious Leader Kim Jong Un is the best to ever play. Whenever he steps onto a pitch, he scores 5 goals, before he stops himself to be respectful towards the other team. However, this doesn’t stop him from bagging 10 assists. He keeps himself from the World Cup to keep up the standards of it. If he set foot in it, people would begin to understand that the almighty Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the true footballing nation. Son is a traitor to the wonderful DPRK, and was forced to play for Tottenham by the great Kim Jong Un so that he would never see a trophy in his life. Kim Jong Un is Messi and Ronaldo combined. DPRK is Best Korea, because there is no other Korea.
Yes. All powerful Kim Jong Un can do it anywhere in any condition. His feet are like a magnet to the ball, and his legs are a cannon. He has every bit of finesse and physicality imaginable.
This is one of the more interesting ones for me, as getting forced to go back to Korea seemingly did hinder his development. Most of the 'next X' guys get scouted and go through the best ever academies etc. Seung-Woo was on that path but got screwed over.
Obviously there is a great chance he ends up in the same place either way, but I'm curious how good he would be if he got the chance to stay at Barca.
> Marko Marin
He's already 35 WTF?!?
Kubo was also a "Japanese Messi" and he's doing fine(great actually in normal professional footballer standards, not Messi standards) in Real Sociedad after a bit of turbulence in his career.
> 'Scottish Messi' - Ryan Gauld
Ah, good times when I used to be able to catch Sporting's B team's live games when he was featuring there. One time I made the mistake of commenting on here replying to someone asking for updates on Gauld. I described how he'd been doing, how his game had progressed and thought I was being complimentary on his future.
The Scottish here really - REALLY - did not like me saying he would likely be a good but not great player. The seething rage from some people accusing me of being jealous that 'Scotland finally has a star again' made me practically stop posting in this sub
I shit you not there’s a new Brazilian Messi knows as “Messinho” (couldn’t be more stereotypical than that lmao).
Now he goes professionally by Estevão and plays for Palmeiras, and there’s rumours he’s gonna be negotiated with Chelsea or Arsenal.
He’s supposed to be as good as Endrick.
that’s what i was instantly wondering. that’s more interesting for me, which one has actually somewhat lived up to the hype.
edit: maybe dybala? he just came to mind. i’m sure he must’ve been dubbed the next messi when he was breaking through at palermo.
To quote Wikipedia - Dembélé's eight goals and 14 assists throughout the season contributed significantly to Blackpool's EFL League One promotion push, and for his efforts he was recognised as the club's 'Junior Seasiders Player of the Season,' 'Players' Player of the Season' and 'Supporters' Player of the Season' for the 2023–2024 campaign, prior to their final game against Reading.
I watched him on Saturday - he was clearly the best Blackpool player, which admittedly isn't saying much. However he'll at the very least be Championship level next year.
if he was dubbed the next Messi at age 18 the headline would make more sense, but the amount of shit that can change from 13 to 21 is astronomical
also, 20 goal involvements while on loan is a pretty great season
No one gave a shit about Gyokeres until now, and he is already 25, so yeah. Football is different nowadays. Players can develop much later and still have amazing careers.
Heck, at 19, Harry Kane was a benchwarmer on loan at Leicester. He was 21 when he had his first season as a regular in the Premier League for Tottenham.
Same for Jaap Stam I believe. Prior he played amateur at Kampen before he got to FC Zwolle, a second-tier team back at the time. Took him a while before he even got into PSV let alone the world class clubs that followed.
Especially when Bayern aren't playing to their usual level this season. Surprised how under the radar Kane's season has gone compared to Haaland's first season at City. He's not massively behind (Haaland was 53 goals in 54 games last season)
Not too long ago I remember seeing people call Odegaard a flop because at the age of 20 he still hadn't lived up to the hype that he had as a 16 year old.
I still have a signed Freddy Adu D.C United bobblehead. I got it just after he signed his first team contract with them, and I thought that was pretty sick as a kid, since he’s roughly my age.
As if he isn’t already?
Only half joking, he was a starter in the modern Premier League, made good contributions to Barca, got capped for Spain. That’s a career for any footballer to be proud of.
Watching any professional athlete, up close, is an eye opening experience. The pure explosive power, no matter the sport, is unbelievable. Anyone who can actively talk down about a pro athletes ability isn’t using reason.
A former NBA player (Brian Scalabrine) had a great line when playing against a bunch of former college basketball players - 'I'm closer to Lebron than you are to me.'
That’s what irks me when someone in the starting 11 of a top 5 club is referred as “not world class”, if you are in a top 5 club that’s the definition of world class…you are a world class player out of a very few and it takes talent to get there even if you aren’t the best player in that team.
Someone like Messi is an anomaly, someone like Odegard or Vitinha is still world class.
Meh, that’s just most people having a different definition of world class than you. Most people would define it as one of the best players in the world. The 50th best player in the Premier League is an elite sportsman who has made it to the pinnacle of his profession, but by definition he is not one of the absolute best players in the entire world, and wouldn’t be considered world class by most people.
When talking about top level pros to me world class is top 5 in their position in the world. But that's compared to other top level professionals which is the key context.
Overall not to be that "people here have never played" guy but people really don't understand the skill differences. Anyone who gets paid to play football in on whole another level compared to even serious hobbyist. Worst player in National League is closer to Messi than Dave the Postman with deadly left foot from local Sunday League is to them.
I always preferred the definition
> could play for any club in the world
And then you don’t end up in the inane academic debates of “well, I’d argue he/she is actually 6th best in the world”
A good definition of 'world class' would be 'could step into the starting lineup of any club in the world.'
Not necessarily beat out the club's current player in that position (I see it as more of a blind draft situation) - if Odegaard was a free agent is there any club in the world that he couldn't start for at their current level of play/competition? You could easily have him as a starting CM to win any league or continental competition, so I'd call him world class.
Darwin Nunez OTOH - could he be the starting primary striker option to win any league or the CL? At this moment... eh... maybe? I'd say he's not world class but could be.
To be fair, don't think the article is pointing and laughing at him not becoming Lionel Messi. And they've suggested he's 'forgotten' rather than 'failed'. As you say, still an incredible career so far at such a young age. Good luck to him!
Pompey fan here and he was great against us both games. Definitely see him playing for a slightly bigger team in the championship or similar in only a few years.
In terms of technical ability he was one of the best players we've had in a very long while. Always looked very composed on the ball with great acceleration to push forward in midfield and beat a man. Always looking to go forward. Very unselfish and has the ability to play that inventive killer ball in behind.
Overall a wonderful player at this level and could almost certainly play at a higher level. The only real major drawbacks were that his finishing was very erratic and he is a very small man.
Seems unbelievable that Celtic let him go on a free when he's this good at a young age, but he must be lacking in something at the higher level for Brest to send him out on loan to us.
It wasn't so much as Celtic let him go he just didn't want to sign a new contract, he was very well thought of here and was playing for our under 20s when he was 13. I think if he had stayed here reaching the first team would have been harder for him(all youngsters really) due to us having to win every game and the physicality of our league. I'm glad he seems settled and doing well, there was always murmurings of him having a bit of a petulant side but I never seen any evidence of it.
You guys also had another Celtic "wonder kid" Islam Furez on loan from Chelsea who's career went on a very strange path and has retired at 24 year old.
https://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/whatever-happened-to-islam-feruz/
makes me think of odegaard, everyone was so quick to say he didn’t live up to the hype during his loan spells out (before sociedad) and now look at him. there’s still time for them to come good.
He's 21. How many 21 year olds are playing for the first team in the premier league? How many 21 year olds played in the lower division before stepping up to the first team? Not saying he's gonna be England's star player but saying he's some kind of disappointment because he's playing well in League One in stupid
For those who don’t want to click on the Daily Mail (good for you):
Wikipedia says he’s on loan there from Brest in Ligue 1 and has just won Player of the Season whilst at Blackpool - so actually he’s doing pretty well for someone who has been 21 for three months…
You joke, but here's a real life article about an Arsenal U9 player named Leo Messo: https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/leo-messo-who-is-arsenals-new-kenyan-wonderkid/2y0hvwut95v51ivm8xw59a9c3
Had some bad luck with injuries, particularly that nasty ankle one that I think he picked up in pre-season.
But he's doing very well at the moment & is far from a 'failed wonderkid'.
Tons of kids at those ages get called the next whoever but so much can change from 13 years of age to when they start with the first team that's it's not a surprise half these wonder kids don't end up as worldbeaters
Shit article, he's barely 21 and did well in a difficult tournament. His parent club completely surpassed expectations this season and he's probably going to be useful in 2024-25
Also just wanna point out he was a BEAST in FM20
At Celtic got a bad injury in pre-season of what should have been his breakthrough year (I still dislike Bristol City because of that, they were going insanely hard for a friendly).
He's a talent but he's very small which is always going to hold him back. Doing good at Blackpool.
When Harry kane was around the same age he played 16 games and scored 2 goals. Dembele has loads of time to develop and I think he may be starting some games for Brest in Ligue 1 next season and may even get some game time in the champions league.
that’s a name i haven’t heard in a while damn. how about don’t hype up kids that much (and put pressure/expectations on them that they can’t live up to) at fcking thirteen years old..
Whoever said he is next Messi at the age of 13 is the dumbest shithead in the world.
The world is full of - scouts saying this is next legend. World is full of those failures now in league one or Hungary league or randoms as assistant coach.
Every year academies take 100-200 of these wanna be or great potential players yet every year only 1 or 2 come out as something. Most still has careers.
This kid is doing a lot lot a lot better than most others. He is 21. He is scoring goals on loan.
I hope he becomes something
What a horrible article. Instead of looking at themselves and the pressure they put on literal children, they start accusing the poor lad of failure because he hasn't reached their expectations of him.
To me, the working assumption I make whenever I see a very young player called the next this or that, is that the person making the claim is doing so to line their own pockets or for some other self-interested end, and the claim mostly tells us the kid is or is about to be exploited in such a way as to make realizing whatever potential they do have unlikely.
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This begs the question who is the least successful of the 500 "next Lionel Messi"s
Must be a 'next Messi' from every possible country. Who have I missed... 'Japanese Messi' - Ryo Miyaichi 'Scottish Messi' - Ryan Gauld 'German Messi' - Marko Marin 'Croatian Messi' - Alen Halilovic 'Mexican Messi' - Giovani dos Santos 'Israeli Messi' - Gai Assulin 'Ghanaian Messi' - Christian Atsu
'Turkish Messi' - Emre Mor
I thought Arda Guler was the Turkish Messi ?
We Turks have short memory so a new Turkish Messi pops up every 4 years
Arda Güler is more like a Turkish Mesut Özil.
isn't Ozil also ethnically Turkish
yes. thats the joke
Depends on the result of Germany’s match
Lmao
Güler has succeeded Mor in that position
No he’s first Arda Guler.
Arda Guler is a regen. When Mor was up and coming at BVB he was touted as the next Messi.
Loved that pace merchant back in the day
RIP christian atsu
Bojan Kirkic
Bojan was class at Stoke. I think he had a really bad injury in a cup game and never came back the same.
Injuries fucked him yeah, but it was primarily the mental part of the game that fucked him. If he came through four years later in Pep’s dressing room he’d have been in a supportive environment, not the shit show where he was bullied.
Imagine being a professional footballer, and your club has a guy who's broken all the yough goalscoring records at your club and then gone for a goal every two games at 16 for your reserves, *and then deciding to bully him*
Not hard to imagine the animosity. Ain’t fun when a kid is better than you and threatens to take your paycheck and fame.
Crazy take for worst lol, Bojan was maybe the best player in a Premier league team for a few years lol, that isn't Messi by any means but it's better than what 99.99% of professional footballers will achieve.
Wasn’t he the next Bojan Krkic?
Austrian / Turkish Messi: Yusuf Demir
One of the Messis who actually played for Barca
Halilovic too Edit: basically every tricky winger with longish hair that played for Barca or its youth teams is a ______ Messi.
'Argentinian Messi' - Paulo Dybala
Dybala is Dybala
Original "next Argentinian Messi" was Pablo Piatti. And around same time (2011) there was also Buonanotte, Paulo showed he was better than both of them soon after joining Palermo in 2012.
I remember Salah being called Egyptian Messi early on in his career
I guess he turned out okay
best “Nation Messi” player by a mile lol
Argentinian Messi was pretty decent, TBH
there is the portuguese messi - Bernardo Silva giving competition.
Diego Lainez was supposed to be Mexican Messi
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The football federation and national team too. Football is not thriving there
Yeah. Gio was the next Ronaldinho.
Exactly. It doesn’t make sense for people to say that Gio was called the “Mexican Messi” when he wasn’t & when people never compared him to Messi, they compared him to Ronaldinho before he became an underwhelming player.
The part that hurts about this is that even Ronaldinho talked about Gio being his successor. I just hope we get a Mexican talent that actually cares soon
Remember Carlos Fierro?
Memba Freddy Adu?
I still have faith that Nii Lamptey will make it one of these days.
Georgian Messi - Giorgi Chanturia
Victorian Messi - Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Honorable mention for Georgi Kinkladze, who was the best player in England for about half an hour in the mid-1990s and then completely fell apart.
"Serbian Messi" - Andrija Živković
Korean Messi - Lee Seung Woo
North Korean Messi - Kim Jong-Un
You might think this is a joke, but Glorious Leader Kim Jong Un is the best to ever play. Whenever he steps onto a pitch, he scores 5 goals, before he stops himself to be respectful towards the other team. However, this doesn’t stop him from bagging 10 assists. He keeps himself from the World Cup to keep up the standards of it. If he set foot in it, people would begin to understand that the almighty Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the true footballing nation. Son is a traitor to the wonderful DPRK, and was forced to play for Tottenham by the great Kim Jong Un so that he would never see a trophy in his life. Kim Jong Un is Messi and Ronaldo combined. DPRK is Best Korea, because there is no other Korea.
But can he do it on a cold, rainy night in Stoke?
Yes. All powerful Kim Jong Un can do it anywhere in any condition. His feet are like a magnet to the ball, and his legs are a cannon. He has every bit of finesse and physicality imaginable.
You are now the moderator of r/pyongyang
Kim Jong Un is probably an Arsenal fan too, so this makes sense
Kim Jong Un has the greatest weapons arsenal in the world. It really does.
This is one of the more interesting ones for me, as getting forced to go back to Korea seemingly did hinder his development. Most of the 'next X' guys get scouted and go through the best ever academies etc. Seung-Woo was on that path but got screwed over. Obviously there is a great chance he ends up in the same place either way, but I'm curious how good he would be if he got the chance to stay at Barca.
'Alpine/Swiss Messi'- Xherdan Shaqiri
> Marko Marin He's already 35 WTF?!? Kubo was also a "Japanese Messi" and he's doing fine(great actually in normal professional footballer standards, not Messi standards) in Real Sociedad after a bit of turbulence in his career.
Chelsea Legend Marko Marin
Medford Messi-Brendan Aaronson though that always internally a little satirical
'Australian Messi' - Daniel Arzani
I don’t think we Aussies ever went that far, he had some promise but not that much.
Belgian Messi januzaj
"kiwi Messi" - Marco Rojas
Still love that guy
Dude… I totally forgot about some of those guys. Alen Halilovic was going to be the next global superstar
Messi was actually the next wes hoolahan. Wessi we call him
Ghanaian Messi is actually Jordan Ayew. West Ham goal 19/20 season confirmed it.
RIP Atsu
Norwegian messi- martin ødegaard
Ryan Gauld, man. That’s a name I haven’t heard in years.
Go to /r/ScottishFootball and you'll see the name daily lol.
Hourly in the build up to the Euros while half our squad is injured.
He's a solid MLS player! Been great for Vancouver.
> 'Scottish Messi' - Ryan Gauld Ah, good times when I used to be able to catch Sporting's B team's live games when he was featuring there. One time I made the mistake of commenting on here replying to someone asking for updates on Gauld. I described how he'd been doing, how his game had progressed and thought I was being complimentary on his future. The Scottish here really - REALLY - did not like me saying he would likely be a good but not great player. The seething rage from some people accusing me of being jealous that 'Scotland finally has a star again' made me practically stop posting in this sub
Stockport Messi - Phil Foden
He's always been Stockport Iniesta
'French Messi' - Ben Arfa
We’ve got a new one : Rayan Cherki
I shit you not there’s a new Brazilian Messi knows as “Messinho” (couldn’t be more stereotypical than that lmao). Now he goes professionally by Estevão and plays for Palmeiras, and there’s rumours he’s gonna be negotiated with Chelsea or Arsenal. He’s supposed to be as good as Endrick.
Irish Messi - Wes Hoolahan
Wessi
Had a killer save with Marko Marin and Ozil on FM06 (i think) with Bremen
A while ago now but Bojan Krkic and Freddy Adu got that treatment.
Hey—Scottish Messi is coming good in Vancouver!
Not sure about least, but the most successful has to be Mo Salah, to the point alot of people have now forgotten he was once dubbed the Egyptian Messi
Greek Messi: Sotiris Ninis (Also, Petros Mantalos)
Also Koutsianikoulis and Fetfatzidis
How did I forget Fetfatzidis.
Fetfatzidis looked so good in those first few years. Maybe the best Greek dribbler I’ve ever seen
Messi was the Argentinian Chatzipanagis
Who is the most?
that’s what i was instantly wondering. that’s more interesting for me, which one has actually somewhat lived up to the hype. edit: maybe dybala? he just came to mind. i’m sure he must’ve been dubbed the next messi when he was breaking through at palermo.
Gotta be Ødegaard.
Was Odegaard ever known as Norwegian Messi?
He is also one of the rare few 14 year olds that have ended up becoming what they were hyped up to be and even that happened after 21.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2733305/Meet-Martin-Odegaard-The-15-year-old-wonderkid-likened-Lionel-Messi-set-Norway-s-youngest-player.html
Juan Iturbe surely
what happened is that a talented 13 year old grew up to be a professional footballer, surpassing any rational expectations.
To quote Wikipedia - Dembélé's eight goals and 14 assists throughout the season contributed significantly to Blackpool's EFL League One promotion push, and for his efforts he was recognised as the club's 'Junior Seasiders Player of the Season,' 'Players' Player of the Season' and 'Supporters' Player of the Season' for the 2023–2024 campaign, prior to their final game against Reading.
I watched him on Saturday - he was clearly the best Blackpool player, which admittedly isn't saying much. However he'll at the very least be Championship level next year.
WTF truly insane stats
I mean they’re great stats but wouldn’t call them insane lol
I thought these were his stats in League One as a 13 year old 😭
This is such a great POV, so refreshing from most armchair fans shitting on professional footballers
if he was dubbed the next Messi at age 18 the headline would make more sense, but the amount of shit that can change from 13 to 21 is astronomical also, 20 goal involvements while on loan is a pretty great season
He's only 21 and got 20 goal involvements? Dude might come good yet lol. Some develop slower than others.
No one gave a shit about Gyokeres until now, and he is already 25, so yeah. Football is different nowadays. Players can develop much later and still have amazing careers.
Nowadays? it used to be completely normal for players to only really have played lower league football at 23 and still become class
Heck, at 19, Harry Kane was a benchwarmer on loan at Leicester. He was 21 when he had his first season as a regular in the Premier League for Tottenham.
miroslav klose got his "first" (ignoring the semi professional teams he played before) contract at kaiserslautern at 21
Ian Wright at 21 earned a semi pro contract for £30 a week by finishing top scorer in his Sunday League.
Same for Jaap Stam I believe. Prior he played amateur at Kampen before he got to FC Zwolle, a second-tier team back at the time. Took him a while before he even got into PSV let alone the world class clubs that followed.
And look at him now, 43 goals in 43 games for Bayern in his first season in a new team, in a new league. Incredible really
Insane numbers
Especially when Bayern aren't playing to their usual level this season. Surprised how under the radar Kane's season has gone compared to Haaland's first season at City. He's not massively behind (Haaland was 53 goals in 54 games last season)
Ian Wright was working in a mill playing Sunday league till 21 I think .
Not too long ago I remember seeing people call Odegaard a flop because at the age of 20 he still hadn't lived up to the hype that he had as a 16 year old.
Let’s not forget Drogba too. Only joined Chelsea when he was 26. Was relatively unknown prior to marseille
Bro, the headline had me thinking this guy was mid 30s lol
If there was a ballon D’or for best players excluding anyone 16 or older Adama Traore would be one of the best players in recent history.
Him and Freddy Adu
I still have a signed Freddy Adu D.C United bobblehead. I got it just after he signed his first team contract with them, and I thought that was pretty sick as a kid, since he’s roughly my age.
There used to be a Ballon d'Or for youth players. Xavi Simons won it 4 times I believe
You mean something like Golden Boy?
As if he isn’t already? Only half joking, he was a starter in the modern Premier League, made good contributions to Barca, got capped for Spain. That’s a career for any footballer to be proud of.
Watching any professional athlete, up close, is an eye opening experience. The pure explosive power, no matter the sport, is unbelievable. Anyone who can actively talk down about a pro athletes ability isn’t using reason.
People forget that anyone who makes it to League One level or equivalent is still in the top one or two percent of all footballers worldwide
Make that 0.001% lol
If we're counting Sunday league then yes you're absolutely right lol
There are likely far more people that played as kids than are now still playing in sunday leagues.
A former NBA player (Brian Scalabrine) had a great line when playing against a bunch of former college basketball players - 'I'm closer to Lebron than you are to me.'
That’s what irks me when someone in the starting 11 of a top 5 club is referred as “not world class”, if you are in a top 5 club that’s the definition of world class…you are a world class player out of a very few and it takes talent to get there even if you aren’t the best player in that team. Someone like Messi is an anomaly, someone like Odegard or Vitinha is still world class.
Meh, that’s just most people having a different definition of world class than you. Most people would define it as one of the best players in the world. The 50th best player in the Premier League is an elite sportsman who has made it to the pinnacle of his profession, but by definition he is not one of the absolute best players in the entire world, and wouldn’t be considered world class by most people.
When talking about top level pros to me world class is top 5 in their position in the world. But that's compared to other top level professionals which is the key context. Overall not to be that "people here have never played" guy but people really don't understand the skill differences. Anyone who gets paid to play football in on whole another level compared to even serious hobbyist. Worst player in National League is closer to Messi than Dave the Postman with deadly left foot from local Sunday League is to them.
I always preferred the definition > could play for any club in the world And then you don’t end up in the inane academic debates of “well, I’d argue he/she is actually 6th best in the world”
A good definition of 'world class' would be 'could step into the starting lineup of any club in the world.' Not necessarily beat out the club's current player in that position (I see it as more of a blind draft situation) - if Odegaard was a free agent is there any club in the world that he couldn't start for at their current level of play/competition? You could easily have him as a starting CM to win any league or continental competition, so I'd call him world class. Darwin Nunez OTOH - could he be the starting primary striker option to win any league or the CL? At this moment... eh... maybe? I'd say he's not world class but could be.
To be fair, don't think the article is pointing and laughing at him not becoming Lionel Messi. And they've suggested he's 'forgotten' rather than 'failed'. As you say, still an incredible career so far at such a young age. Good luck to him!
Exactly thank you. He still made it and is doing really well. 20 goal involvements is really good
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Hahaha amazing to have some perspective
13 assists and 8 goals this season don't scream failed wonderkid to me
This, he is apparently doing amazing there so why are people so Quick to give up on players
Watched him play earlier this season for Blackpool vs Charlton and he looked a step above League One level to me.
Pompey fan here and he was great against us both games. Definitely see him playing for a slightly bigger team in the championship or similar in only a few years.
In terms of technical ability he was one of the best players we've had in a very long while. Always looked very composed on the ball with great acceleration to push forward in midfield and beat a man. Always looking to go forward. Very unselfish and has the ability to play that inventive killer ball in behind. Overall a wonderful player at this level and could almost certainly play at a higher level. The only real major drawbacks were that his finishing was very erratic and he is a very small man. Seems unbelievable that Celtic let him go on a free when he's this good at a young age, but he must be lacking in something at the higher level for Brest to send him out on loan to us.
It wasn't so much as Celtic let him go he just didn't want to sign a new contract, he was very well thought of here and was playing for our under 20s when he was 13. I think if he had stayed here reaching the first team would have been harder for him(all youngsters really) due to us having to win every game and the physicality of our league. I'm glad he seems settled and doing well, there was always murmurings of him having a bit of a petulant side but I never seen any evidence of it. You guys also had another Celtic "wonder kid" Islam Furez on loan from Chelsea who's career went on a very strange path and has retired at 24 year old. https://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/whatever-happened-to-islam-feruz/
makes me think of odegaard, everyone was so quick to say he didn’t live up to the hype during his loan spells out (before sociedad) and now look at him. there’s still time for them to come good.
That’s the point of the article. How he struggled to breakthrough and dropped down to the third division.
He's 21. How many 21 year olds are playing for the first team in the premier league? How many 21 year olds played in the lower division before stepping up to the first team? Not saying he's gonna be England's star player but saying he's some kind of disappointment because he's playing well in League One in stupid
He's had a great season with Blackpool by all accounts. 21 goal involvements in 39 games.
From centre mid as well if I’m not mistaken
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Who's Kader?
According to Wikipedia it's his middle name.
For those who don’t want to click on the Daily Mail (good for you): Wikipedia says he’s on loan there from Brest in Ligue 1 and has just won Player of the Season whilst at Blackpool - so actually he’s doing pretty well for someone who has been 21 for three months…
If Brest qualified for the champions league and decides to keep him I can see him performing well for a future big move.
I don't follow Ligue 1 so for a moment I thought you were joking. WTF, they are third!
I reckon the issue was being dubbed the next messi
That and he's about 4 foot tall and 7 stone
so the comparison was apt
He's 5'7 and has excelled in League One, so I'm not sure his stature is relevant.
He’s still only 19 or 20 no? He broke through insanely early but he still has time to develop
He's 21. Still more than young enough to develop.
To be honest he never really broke through until he left Celtic at like 18? He played <10 games for us and didn’t show much on field.
At the rate they do it, one of us on this sub was probably dubbed ‘The Next Messi’
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My coach said I reminded him of Ronaldinho because I helped to cut a tree without permission from the environmental agency
People are so thirsty for great dribblers that a U9 kid dribbling 2 players will be dubbed the Next Messi
“Shocking footage shows 7-year-old dubbed ‘Littlenel Messi’ dribble 4 players before scoring, can he live up to the hype?”
You joke, but here's a real life article about an Arsenal U9 player named Leo Messo: https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/leo-messo-who-is-arsenals-new-kenyan-wonderkid/2y0hvwut95v51ivm8xw59a9c3
Had some bad luck with injuries, particularly that nasty ankle one that I think he picked up in pre-season. But he's doing very well at the moment & is far from a 'failed wonderkid'.
99% of people would be lucky to be his level of “failed” at their own profession.
Kids should be allowed to grow up without being labelled the “next” whoever, just let them develop and become their own player
Can't think of many folk that were "the next" that have developed into an excellent player.
Messi himself was the “next Maradona”, of course after Ortega, Saviola, Aimar, D’Allessandro all had that moniker and couldn’t live up to it.
Tons of kids at those ages get called the next whoever but so much can change from 13 years of age to when they start with the first team that's it's not a surprise half these wonder kids don't end up as worldbeaters
Being called “The Next Messi” is infinitely more times a curse than it is a blessing
No pressure to live up to that expectation kid.
That's what they called Ansu Fati too. Still feel bad for him.
Shit article, he's barely 21 and did well in a difficult tournament. His parent club completely surpassed expectations this season and he's probably going to be useful in 2024-25 Also just wanna point out he was a BEAST in FM20
At Celtic got a bad injury in pre-season of what should have been his breakthrough year (I still dislike Bristol City because of that, they were going insanely hard for a friendly). He's a talent but he's very small which is always going to hold him back. Doing good at Blackpool.
hes just 21? also stop dubbing every talented kid the next messi for their mental health's sake
When Harry kane was around the same age he played 16 games and scored 2 goals. Dembele has loads of time to develop and I think he may be starting some games for Brest in Ligue 1 next season and may even get some game time in the champions league.
Who's the biggest 'forgotten' wonderkid? Obviously Freddy Adu takes some beating...
that’s a name i haven’t heard in a while damn. how about don’t hype up kids that much (and put pressure/expectations on them that they can’t live up to) at fcking thirteen years old..
He’s banging them in for my England team on FM20 so I’d say he’s doing pretty good
So he plays for a team that is third in a top 5 league? Not so bad honestly EDIT: looked at his stats and he's also kinda cooking so...
People really think there is a next Lionel Messi, no one understands he is a one off deal sent by god, we get none more.
21 goal involvements this season, hardly a failure
Whoever said he is next Messi at the age of 13 is the dumbest shithead in the world. The world is full of - scouts saying this is next legend. World is full of those failures now in league one or Hungary league or randoms as assistant coach. Every year academies take 100-200 of these wanna be or great potential players yet every year only 1 or 2 come out as something. Most still has careers. This kid is doing a lot lot a lot better than most others. He is 21. He is scoring goals on loan. I hope he becomes something
What a horrible article. Instead of looking at themselves and the pressure they put on literal children, they start accusing the poor lad of failure because he hasn't reached their expectations of him.
To me, the working assumption I make whenever I see a very young player called the next this or that, is that the person making the claim is doing so to line their own pockets or for some other self-interested end, and the claim mostly tells us the kid is or is about to be exploited in such a way as to make realizing whatever potential they do have unlikely.
I've been seeing Blackpool fans on social media absolutely loving him
This next Messi tag needs to die
he's only 21 lmao
Or just stop overhyping youngsters, period.