Next Big Thing

Ryan Baldi

Description

The Next Big Thing tells the stories of 15 footballers who were tipped for the top as youngsters yet were unable to fulfil their potential. With each player exclusively interviewed and insight provided by former team-mates, coaches and expert journalists, Ryan Baldi explores the pitfalls facing young players and what happens when plans go awry. The players featured share much in common, having played for some of the world's biggest clubs - such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham, Internazionale and Ajax - represented their country at various levels and been tipped for the very top. They all fell desperately short of expectations, but the reasons for their struggles differ greatly. Myriad factors can prevent gifted young footballers from fulfilling their true potential, from catastrophic injuries to issues of addiction and temptation, from managerial misunderstandings to bad advice and bad decisions. The Next Big Thing uncovers what becomes of football's wonderkids when the stars fail to align.

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 10 avril 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785315589
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2019
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Ryan Baldi, 2019
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 978-1-78531-386-8 eBook ISBN 978-1-78531-558-9
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Contents
Introduction
Acknowledgements
Just Getting Started
A Different World
Shattered
Such Great Heights
Fixed
From Club to Club
Chaos Theory
The Long Goodbye
Worn-Out Tools
A Tale of Two Strikers
Virtual Reality Bites
Price Tag
Degree of Separation
Keeping the Faith
The Weight
Epilogue
For Sophie and Dylan, my world
Introduction
N OTHING captures the imagination of the football fan in quite the same way as the emergence of a prodigious young player. Whether it s a home-grown prospect moulded within the club s academy, a rough diamond plucked from obscurity overseas, or a fearless teen talent making fools of experienced pros, it has the power to get bums out of seats, hairs stood on end and spines tingling in anticipation of what this intrepid new hero might do next.
No matter how young or old the supporter, we live vicariously through these nascent superstars as they act out every fan s fantasy. We forgive their shortcomings and plot their career paths, forecasting at which point they will be ready for landmarks such as regular first-team involvement, international caps and big-money transfers.
The success stories are well known, subsequently making these early steps real I-was-there moments. Who could forget, for example, Wayne Rooney s stunning strike for Everton against Arsenal as a 16-year-old in 2002, or his debut hat-trick for Manchester United two years later? Those inside the Camp Nou on 1 May 2005 will forever remember the day they saw Lionel Messi lob his first-ever senior goal for Barcelona over the head of the helpless Espanyol goalkeeper. Likewise, the story of a 17-year-old Brazilian forward named Pel lighting up the 1958 World Cup in Sweden has been passed down the generations by those old enough, and fortunate enough, to have witnessed it first-hand.
The young players who burn brightly and fade quickly, though, are remembered less vividly. Every football fan will be able to list a handful of names of players who burst on to the scene and promised great things with their initial performances before falling from view. The eyes glint at the memory of those exciting early outings, but a shrug often accompanies any remembrance of what came next, with little known of how or why these players were unable to fulfil their potential; more often than not, it is simply assumed that they were never quite as good as first believed, or that for all their talent they were held back by a lack of professionalism or a bad attitude.
But the connection these players made at the very beginning, the intrigue they sparked when they appeared to have the world at their feet, often endures. For many, there remains a certain curiosity about the meandering, out-of-view paths these young players careers ended up following. And it is the same curiosity around which the idea for this book was formed.
I set out with the intention of tracking down and interviewing players who were all tipped for the top as youngsters, but whose careers never reached the heights expected. By speaking to them, hearing their stories in their own words, with further context provided by former team-mates, coaches and journalists who covered their careers, I learned not only how best-laid plans fell apart for these individuals, but also the strain it placed on them, emotionally and physically. Through these honest accounts of their setbacks, struggles and disappointments, I came to understand how these young men were forced to grow up quickly and reconcile with a faded dream.
The 15 players kind enough to share their time and experiences for this book have many things in common. All, at some stage of their careers, were developmentally ahead of the curve, supremely talented outliers in the ultra-competitive and demanding world of professional football. They played for major clubs - such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Internazionale - and were youth or senior internationals. And all suffered setbacks - some of their own making, many beyond their control - which ultimately left their potential unfulfilled.
But each player s experience differs greatly. Some reached the highest level before their fall, playing Champions League football, featuring in major international tournaments and commanding large transfer fees, while others were tripped by hurdles much sooner. And the 15 players featured are not presented as a definitive list of football s great unfulfilled talents, they are simply the players I approached who were willing to share their journeys, most of whom enjoyed enough success to look back on their time in the game with pride, while some are still playing and working towards realising their vast potential.
The reasons for their struggles differ, too. Exploring the myriad of factors that can affect a young footballer s development became my primary aim as the process of putting this book together went on. As I travelled from city to city, country to country, to speak to these players and those they ve worked closely with, I grew to appreciate just how tenuous a grasp any sportsperson has on their career.
Injuries, of course, are a recurring theme here, but in reading this book you will learn how injuries can affect players in different ways. For example, Ally Dick, the precocious Scottish winger who is the subject of Chapter 1, was a high achiever at an early age but reconciled with the fact that, by 23, knee and ankle problems meant he would never play at the highest level again. Dick s experience was different to Matt Murray s (Chapter 8), with the Wolverhampton Wanderers and England under-21 goalkeeper spending more than a decade battling back from injury after injury, each time recovering peak form before agonisingly being cut down. And then there is the case of Lionel Morgan (Chapter 9), the highly coveted Wimbledon winger who admitted that by 19 he knew his body was not going to allow him a prolonged career in the game.
Injuries are just one potential stumbling block aspiring young players have to contend with, though. Some of the other factors that can derail a budding career you ll find detailed in this book include off-field substance problems, the snowball effect of seemingly innocuous decisions, strained relationships with managers - such as the one Giuliano Maiorana (Chapter 2) had with Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson - and how regime change at a club can see even the brightest talents forgotten about.
With each chapter dedicated to one player s career and personal journey, The Next Big Thing is, in effect, a collection of case studies into some of the different ways a promising young footballer can be derailed.
By virtue of the age range of the players featured, with the oldest in his mid-50s and the youngest a 24-year-old still making his way in the game, this book s timeline also traces the advances in medical science, with injuries such as cruciate knee ligament ruptures going from a genuine threat to a career to a painful inconvenience that can be fully overcome within nine months. The formation and growth of the Premier League, and the ever-expanding river of cash it flooded football with, runs alongside the book s progression, too, with the rewards on offer to young footballers growing steadily throughout, and likewise the pressure to perform.
More than anything else, what you will learn from reading this book is that so much more goes into the making of a top-level football career than simply talent and desire. I hope that each player s story will give context to the contrasting trajectories of their contemporaries who made it , showing just how slippery a slope must be navigated in order to reach football s summit, and why it is important for the game and its followers to afford the proper care and compassion to those it leaves behind.
These forgotten, misunderstood or previously untold stories are important, eye-opening and illuminating. They deserve to be heard.
Acknowledgements
F IRSTLY, I d like to sincerely thank every player who so kindly shared their time and their story with me for this book; without them, this literally would not have been possible. Thanks also to all the team-mates, coaches, managers, administrators, journalists and writers whose input helped provide crucial background and context for each chapter.
Thank you, too, to everybody who aided my efforts in contacting the players featured and helped set up the interviews around which the book is based: James Bain, Stuart Brown, Jamie Hall, Karen Shotbolt, Darren Bentley, Paul Rogers, David Winner, David Endt, Paul Edwards, Kevin Watson, Paul Dews, Florent Nyanga, Alan Redmond, Matt Lorenzo, Matt Paddock, Greg Gordon, Ally Palmer and Alex Kay-Jelski.
Thanks to Sarah Winterburn and the team at Football365 , who helped publicise the project by kindly publishing multiple extracts, and to Will Denny, my ever-reliable soundboard. And thank you to my colleagues at Football Whispers , who showed support and offered helpful insight and suggestions along the way.
A special thank you t