Football's brightest prospects don't always live up to the hype, with it sometimes difficult to deal with the pressures that come with such talent
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What were you doing at 16? What were you doing at 18? Do you think you could have coped with being in an international spotlight while you were doing that?
That's the way of the sporting world. There's nowhere for the modern prodigy to hide. God forbid you make a mistake, be that on or off the pitch. It must be exhausting and, more importantly, devastating on a mental level.
For whatever reason, young athletes don't always live up to the expectations we set upon them. Maybe they were stunted in some way, maybe they were put on a pedestal, maybe injuries harmed their development beyond repair. The tales are always fascinating and proof that growth isn't always linear.
NXGN has been running for ten years now, and while there have been plenty of success stories from players on those lists, some have fallen by the wayside. Career resurgences aren't out of the question, but they haven't lived up to the hype just yet.
Here, GOAL ranks the 10 biggest underachievers to mark a decade of NXGN.
Follow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱Getty Images Sport10Ante Coric
Croatian football truly peaked in the late 2010s, and there was a buzz for the country to unearth their next gem to complement their senior pros. Ante Coric, with his twinkling toes and shaggy hair, seemed the perfect heir to Luka Modric, whom he rubbed shoulders with at Euro 2016.
And, well, that didn't quite go according to plan. Despite taking his young talent to Red Bull Salzburg as a schoolboy before returning home to Dinamo Zagreb once he turned professional, Coric failed to kick on at the highest level. A €6m move to Roma in 2018 ought to have been his big break, yet all it did was expose how his game didn't translate to the adult game.
Coric made only three appearances in the Italian capital in his debut 2018-19 season and spent the following years scarcely playing on loans at Almeria, VVV-Venlo, Olimpija Ljubljana and FC Zurich. He was released by Roma in 2022 and was a free agent for a year before signing a contract at Croatian side Rudes. However, he was sold to domestic rivals Varazdin a year later, before his contract was terminated at the start of 2025. Coric remains without a club.
AdvertisementGetty Images Sport9Sergio Diaz
Real Madrid's sweep of South American football has seen them unearth some top talent over the years. That's why there was so much expectation placed on Sergio Diaz's shoulders when he swapped Paraguay's Cerro Porteno for the capital of Spain in 2016. He had torn up his domestic division as a teenager and was tipped to do the same in Europe.
Yet he didn't even get a sniff in Los Blancos' senior team, instead spending five years contracted to their Castilla reserve side, and only actually plied his trade in Madrid for one of those. That sole 2016-17 season saw him put up a measly five goals in 36 games, and he barely got a look in when he spent the next term at Segunda outfit Lugo. A fairly glamorous two-year loan at Brazilian giants Corinthians yielded four appearances before Diaz returned to Cerro Porteno for another two-year stint, scoring five times in 25 matches.
A move to Mexico with Club America followed in 2020, again doing little to restore his reputation. Madrid released Diaz the summer afterwards, and though he was able to sign for Cerro Porteno for a third time on a free transfer, he lasted only a 12 more months there before moving to Greek Super League team Panetolikos, where he has seemingly found a home at last.
AFP8Ansu Fati
A harsh selection given his young age? Perhaps, but there's no denying that the world, rightly or wrongly, expected Ansu Fati to have made more of his career by now. He broke onto the Barcelona scene in such record-breaking fashion – youngest Barca scorer in La Liga, youngest player to score and assist in the same La Liga match, youngest player with a La Liga brace, youngest Champions League scorer, you get the idea – it seemed impossible for him to fail. This was a real talent with a real future.
There's still time for Fati to deliver on his promise, especially since he doesn't turn 23 until the autumn, but he's had some major wobbles in his formative footballing years, particularly for someone who actually topped a NXGN list. For the most part, injuries have derailed his progression, already nerfing his electric pace and ability to move both ways with the flick of a mental switch. He also spent time on loan at wonderkid factory Brighton, only to become a forgotten figure on England's south coast too. The emergence of Lamine Yamal, in the meantime, hasn't done Fati any favours considering the 17-year-old has already lapped him.
Fati remains at Barcelona but is a bit-part figure in Hansi Flick's setup, often left out of matchday squads altogether. Maybe he's one permanent transfer away from finding his feet again, maybe he's one ill-advised move from winding up out of the spotlight and into infamy forever.
Getty Images Sport7Timothy Fosu-Mensah
Louis van Gaal's time at Manchester United saw the Red Devils win their first major trophy in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era, but his greater impact came elsewhere, continuing both his and the club's long-standing philosophies of promoting youth. Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial were the main beneficiaries of the Dutchman's trust, and for a while, it seemed his compatriot Timothy Fosu-Mensah would stand as a cornerstone for United as well.
A versatile and intelligent player capable of playing in both defence and midfield, Fosu-Mensah at the very least looked someone who could be important as a squad member or off the bench. His diverse defensive skillset should have meant his floor as a player was a utility figure for a top-level side.
Fast-forward to 2025, and at the age of 27, Fosu-Mensah is without a club. He was last on the books at Bayer Leverkusen, where he didn't play a single minute in 2023-24, and was only a member of the matchday squad a handful of times. His last senior competitive appearance came on April 23, 2023, featuring for 11 minutes in a 2-0 win against RB Leipzig.
It seems Fosu-Mensah has been unable to totally recover from two ACL injuries – one in 2019 and the other in 2021 – and there are doubts over his future as a professional, which is a real shame considering how much potential he showed as a teenager.
