Five teenage prodigies that failed to live up to the hype

Neymar is poised for a £40m move to Europe but not all teenage prodigies live up to their billing, as these five players would no doubt testify.

By Conor Heneghan

Freddy Adu

Much ‘Adu’ about nothing? Indeed. Whether it was because he was American or another potential black superstar when Tiger Woods was making the breakthrough, there has rarely been so much hype over a teenage footballer.

After refusing the lucrative advances of major European clubs before he was even in his teens, Adu went on to become the youngest ever debutant in Major League Soccer at only 14 years of age. A move to Benfica followed three years later, but it was from then on that Adu’s career entered freefall.

His time at the Portuguese club, and subsequent loan spells at Monaco, Belenenses, Aris Salonika and a trial at Manchester United failed to work out and now, the man who was once the brightest prospect was last seen playing for lowly Turkish side Çaykur Rizespor.

The most startling thing about Adu, however, is that although it seems as if he’s been around forever, he’s still only 22. Plenty of time to fulfil that potential yet (cough).

Denilson

Thirteen years ago, Real Betis forked out a whopping £21.5 million for this so-called Brazilian superstar based on a handful of impressive showings for Sao Paulo and an amount of stepovers that would make Cristiano Ronaldo blush during the Copa America in 1997, when he was just 19.

Denilson showed impressive staying power at Betis, staying in Seville until 2004, before embarking on an odyssey that would take in seven clubs and six countries in only five years.

He’s retired now and more than 60 caps for a team like Brazil is nothing to be ashamed of. Still, he was once the world's most expensive footballer, so it's hardly unfair to describe him as a flop.

Mark Kennedy

The Dubliner has been a solid pro throughout his career, but it is still quite hard to believe that he was once the most expensive teenager in British football history when he signed for Liverpool for around £2 million in 1995.

That tag never seemed to fit too comfortably with Kennedy and he rarely played in three long years on Merseyside. A journeyman career awaited as he trawled through the likes of QPR, Wimbledon, Manchester City (before the oil billions), Wolves, Crystal Palace and Cardiff before ending up in East Anglia, where he is still doing his stuff for Ipswich in the Championship at the age of 35.

Franny Jeffers

And people wonder why Arsene Wenger rarely buys English footballers. Having made his debut as a 16-year old for Everton and turned plenty of heads at Goodison Park, Jeffers signed for Arsenal for a hefty-by-Arsenal-standards fee of £8 million in 2001, with Wenger famously hailing him as a ‘fox in the box’ likely to emulate the likes of Ian Wright before him.

Jeffers netted a grand total of four goals in three years at the Gunners, the sort of strike rate that continued to dog him in unsuccessful spells with Charlton, Rangers, Ipswich and Australian A-League side Newcastle United Jets.

The 30-year old was released by Scottish side Motherwell this summer and will be on the lookout for another box to fox around in before the start of the new season.

Nii Lamptey

Described as the next Pele by none other than Pele himself, so he must have been good. Alas that was way back in 1991 after Lamptey had lit up the FIFA under-17 World Championships for eventual winners Ghana as a 15-year-old, eclipsing luminaries such as Juan Sebastian Veron and Alessandro Del Piero along the way.

The teenage prodigy played for Anderlecht and PSV in Holland before moving to England where he had brief spells with Aston Villa and Coventry, but things never worked out for Lamptey, who was said to have been the victim of some dodgy dealings by dodgy agents.

Like many of his fellow underachievers listed here, Lamptey toured the world, playing for teams in Argentina, Turkey, Portugal, Germany, China, Saudi Arabia and South Africa before ending up back in his native Ghana, where he became assistant manager of the wonderfully named Sekondi Wise Fighters.

Want more? Here's five who lived up to the hype.

[Main picture courtesy of 20/Wikimedia Commons]