Every once in a while there comes along a player who is described as the new Pele or Messi or the next Zidane or Maradona.
Naturally, as football fans we get excited when comparisons are made with certain legends of the game. Talent of that calibre doesn’t come along that often so we desperately want them to be true. However, in recent times it seems that every day some up and coming young player is being touted as the next footballing superstar.
It makes me wonder whether these claims are genuine or just thrown around as a marketing technique for commercial interests. You can see where it could make sense for a player’s agent who has a client he is trying to secure a deal for, to push a comparison to the media until it finally sticks. And sure enough within days, every article thereafter, on the player will undoubtedly mention that all important claim.
One, in a long line of players recently to have been used this way successfully is 19 year old Italian midfielder Marco Verratti who mega rich PSG recently signed from Serie B champions Pescara for €13 million, fighting off the likes of Juventus and Napoli. Verratti who is unquestionably talented yet untried at the highest level was compared to Andrea Pirlo, at a time when Pirlo was most in the public eye. (Serie A championship winner, performances at Euro 2012 etc.)
Of course, and conveniently this made many take notice, including a number of major clubs with the rest of us putting in a search on YouTube.
The verdict? Yes Verratti is a deep lying midfielder with a knack for defence splitting passes and yes, if utilised correctly, he could become a great player. But to have such pressure and expectation on untested, raw talent that needs time to develop and mature can be very harmful to his image and career at this early stage. Only time will tell.
History, sadly is not on his side. The majority of these so-called future superstars and teenage prodigies are quickly forgotten when they fail to reproduce their talent to a higher level. And as quickly as they rose to the top the fall is much quicker and harder.
One of the most spectacular falls from the limelight in recent times was Freddy Adu. A Ghananian-American, He made his MLS debut at 14 and was being hailed as the next Pele. Linked with major European clubs including Inter Milan and Manchester United he was surrounded by a considerable amount of hype. Commercial and sponsorship deals soon followed including a $1 million contract with Nike and a commercial with Pele himself.
That was about as close as he got to Pele. He was never able to live up to the tag given to him and his career nosedived into a journeyman’s playing for seven clubs in as many years. Once asked how he felt about the pressure put on him, he said he did ‘not feel free’ to play the way he can.
Another who hasn’t yet fulfilled his comparison is the ‘Next Zidane’ Frenchman Yoann Gourcuff. After being snapped up by AC Milan at age 20, He failed to break into an AC Milan team full of talented midfielders including Andrea Pirlo and Clarence Seedorf. His attitude was questioned and Paolo Maldini the club captain at the time criticised Gourcuff for not wanting to be part of the group and refusing to learn Italian (Source: La Repubblica).
After Milan and a return to French football he found relative success with Bordeaux, yet was left out of Laurent Blanc’s squad for Euro 2012. So much for the next Zizou.
There are some happy endings. Ronaldo (the original one) was perhaps one of the very few to have lived up to such massive hype and pressure. As a 17 year old playing for Cruzeiro, once again comparisons with Pele were made. Other than being picked for the world cup squad at such a young age and scoring more goals than games played, it was easy to see why a similarity was made. It was good for business and had everybody talking. More than that, Ronaldo proved to be a genuine sensation and as time progressed the comparison with Pele disappeared altogether after it was evident that he indeed would turn out to be a legend himself.
So with the new season now only a few weeks away I will be following Verratti at PSG very closely to see how he handles the pressure and competition at a big club. I have my doubts but I sincerely hope He can prove me wrong and show the world he deserves his title.
It would be nice to have another Pirlo.
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