​Image of professional footballer Alexandre Pato during a match for AC Milan.
© Matt Trommer / Shutterstock.com
Soccer

Where are theses former football wonderkids now?

Ever wondered where all those former football hot prospects went? We've tracked them down so you don't have to.
Written by Tom Wiggins
7 min readPublished on
Just how good are football fans and pundits at talent spotting? It seems like almost every season there's a promising young teenager who announces himself onto the international stage with a stunning performance at a second tier club, only for a Champions League heavy hitter to whisk them away for an eight figure sum.
Do they ever realise their potential after this happens? We went back to 2007 to look at the most promising player aged 18 or under that season to see how many have gone on to be more hit than miss.

2007: Theo Walcott

​Image of footballer Theo Walcott playing during a match for Arsenal FC.

Theo Walcott as a youngster at Arsenal

© Mitch Gunn / Shutterstock.com

Then: Arsenal
Now: Everton
Having made only 13 senior appearances in the summer of 2006, Theo Walcott was very much one to watch when he joined Arsenal from Southampton. The winger showed signs of living up to that promise during his time in North London, but lacked consistency and certainly never reached the heights many predicted of him. A move to Everton seems to have invigorated Walcott's career somewhat, with the 29-year-old putting in some eye-catching performances at Goodison Park in the second half of the 2017/18 season.

2008: Alexandre Pato

Then: AC Milan
Now: Tianjin Quanjian
After making his debut as a 16-year-old, Alexandre Pato spent just a year playing for Internacional in his native Brazil, but 12 goals in 27 games and a winner's medal in the Club World Cup earned him a move to AC Milan. For a while he lived up to expectations, continuing to score at a similar rate for the Rossoneri, but a couple of injury plagued seasons saw him make an ill-fated move back to Brazil, with São Paulo.
Still only 28, Pato has now succumbed to the riches of Chinese football, playing alongside Axel Witsel at Tianjin Quanjian. After underwhelming spells at Villarreal and on loan with Chelsea in between, a career swansong in Europe seems unlikely.

2009: Bojan

​Image of Bojan playing for FC Barcelona in 2010.

Bojan celebrates for Barcelona in 2010

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Then: Barcelona
Now: Alavés (on loan from Stoke)
Everyone tipped Bojan for big things. When he broke into the Barcelona first team as a 17-year-old, he was compared to fellow La Masia graduate Lionel Messi, and even broke the Argentine's record as the youngest player ever to appear in a league game for the Blaugrana.
However, while Barca just went from strength to strength under Pep Guardiola, Bojan found himself on the fringes and left for Roma. From there his career has stuttered through spells with AC Milan, Ajax and then Stoke, where h'’s now on his second loan spell away from the Premier League club. Unfortunately for the talented winger, the huge weight of expectation just seemed to be too much.

2010: Eden Hazard

Then: Lille
Now: Chelsea
The sparkling performances of an 18-year-old Eden Hazard were central to Lille winning the French double in 2011, and after that it was only a matter of time before he was tempted away to a bigger club. After winning the race for his signature in 2012, Hazard has been central to everything good that has happened at Chelsea in the six years since, winning two Premier League titles and the Europa League so far.
Having slipped behind the Manchester clubs during the 2017/18 season, and with frequent links with a move to Real Madrid, it looks like the Belgian's time at Stamford Bridge could be coming to an end.

2011: James Rodríguez

​Image of James Rodríguez playing for Bayern Munich.

James Rodríguez getting back to his best at Bayern

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Then: FC Porto
Now: Bayern Munich (on loan from Real Madrid)
FC Porto have a habit of unearthing real gems and James Rodríguez was one of their best. After a season in Monaco, the Colombian stole the show at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, earning himself a €75m move to Real Madrid. 
Following a mixed few years at the Bernabeu, Bayern Munich took him on a two-year loan, where he's started to show signs of the talent that earned him the move to Spain in the first place. Now 26, Rodríguez is entering what should be the peak of his career, and playing in a slightly deeper role for Bayern there’s every chance he’ll rekindle the form that made everyone sit up and take notice in the first place.

2012: Lucas Moura

Then: São Paulo
Now: Tottenham
Still plying his trade in his native Brazil when the international scene spotted his abilities, Lucas Moura scored a total of 22 goals and bagged 19 assists for his hometown club, before swapping São Paulo for Paris Saint-Germain in a €45m deal in 2013. Despite breaking their transfer record to sign him, Moura gradually found himself less and less involved at PSG, and Spurs saw an opportunity to add his pace and trickery to their attack on deadline day in January 2018.
The 25-year-old has been used sparingly so far by Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino, but if he can rediscover the goalscoring form of his last full season in Paris, he could prove a real handful for Tottenham's Premier League opponents.

2013: Gabriel

Then: Pro Vercelli (on loan from Juventus)
Now: Leganés
The most obscure name on this list, Brazilian central midfielder Gabriel spent five years on the books at Juventus, but never made an appearance for The Old Lady. Instead, he went out on loan to a string of lower league sides.
He was an 18-year-old at Pro Vercelli when FIFA 13 predicted his rating could reach a stunning 88 overall, and after spending time with Pescara, Livorno and most recently Leganés, he eventually left for Spain permanently in 2016. Now 23-years-old and appearing regularly in La Liga for the Madrid side, he seems to have found his level – and EA have adjusted his potential to a more modest 81.

2014: Zakaria Bakkali

Image of Zakaria Bakkali playing for Dutch football teams PSV Eindhoven.

Zakaria Bakkali came through at PSV

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Then: PSV
Now: Deportivo La Coruña (on loan from Valencia)
Announcing himself to the Eredivisie with a hat-trick when still only 17 years and 196 days, huge things were expected of Zakaria Bakkali in 2013. However, disciplinary issues and a reluctance to commit himself to PSV saw him fall out of favour in Eindhoven, eventually seeing him demoted to the youth team. A move to Valencia in La Liga followed, although with just five starts in two seasons, such early promise seemed to have all but evaporated. Still only 22 and now on loan at recently relegated Deportivo La Coruña, the chances of the Belgian ever living up to the lofty expectations of his early days seem very low indeed.

2015: Youri Tielemans

Then: Anderlecht
Now: Monaco
Youri Tielemans has been a mainstay of wonderkid lists for the past few years, and expectations were high when he moved to Monaco for around €25m last summer – although that move hasn't really allowed him take the step up in the way many predicted he would. Still only 20-years-old, it would be unfair to remove his wonderkid label just yet, but you get the feeling he needs to challenge himself at a higher level before being considered among the best. Fortunately, there's still plenty of time for that.

2016: Gonçalo Guedes

​Image of Gonçalo Guedes playing for the Portuguese football team Benfica.

Gonçalo Guedes showed great promise for Benfica

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Then: Benfica
Now: Valencia (on loan from PSG)
After a €30m transfer to PSG in January 2017, when Neymar and Kylian Mbappe arrived last summer, Gonçalo Guedes found himself struggling for minutes at the Parc des Princes. That meant the Portuguese barely had time to unpack before he was off to Valencia on loan, where his early season form was a big part of Los Che's return to the top end of the league table, contributing four goals and nine assists from the left wing.
Those performances put him very much in the shop window for the summer transfer window coming up, and if the French champions aren't interested in bringing him home, Guedes is sure to have plenty of suitors across Europe. There's definitely still time for the 21-year-old to live up to the hype.

2017: Renato Sanches

Then: Bayern Munich
Now: Swansea (on loan from Bayern)
Euro 2016 winner Renato Sanches has endured a torrid time since his big-money move from Benfica to Bayern Munich. 
Surrounded by superstars at the perennial German champions, he found first-team opportunities limited so a season-long loan to Swansea last summer seemed like the perfect opportunity to get him some game time. Whenever the 20-year-old has played, though, he's looked out of his depth in the physically demanding Premier League, and it seems his time in the UK is over after just one season. A bit of a step back, then, but there's still plenty of time for Sanches to shine.