The structure of football requires both players and coaches to work extremely hard in order to succeed. It is a game of chances. Athletes can have their careers shaped by talent and dedication; just look at players like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. However, today we look at the unluckiest football players of all time.
As such, there are those who think that luck is unmatched in this world. For these people, hard work and dedication to one’s chosen profession determine one’s own destiny in life.
That isn’t always the case, though. Some people have exceptional talent and are hardworking and committed, but for strange reasons that are outside of human comprehension, they have not succeeded in reaching the top.
Famous football players who gave it their all but were unable to realize their full potential are included in the aforementioned category.
Unluckiest football players:
10. Michael Ballack:
The former Germany international left the game with a very impressive resume, but he will be the first to acknowledge that he could have done better. Although Michael Ballack was regarded as a nearly man, he won numerous important titles in Germany and England.
Ballack did not bring home any trophies with his nation in the early and mid-2000s, despite playing for a highly talented German squad. The closest he ever got was in the 2002 World Cup when Brazil defeated Germany in the final.
Ballack has finished second in nine major competitions during his career. In addition to finishing second in the Bundesliga twice, he was also eliminated from the Champions League final twice. You can understand why the German has had little luck in his career when you combine that with the fact that he was injured in the final game of the 2010 World Cup, which prevented him from competing.
Ballack is a talented player who could have easily won the World Cup and the Champions League with the “big” teams he has played for. Sadly, he was deprived of both opportunities due to Lady Luck’s refusal to grant him a smile. Ballack goes by “Mr. Silver Medal” in Germany. That pretty much sums it up.
9. Adrian Doherty:
The fact that a large number of modern football fans are unfamiliar with Adrian Doherty is hardly shocking. Adrian, who is sometimes called “football’s lost genius,” didn’t live long enough to reach even half of his potential.
Adrian would have been a multiple Premier League and Champions League winner if everything had gone as planned. Instead, everything went wrong, and the gifted winger tragically passed away before giving up football at a very young age.
Adrian belonged to the illustrious Manchester United Class of ’92. He was rated by Sir Alex Ferguson as the most promising player coming out of Man United’s youth teams, even better than the future club legend Ryan Giggs.
However, the club released the 16-year-old after he sustained an injury. And he never got better. Adrian was a gifted young man who travelled the world performing odd jobs until he tragically drowned while walking to work in a canal. We can only speculate as to what would have happened to him if the injury had not happened to him while he was still growing.
8. Andres Escobar:
Andres Escobar is the most unlucky football player on the planet. The Colombian was brutally murdered by vengeful thugs just as he was starting to reach his zenith. Many people respected the centre-back for his poise and serenity when handling the ball.
He began his professional career with Atletico Nacional at home, and played for his boyhood club once more in Colombia after a brief stay in Europe with Young Boys. On July 1, 1994, Escobar’s promising football career came to an end, along with his life.
The defender had just returned from the 1994 World Cup, where he had helped Colombia lose to the United States with a goal of his own. There were rumours that some drug cartels lost a lot of money in Colombia’s defeat, so they turned their attention to Escobar.
At the El Poblado bar’s parking lot, he was shot six times at close range. The gunman is said to have exclaimed, “Goal!” after each shot. How unfortunate can someone be to have their life and career cut so short?
7. Abou Diaby:
Abou Diaby, a French football player, was formerly hailed as the game’s future star. Among the most entertaining box-to-box midfielders of his generation, the midfielder made his debut in the mid-2000s.
But the true tale of his career would be a string of catastrophic injuries. Diaby signed a contract with Arsenal in January 2006, but two months later he had his first serious injury setback. The Frenchman underwent three surgeries to fix his fractured ankle in May 2006.
After an ongoing period of injury that he never fully recovered from, Diaby was released by Arsenal in 2017. After that, he signed with Olympique Marseille, one of the biggest teams in Ligue 1, but he only played five games before getting hurt again.
Diaby is an extremely talented player who puts in a lot of work, but he has been plagued by health problems for his entire career.
6. Owen Hargreaves:
Owen Hargreaves isn’t exactly remembered favourably by Manchester United supporters. The midfielder was a completely different animal and had a great reputation when he came to Old Trafford, but things did not work out.
More than anything else, injuries came to be associated with Hargreaves’ Man United career. In 2007, after progressing through Bayern Munich’s youth system, he made his way back to England to play for the Red Devils.
Nevertheless, Hargreaves made just 27 appearances and scored a pitiful two goals in his four years at Old Trafford. At the 2006 World Cup, he was chosen as England’s best player, but the following year, he started having injury issues.
After breaking his leg, he underwent multiple knee surgeries in 2009. Also, after missing 777 days of action, Hargreaves returned to the field in 2010, but this time his comeback was short-lived as he hobbled off the field six minutes into the match. After all, he signed with Manchester City in 2012, but he only played once before retiring.
5. Djibril Cisse:
What could be more unlucky than representing 13 different clubs on two continents, competing for the Premier League, Champions League, and World Cup? Despite everything, Djibril Cisse remains a man who was unable to reach his own promised land.
The most significant move for the French striker came when he joined Liverpool in 2004. But a string of bothersome injuries prevented him from ever playing to his full potential at Anfield. Now 38, Cisse would reflect on an odd injury he had early in life that had influenced his professional trajectory.
Cisse broke his leg just nineteen games into his Liverpool career, breaking his fibula and tibia in the process. Despite winning a lot of trophies with Liverpool, his repeated injuries prevented him from ever really making an impression.
Nevertheless, Cisse continued to play for Marseille, Lazio, and Sunderland before ending his nearly two-decade career. Although Cisse could have played for more prestigious teams like Bayern, Real Madrid, and Barcelona, these are all respectable teams.
4. Jack Wilshire:
When Jack Wilshire wears the West Ham United jersey, it frequently makes one think of the potential the gifted midfielder possesses. The midfielder, who joined Arsenal at a very young age, had a successful debut season.
Due to his outstanding play during his first full season in 2010–11, he was selected for the PFA Team of the Year and awarded Arsenal Player of the Year. At eighteen years and 222 days, he is still the 12th youngest player to debut for England.
That is, however, the extent of Wilshire’s reach. The midfield player’s career has been marred by persistent injuries, and he has never been able to play through the whole season without missing time because of them.
After declining an offer to play a bit-part role under Arsenal manager Unai Emery, he moved to West Ham in the summer of 2018. Wilshire has experienced a good deal of the frustration that comes with having an injury. Due to bad luck, he is currently playing for a club that hardly ever participates in the Europa League when he ought to be in the Champions League.
He has been the target of trolling in recent years under the moniker “Jack Wheel Chair.” I hope you understand the hint.
3. Eduardo:
Although there have been many gifted strikers in the Premier League, very few have the same attacking instincts as Eduardo da Silva. The Croatian, who was born in Brazil, was unplayable at his best, as he repeatedly showed at Arsenal.
Sadly, though, a serious dislocation of his ankle would put an end to his budding career. When the nasty injury happened, Eduardo was Arsene Wenger’s first-choice striker and was enjoying a fantastic scoring run for the Gunners.
The striker needed to be taken to Selly Oak Hospital right away for surgery due to the severity of his injury. In fact, a lot of people think Arsenal would have won the league if Eduardo had been healthy the entire season.
Two years later, the striker was finally able to return to action, but even though he scored, he was sidelined again due to a hamstring injury. In 2010, Eduardo was sold by Arsenal to Shakhtar Donetsk in an attempt to cut losses. He played for the team for four years there before joining Flamengo in Brazil. Eduardo, who was named Arsenal’s most valuable player in 2007, currently plays for Legia Warsaw in Poland. How unfortunate!
2. Appie Nouri:
The story of Appie Nouri is one of the most depressing in football since the death of Marc-Vivien Foe of Cameroon. Nouri fell into a coma for over a year, while Foe passed away on the field.
When the Dutchman went into cardiac arrest during an Ajax vs. Werder Bremen game, he was just 20 years old. After that, he sustained brain damage and was put into an artificial coma.
Even after emerging from the coma, he remained a vegetable due to the extent of the brain damage. 2018 saw a slight improvement in his condition, and he is now able to communicate with his eyebrows.
This is undoubtedly a cruel way for things to turn out for a player who showed so much promise. Nouri should be playing with his Ajax teammates, but right now, fate would prefer that he stay in bed.
1. Ronaldo:
Cristiano Ronaldo is the only Ronaldo that many millennials can really identify with. However, the views of those who are a little older and have witnessed the Brazilian Ronaldo play are completely different. Comparing the two players would be unfair, but El Fenomeno was just plain outstanding.
Ronaldo was so good that he was awarded the Ballon d’Or at the age of 20. Yes, at just twenty, he is the youngest winner of the coveted award in history. Messi and CR7 combined couldn’t accomplish that.
With his unique ability to dribble, shoot, and score goals for fun, he is still perhaps the most complete striker of all time. Before turning 23 years old, he also achieved 200 goals for club and country, breaking the world transfer record twice.
Despite Ronaldo’s brilliance, he was never able to realize his full potential because of severe injuries he suffered throughout his playing career. His career eventually took a nosedive after he sustained injuries at Real Madrid and Inter Milan that could have ended his career.
El Fenomeno won the World Cup twice and FIFA Best Player three times, among other accolades, but he could have accomplished much more had he been healthy for just five full years.
So, this was all about the unluckiest football players. Also read, All-time 10 superstitious footballers & their lucky charms
