10 most overrated players in football history
None of us is alien to hyperbole. Especially in the contemporary media environment, footballers are often hyped up with words like 'wonderkid' or even 'great' which are all thrown around quite casually. As such, we encounter players who are overrated in terms of their quality quite frequently.
These days, a footballers' life is all about the extravaganza. Caught in the limelight and egged on by agendas, it is then no surprise that several of our iconic football players might have received way more adulation than is due.
Today, we take a look at 10 of the most overrated footballers in history.
Top 10 most overrated footballers in history
#10 Georgi Kinkladze
The playmaker Georgi Kinkladze is a cult hero but when you get down to facts, the former Manchester City man's claim to fame is mostly limited to a goal against Southampton, where he cut in from the right flank and beat 5 defenders before dinking the ball into the net. For a player whose style was likened to Diego Maradona, his record just doesn't hold up.
Though there were flashes of quality and he perhaps was one of the standout performers in an abysmal Manchester City side, he was sidelined later on due to his lack of fitness and contributed nothing defensively.
For all the ballads that are written about him, he has only played one season for Manchester City in the Premier League where he scored 4 goals. He later returned to the Premier League with Derby and Kinkladze scored a goal a piece in each of the three seasons with them before being relegated once again.
#9 Jack Wilshere
There was a time when England fans had thought they'd found in Jack Wilshere, the answer to all their midfield problems for years to come. However, in the long run, it is now clear that he was only flattering to deceive.
The Englishman's legacy is more or less entirely centred on one glorious performance at the Camp Nou where he came out on top against a Barcelona midfield that had Busquets, Xavi and Iniesta. While that's no mean feat, he has simply failed to replicate that in the following years.
The English media has a knack for overhyping young players and Wilshere was immediately anointed to the throne as the future of England. However, he started fading from thereon and with him being more of a presence in the infirmary than on the field and currently playing for West Ham United, you could say that Wilshere was one of the most overhyped players of this generation.
#8 Hulk
Hulk is perhaps one of the most overrated strikers in world football. With a penchant for pulling off the spectacular on occasion, the Brazilian gathered way more credit than was due over the brief stint of time when he was relevant.
After breaking onto the scene with Porto where he won a treble, Hulk was bought by Zenit St. Petersburg for a whopping €40 million. The team was arranged around him and Hulk had a season return of just 11 goals.
He constantly underperformed in the inferior Russian league but somehow managed to get Zenit €55 million when he moved to Chinese Super League side Shanghai SIPG. For all the hype that surrounded him at Porto, Hulk never reached those heights again even though he went on to become one of the highest paid footballers in the world.