5 famous Premier League flops who will be playing for the World Cup favourites
The Premier League is the most popular football league in the world and it is very difficult to turn down its allure.
In January 2014, Greece striker, Konstantinos Mitroglou, had the opportunity to stay with Olympiacos and play Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16. Instead, he moved to Fulham who were battling relegation in the Premier League.
Mitroglou struggled to adapt to the demands of the Premier League and played just three games (without scoring) for the London club who were ultimately relegated at the end of the season.
The Greek international is one of many players who have failed to perform in the Premier League despite succeeding elsewhere. However, Mitroglou moved to Benfica after Fulham’s relegation and his stint in Portugal was quite successful.
Like Mitroglou, many famous Premier League flops have moved on and found success elsewhere. This includes some of the players who will be playing for the FIFA World Cup 2018 favourites like Germany, Spain, France, Brazil and Argentina.
#5 Iago Aspas
Liverpool signed Iago Aspas from Celta Vigo ahead of the 2013/14 season and the Spaniard enjoyed a strong preseason as Luis Suarez was absent from the team due to his participation in the Confederations Cup and Daniel Sturridge was still recovering from an injury.
However, Sturridge recovered from injury before the start of the Premier League season and later Suarez returned to the starting XI after completing his suspension for biting Branislav Ivanovic.
Suarez and Sturridge formed a devastating partnership scoring a combined total of 55 goals and as a result, Aspas was often left on the bench or was played out of position.
He scored his only competitive goal for Liverpool in an FA Cup match against Oldham Athletic in a match where he started as the striker. However, he was loaned out to Sevilla ahead of the 2014/15 season after making just 15 appearances for the Reds in all competitions.
Although Aspas won the Europa League with Sevilla, he was sparingly used at the club and was eventually sold to back to Celta Vigo.
Since moving to Celta in 2015, he has played 126 games for the club and scored 67 goals! His goal scoring exploits also won him the Zarra Trophy given to the highest scoring Spaniard in the La Liga in 2016/17 and 2017/18.
Such fine form warranted a national team call-up and he made his debut for La Furia Roja against England on November 15, 2016, as a substitute with his team trailing 2-0. Aspas scored Spain’s first goal of the night with a brilliant finish and helped the team salvage a draw. As of now, he has four goals in eight games for Spain and will be hoping to help his country lift a second World Cup.