World Cup 2018: 5 Players Whose Value Has Dropped Significantly
Since its inception, the World Cup has often been a platform for players to make their mark as an all-time great or to engineer themselves a transfer to one of football’s biggest teams. On the flipside, however, the tournament has also been the place where many a big-name superstar has failed to live up to their potential or failed to fully influence the competition in the way that many would have hoped.
In this feature, we’re going to take a look at five players who had high hopes going into the 2018 World Cup, but who ultimately have disappointed to the point that their price tags have now been affected:
Adem Ljajic
Going into the World Cup, many saw Adem Ljajic as being pivotal to any success that the Serbia team would have.
The tricky Torino attacker featured in all three of his nation’s matches, although he did start the Switzerland game on the bench. Still, in their final game against Brazil, Ljajic was employed in a creative role behind the powerhouse figure of Aleksandar Mitrovic – the plan being for the flair of Ljajic to help unlock the Brazilian backline.
Sadly for Serbia, Ljajic was a non-entity in that game; much like how he was in the rest of the tournament. He may show glimpses of match-winning quality in Calcio A, but the World Cup again showed him to be a frustrating, if not undoubtedly talented player.