5 superstars who have lost their way
Being a professional footballer comes with its own perks and problems. An incredible amount of discipline and a lot of sacrifices are required to keep playing at a world-class level. The going can get tough and the rigors of the game at the highest level can get hard to keep up with.
We've seen several players suffer a major dip in quality from one season to the next. A lot of factors have to come together for a player to be performing to the best of his abilities season in and season out. This includes physical and mental well-being as well as the ability to adapt and evolve.
In grueling, physically demanding environments, individuals can get exhausted and lose their mojo rather quickly. On that note, let's take a look at five footballing superstars who have lost their way.
#5 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal)
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang won the Premier League Golden Boot in the 2018-19 season. He finished second in the Premier League's top goalscorers chart in the 2019-20 season. The Gabonese international had become a dependable marksman for the Gunners.
But as Arsenal's troubles started to grow under Mikel Arteta, Aubameyang could do very little to help. In fact, he just became one more cause for concern. Arsenal, who are part of the Premier League's 'traditional top 6', finished eighth in the 2020-21 season.
They also scored just 55 goals in the league. Aubameyang made 29 appearances in the Premier League and scored just 10 goals. He finished the 2020-21 season with 15 goals in 39 appearances across all competitions.
To make things worse, Aubameyang started underperforming right after he signed a new £350,000 per week deal at Arsenal. He seems to have lost his clinical touch in front of goal and has slowed down a bit as well. It was his electric pace that made him a dangerous striker in the past.
Aubameyang received a lot of criticism for missing gilt-edged chances throughout the 2020-21 season. It's been quite a fall from grace for one of the most prolific goalscorers of his generation.
#4 Miralem Pjanic (Barcelona)
Miralem Pjanic went from being one of the finest deep-lying playmakers in the game to a peripheral figure at a new club in the span of a season. The Bosnian international was doing great, pulling strings from deep for Juventus.
It was all going well until Barcelona and Juventus decided to swap Arthur Melo and Miralem Pjanic. It was a move that didn't make sense for any of the parties involved. Barcelona already had Sergio Busquets and Pjanic is not exactly an attacking midfielder to replace Pedri or De Jong.
Pjanic struggled for game time as Koeman chose to stick with a midfield three of Busquets, Pedri and De Jong for the majority of the season. Though he started regularly in the Champions League, Pjanic was a near non-entity in La Liga, starting just six times. He had started 28 games in the Serie A for Juventus in the 2019-20 season.
Pjanic failed to score a goal or register an assist in the 2020-21 season and is currently looking for a way out of Barcelona. He is being heavily linked with a return to Juventus and we hope for the player's sake that the deal goes through.