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5 promising footballers who have been around for long and are yet to reach their peak

Every year the media comes up with stories of new teenage sensations and wonder kids. Some are even labelled as the next Messi or the next Ronaldo. However, most of these teenage sensations fail to live up to the hype that was created and often become squad players or end up playing for mid-table or bottom end clubs.Some of the players who were labelled as future superstars often enjoy a good breakthrough season and move to top clubs and of these players, only very few players are able to consistently deliver for their teams for many seasons on the trot. The rest struggle to cement a place in the starting eleven as they are unable to hit their peak form consistently.So here are five players who were destined to have a big future, but have not been able to reach their peak despite being around for a long time. 

#1 Thiago Alcantara

Thiago has had trouble with injuries at Bayern

Thiago Alcantara is yet another player to have emerged from the fabled La Masia in recent years. The Spaniard made his first team debut for the Catalans when he was just 18 and many Barcelona fans were sure that he would step into the club’s midfield to take the place of Xavi or Iniesta over the course of time.

The Spaniard led Spain’s U21 squad to a Euro title in 2013 by scoring a perfect hat-trick in the final and it was expected that his career would take off in the following season. However, things took an unexpected turn when Guardiola decided to bring Thiago to Bayern.

Thiago joined a team that had just won the treble and it was obvious that he would have trouble to get game time ahead of the likes of Kroos and Schweinsteiger. He started his Bayern career very well and even set the record for most touches by a player in a game, but a ruptured ligament ended his season prematurely.

In his second season with Bayern, Thiago damaged his ligament again and sat out for several months. He finally made his anticipated return in the ongoing season, but he is struggling to nail down a starting spot. He has started just seven league games so far in this season and that could diminish further if he doesn’t take his game up by a notch.

Thiago is 24 now and halfway through his third season with Bayern Munich, if he hopes to become a regular for club and country in the near future then he has a lot of work to do. 

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