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One Season Wonders
Topic Started: Feb 28 2011, 03:38 PM (699 Views)
Yogi
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We had a fascinating discussion a little while ago about players whose form dropped off suddenly. I wanted to expand on that theme by bringing up a new topic, a discussion of players who had one, maybe two, good seasons and that was that. This is different from the prior topic of players whose form suddenly dipped, these are average players who had a good year or two then returned to their previous form or worse.

I will come up with somebody who I think had two good seasons, one in 2004-5 and another the following year which he turned into a World Cup appearance and eventually a World Cup winners medal even if his own contributions to the title were minimal.

I am refering to Luca Toni who toiled for years in Italy's lower divisions, had a breakout season with Palermo, won a transfer to Fiorentina where he did well and then earned a spot on Italy's 2006 World Cup winning team. Then Toni moved to Bayern and with all due respect, he just has not been the same goalscorer he was with first Palermo then Fiorentina. He's since gone to Genoa and now Juve where he is not always a first team selection.

Any other examples of one or two season wonders?
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carioca
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I have a player who like Toni was a two year wonder, it is Paulo Roberto Rink. He used a pretty good career at Atletico Paranaense into a transfer to Bayer Leverkusen where he became a good player for two years and because of a German grandfather was able to get a German passport and represented Germany at the 1999 Confederations Cup and Euro 2000. After those two years in the spotlight his career went downhill and he moved around clubs and countries for several years before finally retirning with his old club Atletico Paranaense in 2008.
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The Artful Codger
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One or two season wonders? How about Fernando Torres! ;) Ok just kidding there but here is one, Gaizka Mendieta. At Valencia he looked like the archetypal midfielder, all action, creative, able to shoot with either foot. He moved first to Lazio then to Middlesbrough and never duplicated his Valencia form again.
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Onslow
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Mendieta is a good choice. Here is another one of even more recent vintage, Stephen Ireland. Man City unloaded him on Aston Villa at just the right time. Fortunately he has now left Aston Villa.
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calimocho
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Gaizka Mendieta is a great example, but like many of these players he is a two season wonder as he used those two excellent seasons to lead Valencia to consecutive Champions League Finals and then a big contract with Lazio which is where his career started on its downhill slide.
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ursus arctos
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Fabio Grosso is a much better example than Toni.

He was essentially a five week wonder, as was Toto Schilacchi.
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raconteur
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ursus beat me to it, Fabio Grosso was exactly who I was thinking of when I read Yogi's post. Grosso turned a good few weeks into being a World Cup champion and later several big money moves as a few clubs figured being a World Cup winner meant he was a good player!

Toto Schillachi falls into the same category of Toni, a player who had a couple of good seasons then faded back into oblivion. In Italy there seems to be many such players!
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Nkono
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Here is another player who turned a good seaosn or two before the World Cup into becoming a World Cup winner then quickly faded out of sight,

Stephane Guivarc'h

A couple of good seasons pre 1998 at Auxerre and suddenly he was starting for France at the World Cup. A big money transfer followed but he never repeated his pre 98 form again.
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Martin
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Jerome Rothen, he was superb as a left sided midfielder in 2004 when Monaco reached the Champions League Final. His play down the left, crossing and set piece ability made it appear like he would be a fixture for France on the left side for many years to come. But Rothen left Monaco for PSG and his career went downhil there as he never was able to reproduce his play from 2004.
Club Sportivo Desamparados
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Simon
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A bloke who springs straight to my mind is Marcus Stewart, who perhaps will be unfamiliar to anyone who doesn't follow English football very closely and who also doesn't have a good memory!

Stewart was a journeyman forward who had been playing unremarkably for the best part of ten years for Bristol Rovers and Huddersfield. He then went to Ipswich and became a hero at the end of the 1999-2000 season as he scored the two or three goals that got them an unlikely promotion via the play-offs to the PL. He was then an absolute revelation in the PL, it seemed like everything he touched went flying into the net. The goals just kept flowing and by the end of the season he'd scored 20 or so, Ipswich finished 5th and got into the UEFA Cup and everyone was tipping Stewart for an England call up. If memory serves correctly, he finished second only to Ruud van Nistelrooy in the goalscoring charts that season.

And then the coach turned back into a pumpkin. The following season, Marcus Stewart scored about 5 goals and Ipswich were relegated. He had a spell at Sunderland without ever recapturing his former glories and has since played for a bunch of clubs in the lower leagues. Last I heard he was still playing, near the age of 40, with Exeter City.
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autogol
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This player might be a little young to completely count him out from recovering is previous form but I nominate Keirrison, the center forward currently on loan at Santos in Brazil but who is owned by Barcelona. Keirrison came up with Curitiba and helped them win promotion to Brazil's Serie A. The next season in 2008 he led the Brazilian league in goals scored and that won him a transfer to a bigger club Palmeiras. in the first half of 2009 he again was scoring plenty of goals for his new club which led Barcelona to buy him. They realized he would not see much playing time there so loaned him out to Benfica where he mostly sat on the bench, next he was loaned to Fiorentina where he played a bit more but still was a peripheral figure. Last summer Barcelona loaned him to Santos where he sometimes plays but has not nailed down a starting spot on a team desperately in need of a center forward.

Right now it looks like Keirrison had a good year, year and a half with Curitiba then Palmeiras and that has been all. He's still only 22 so there is hope he can still recover his form but right now that is looking unlikely.
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rosarino
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Martin,Mar 3 2011
11:17 AM
Jerome Rothen, he was superb as a left sided midfielder in 2004 when Monaco reached the Champions League Final. His play down the left, crossing and set piece ability made it appear like he would be a fixture for France on the left side for many years to come. But Rothen left Monaco for PSG and his career went downhil there as he never was able to reproduce his play from 2004.

Good choice with Rothen but I do not think he was alone in being a one season wonder on that 2004 Monaco team. Remember Dado Prso, the center forward who was so good that season then transferred to Glasgow Rangers and basically just disappeared?
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Winslow
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Martin,Mar 3 2011
11:17 AM
Jerome Rothen, he was superb as a left sided midfielder in 2004 when Monaco reached the Champions League Final. His play down the left, crossing and set piece ability made it appear like he would be a fixture for France on the left side for many years to come.

For some reason, the mention of Rothen reminds me of Eric Carriere, who had a marvelous Confederations Cup for France in 2001, stupidly was not taken to the WC the next year (he would've fit right in when Zidane got hurt), then had only a few more caps.
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Merengue
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Good one Winslow, I had forgotten all about Carriere until you mentioned him. He really did shine brightly for a year or so then flamed out. Another player who I remember was great for France in the 1997 pre Mundial but then disappeared and did not even make france's 1998 World Cup team was Ibrahim Ba. A lightning quick winger he was a revelation at that 1997 pre Mundial then earned a transfer to Milan where he pretty much sat on the bench and his career drifted away.
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Gunners
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Kleberson? After a brilliant year in the Brazilian league, he was a regular for Brazil at the World Cup, and then earned a transfer to Manchester United. After that? Basically nothing.

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