15 Footballers Who Were Forced into the Spotlight Too Young

You have all seen them. The players tipped as the next Diego Maradona or the Next Pele. Even now, players such as Mario Goetze of Borussia Dortmund are being tipped as the next Messi.

To think that a player only in his mid-20s is already being used as the verb to describe what the next generation of starlets is almost mindbending. This also proves that even those that have had major success already in their career may have been forced into the lineups before they were ready but rose to the occasion.

It is a fine line to determine what is the right time to put a player in the position to take on a major role. Sometimes, the players have the support system in teammates around them to make it work. But, for every one success story, there are hundreds of failures.

These 15 footballers saw the spotlight at very young ages, and many are still young even with all of their experience to date. Some of them have failed, some are still drifting hoping for success and others are enjoying careers that all the unfortunate failures can only now dream about.

Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi is one of those that succeeded while still making a debut at an early age and continues to be sensational for Barcelona since his unofficial first match at the age of 16 in a friendly.

His record debut was at age 17 but was broken by Bojan Krkic who debuted at a younger aged 17 than Messi.

Although he is only 24 years old now, he already scored 207 goals, passed out 83 assists and has done so with only a total of 313 career appearances for Barcelona's first team, B-team and C-team combined.

Michael Owen

Michael Owen debuted for Liverpool in May of 1997 scoring a goal in his first match for the club. From his debut at age 17, he would push on to score 158 goals for the Reds in 297 appearances before making the move to Real Madrid.

The starlet is an example of what people can dream their young players can be as he was the joint top scorer in the Premier League at age 18, but the early start may have hampered his career.

However, Michael Owen may have peaked early, as now at only age 31, he is in the bottom of the pecking order at Manchester United. His inability to be healthy in the long run since he was in his mid-20s has been a major issue and has held his career back considerably.

Sergio Kun-Aguero

Sergio Aguero debuted in Argentina for Independiente just after his 15th birthday. His debut saw him make a second-half cameo and eventually return to the squad as a regular in the following season.

A sensational 2005-06 season saw him score 18 goals and provide four assists in 36 games and put him on top of the Argentinian footballing world at only 18. With that, he would make a move to Atletico Madrid in 2006 with the chance to link up with another youngster who had been put into a starting 11 at a very young age.

Aguero was class throughout his Atletico career from 2006-2011 before he recently joined Manchester City this summer only to take the EPL by storm as well.

Fernando Torres

The youngster that Sergio Aguero headed off to Spain and Atletico Madrid to partner with was Fernando Torres. Atletico's "El Nino" is one of the greatest prospects to have arisen out of the club.

He made his debut at the age of 16, but his first season with Atletico was dismal as he only scored six times in their promotional campaign back to La Liga in 2000-01.

Torres would rise the next season and eventually earn the captain's arm band at the age of only 19, making him one of the youngest club captains in history.

His moves to Liverpool and then subsequently to Chelsea saw over $70 million spent on him. However, his dip in form that plagued him since his last season at Liverpool and nearly his first year as a Blue could be contributed to his career starting at such a young age back in Spain.

Though, it could be centered around the amount of time he has already had as a first-team workhorse with over 10 first-team years of wear and tear at only the age of 27.

Wayne Rooney

Wayne Rooney is yet another that debuted young and possibly too young, but rose to the occasion.

Another 16-year-old debut, the Englishman became the youngest goal scorer in the history of the EPL at the time of his brace against Wrexham as an Everton Toffee.

His move to Manchester United would prove to be his best chance for failure or success. Luckily for all of those Red Devil fans out there, he was successful, however, that has not been the case for England National team fans.

Robbie Keane

Robbie Keane debuted at the age of 17 for Wolverhampton Wanderers where he would score 29 goals in 84 appearances before moving to Coventry City for a single season.

Inter Milan came calling that next season, and despite his young age, the Irishman headed off to Italy at the age of 21, but it was not to be the great success that was hoped as the youngster had yet to truly build the top-level experience in the lower English league in order to be successful in the Serie A.

His failed tenure in Italy lasted only a season where he made 14 appearances, scoring three goals before being shipped back to England and Leeds United as his move proved to have forced him into a major European league's spotlight far to early.

Keane eventually went on to be one of the greatest players in Tottenham's history and is now plying his trade in the United States with the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Samuele Dalla Bona

Samuele Dalla Bona was supposed to be a great talent when he signed with Chelsea at the age of 18, and he was thought to be the future of the Blues midfield just as the Blues captain John Terry was supposed to be the future of their defense.

However, Bona never really made it in England nor Italy. His 55 appearances for Chelsea remain the most he has ever made for a single club. Since then, he has been owned by AC Milan where he spent nearly the entirety of his contract on loan and has been owned by Napoli since 2006, and likewise, has seen loan after loan.

Reuben Noble-Lazarus

Barnsley made striker Reuben Noble-Lazarus the youngest player to debut in the English football league on September 20th, 2008, when they sent him on as a second-half substitute against Ipswich Town.

His debut at 15 years and only a handful of days saw him capture the eye of many English teams, thinking he was the next great player for the future.

However, making your debut before you are even old enough to be paid definitely means you are getting thrown into the mix a little to early.

Currently, Noble-Lazarus is still with Barnsley and scored his first senior goal against Doncaster Rovers in the last month of the 2010-11 season.

Diego Fagundez

New England Revolution striker Diego Fagundez is the Revs youngest playing in the history of MLS, and so far, has been saddled with great expectations.

Fagundez' debut came in the first week of August of 2011. It is hoped that he will be nurtured into his talent and allowed to develop, and so far, his owners are looking to go about his development the correct way.

In an ESPNsoccernet.com article on August 15, 2011, the Revolutions vice president of player personnel, Mike Burns, addressed that very issue with these comments:

"

"You look at teenage phenoms and some of them have hit their peaks at 15, 17 years old, then at 25, you never hear of them again."

Some guys develop earlier and others develop later. Some guys that might not be as advanced at 17 might become a fantastic player by the time they're 25. You never know.

We hope we have [Fagundez] on the right track so that he's not one of those kids you don't hear about 10 years from now."

"

Bojan Krkic

Bojan Krkic became the youngest Barcelona player to feature in La Liga at the age of 17, breaking the record previously held by Lionel Messi. 

He would go on to make 163 appearances for the Blaugrana first team, scoring 41 goals but has never been believed to have lived up to his potential.

At only 21, his summer move to AS Roma will hopefully ignite his potential once again and get him out of the frustration he was suffering in Barcelona.

Moses Ashikodi

Moses Ashikodi is another English debut at the age of 15 when he started his senior career for Millwall before having a major falling out due to a training-ground incident.

He was then shipped off to West Ham United and then Glasgow Rangers before again returning to England.

Perhaps, he is a victim of just not being ready to be a professional at the time of being forced into the first team, and that has plagued him his entire career as he jumps from one team to another almost every season.

Jozy Altidore

At the age of 16 Jozy Altidore broke into the New York Red Bulls first team and would make a total of 43 appearances for the club, scoring 16 goals before being sold to Spanish side Villarreal in 2008.

The hype of his talent was truly beyond his experience, and he had not yet had the time to refine himself into a top quality player. His time in Spain never really bore fruit as he spent as much time out on loan, including a decent spell at English side Hull City in 2009-10, as he did with the Yellow Submarine before he was finally able to move on with AZ Alkmaar, picking him up this summer.

He has since made seven appearances in the Eredivisie, scoring three goals for the club and is starting to mature into a much better player after his years of struggling to get up to speed with the European ability that supersedes the American academies at the moment.

Derek Forster

Derek Forster made his professional debut in the goal for Sunderland at the age of 15 in 1964. However, his career would never truly blossom after having been the youngest player to debut in England's first division at the position of goalkeeper.

Some of his failure can be attributed to the amount of competition for places with the Black Cats as he made only 18 appearances between 1964-72, but upon moving to Charlton Athletic from 1973-74 and Brighton Hove and Albion from 1974-76, he only made an additional 12 professional appearances between the pipes.

He never was allowed to develop his game in a system that appeared to have any faith in him, and he gradually faded out of mind.

Mauricio Baldivieso

Mauricio Baldivieso of Bolivia became the world's youngest professional footballer in July of 2009 when he debuted at the age of 12 for Bolivian based club Aurora.

It is yet to know if it is too soon because he is currently only 15 years old, but time will tell if his body is ready for the challenge or if he needs more time to develop.

At the moment, he is no longer attached to a professional club as he was withdrawn from Aurora after his father, Julio Cesar Baldivieso, resigned as manager of the club.

Freddy Adu

There is no player who was more pressed to be a success at a young age than Freddy Adu. The Ghanaian born US National team player made his professional debut for MLS club DC United at age 14.

His hype and all the pressure to succeed eventually are thought to have led to him having a crises of his own ability that is still hoping to be solved. Currently, Adu plays for the Philadelphia Union, but his road back to the MLS was a long stint of loans to all parts of the globe as he has never really been able to achieve all he was believed to be capable of.

However, being only 22 years old, he still has time to make another run of success and even return to Europe if he proves himself worthy. The eight years of experience he already has can only help him in the long run.

Conclusion

It is imperative that clubs give their youth teams the time to mold their players for the future. Sometimes, players are ready at the ages of 16 and 17, but most of the time, they are not, as has been proven true for both sides in this previous slideshow.

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