Best late-bloomers

[SempreRossoNero]

Re_milan made me think about something....

Who are the best late-bloomers right now in the world? I wanted to put this in the transfers section... but before we can talk about what late-bloomers are good prospects for us.... who are the late-bloomers?

Oddo for one? We give a lot of credit to the early-bloomers like Ronaldo, but they peak early... we give him so much credit for all the awards he has won, but some other guys are actually on top of their game in their late 20s early 30s.... who are they?

 

[thismisery]

I hate to say it...
but Materazzi is surely one of them... >,<

 

[GreatKalu]

Luca Toni.

 

[Pipa]

^^^ Agree, Luca Toni. Also Juninho ...

 

[grande_sheva7]

lucarelli, grosso, saha, kanoute

 

[Rizini]

how bout drogba even zidane i think so

 

[acerвιc wιт]

Luca Toni and Grosso

 

[DonippoKakaShevdini]

Giuly took awhile to realise his potential too.

 

[Italian Tsar]

Mmmm... I am sure there are a handful of them out there, but hard to think of. Toni of course is the most obvious.

Maybe Cristiano Doni to an extent, and Cristian Rigano. Will add more as days pass by

 

[gahanthegod]

Oddo.

 

[radioactivenerd]

^^^ Agree, Luca Toni. Also Juninho ...

junhinho has been spectacular at lyon since 2001 when they started winning the league. He was 24 i think back then? thats not too late....

 

[Mr C]

Jamie Carragher. 10 years at Liverpool already... Legend

 

[radioactivenerd]

tavano is a fucking late bloomer.
if his bloom is in fact something permanent, and not a lucarelli-esque blip.

 

[Faяouk]

Luca Toni, Materazzi, Grosso, Dacourt, Drogba. That's all what I could think of now, if I remember others I'll add them.

 

[Jasper]

Kanu was blooming lately too. And before...

 

[cosmin]

How about Roger Milla? 38-year old in 1990 when he made his name.

 

[milanissimo]

Serginho

 

[Rygaar]

How about Roger Milla? 38-year old in 1990 when he made his name.

Roger Milla was an amazing player well before 1990. In the late 70s and throughout the 80s he tore apart African defenses left and right. Cameroon (along with Nigeria as much as I hate to admit it) dominated African football in the 80s thanks in great part to Milla. I think that in 1990 things around him came together, but he was always amazing. Anyway, I hope we have a player nearly as good as he was once again. Eto'o is the closest talent to Milla that we've seen in Cameroon, but Eto'o isn't better.

Drogba was great at 23-24yrs in France (Marseilles?). Chelsea didn't pay 25 million pounds for an average player. He just didn't have a world class team around him.

Grosso, Toni, Giuly, Deco?, Dida, Inzaghi?

 

[Passion for *9*]

Drogba.

At 23 he was a reg bencher @ Le Mans (2nd league), @ 24 he started to train more professionally + started to impress (Mourinho among others) at Guingamp + @ 25 he moved to Marseille + his first + only season there landed him the deal with Chelsea.

 

[Sasha]

Looking ahead... Freddy Adu. If he becomes a superstar at 24-25 he'll have been playing for 10-11 years

 

[Sasha]

Can Thierry Henry fit in this category? His career pretty much died while at Juve. But he was rejuvenated with Arsene in Arsenal.

 

[GreatKalu]

I can see where this thread is going ... old is gold

Its only fair that we start another about youngsters who took the world of football by storm

 

[SempreRossoNero]

I can see where this thread is going ... old is gold

Its only fair that we start another about youngsters who took the world of football by storm

Its not true......


But see how we are focused on players who were early bloomers like Ronaldo?They automatically get put on a pedestal above late bloomers b/c the late bloomers havent proved themselves as much...... even though they may be better because the early bloomersr are already on their way down

 

[Yuchen Li]

Bierhoff ! He was just a good player before 1996 EC final but after he headed the first gold ball in EC, he became famous, after lead Udinese ended top 3 in 1997-98 Serie A. Milan bought him and he scored 20 goals in 1998-99 to help us win Serie A.

 

[Milanista10]

Kaladze, Grosso, Toni, Materazzi, Cannavaro(only really became a star recently), Oddo, Morfeo

 

[Yuchen Li]

Kaladze, Grosso, Toni, Materazzi, Cannavaro(only really became a star recently), Oddo, Morfeo

Kaladze was a top player when he came to Milan at the beginnig of 2000 and he played very well at CB position at that time.
I still didn't treat Grosso as a top player, he just had good chance in last WC and he actually worse than Jankulovski in my opinion.
I think Cannavaro was one of the best defenders since 2000 EC.

 

[gahanthegod]

Can Thierry Henry fit in this category? His career pretty much died while at Juve. But he was rejuvenated with Arsene in Arsenal.

No. He was only 22 when Arsenal bought him

 

[Jasper]

I can see where this thread is going ... old is gold

Its only fair that we start another about youngsters who took the world of football by storm

No. You just read the names to get some sort of hope, when another Dinosaur is brought to our club in Galliani's unique time-maschine.

 

[DonippoKakaShevdini]

Cannavaro(only really became a star recently)

No, completely disagree. This man became a legend only recently. Cannavaro has been great since Euro 96. He is the archetypical Italian defender has been for well over 10 years. He played at Parma when they were respectable in most European circles....and UEFA cup reinforces this.

 

[re_milan]

Grosso, Toni, Materazzi, Zambrotta,Oddo, Morfeo, Perrotta
but there are many more.