Football Transfer Window: Top five most over-rated players
A lot of clubs will be looking to bolster their squad especially after the World Cup ends, so that they can challenge on all fronts in the coming season which starts in England from the 11th of August and in Spain from the 28th of August.
The World Cup has also given artificial value to a lot of players who have managed to perform well but that doesn’t mean that these players are actually good footballers, they might appear to be flops once pitted in the weekly turmoil of club football.
The first player on the list is Franck Ribery from Bayern Munich and the French national team. Ribery is a talented footballer who has not been able to fulfill his true potential. In the season which ended just before the World Cup he was an average player for his club side, Bayern Munich. In the World Cup for France he was one of the big egos in the training camp which were causing conflict and turmoil.
His performances in the World Cup were horrible to say the least as France lost out to a knockout round place after suffering an embarrassing defeat to South Africa in their last match at the World Cup.
Ribery is at best an above average player who should have a price tag of around 13-17 million pounds but because of the hype surrounding his talent astonishing figures such as 50 million pounds have been quoted.
The next player who is extremely over-rated is Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the Barcelona forward was brought to Cataluña last season to add an extra dimension to the Barcelona side but in reality he didn’t add anything, Zlatan was just an over-priced transfer for Barcelona. He failed to perform for his club and now is under the spot light as clubs are looking to buy him. One of the most overestimated players in the World, and clubs should be aware of that fact when considering this buy as their investment in such an asset could spectacularly backfire.
William Gallas is another player who is quite hyped up for no good reason by the press. Gallas who was at Chelsea before making a move to Arsenal, was a source of discontent there as he was forced to play at the left back position regularly. Unhappy with this situation, Gallas came out in the media and voiced his concern over this situation. Ever since his transfer to Arsenal, the French defender has been caught out of position numerous times and has been criticized for lacking leadership qualities despite captaining the London club. Anyone who will hire Gallas now will be paying his abnormally high wages, wages that he does not deserve any longer.
The American midfielder Landon Donovan is one of those players who have flattered to deceive. After getting his opportunity in Europe at Bayer Leverkusen in the year 2001, Donovan failed to impress and was sold to L.A Galaxy. He then went on loan to Bayern Munich and then to Everton. In Germany, he only featured six times for Munich but at Everton he performed admirably.
However this is not a good enough reason to pay over the top for someone who has been severely inconsistent throughout his football career. Donovan did perform remarkably well for U.S.A at the World Cup but other than that he has done little in his career to impress therefore clubs on his tail should practice some caution.
The last person on this list is Rafael Van Der Vaart, the Dutch midfielder was once touted as one of the most brilliant and upcoming talents in football but his potential as a footballer has been largely wasted. Van Der Vaart did not start a lot of games for Real Madrid last season, where he was a bit part player due to presence of players such as Kaka and Guti.
He was nonetheless selected in the Dutch squad for the World Cup, where he has not started a single game as of yet for the Dutch national team. He has still to assist or score a goal in the World Cup. This lack of on-the-field time has caused his form to drop and now he is at most an off-the-bench impact maker.
With figures as high as 25 million pounds being thrown around as far as Van Der Vaart’s transfer is concerned, clubs should be vigilant because clearly the Dutch midfielder is not only overhyped but over priced as well.
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