OneFootball
Lewis Ambrose·28 December 2017
OneFootball
Lewis Ambrose·28 December 2017
We get it, the Ballon d’Or is sought after. But what about an award nobody wants?
You have come to the right place.
And you know what, we’ve had a think and our nominees are a talented guy from Portugal, a Brazilian who played for Santos and some bearded fellow at Barcelona.
Sounds good, doesn’t it? It isn’t.
Renato Sanches
The so-called Golden Boy of European football, but what exactly has Renato Sanches done since winning that particular award? Well, he’s signed for and failed to establish himself at Bayern Munich. Then he’s been shipped out on loan to Premier League strugglers Swansea City. He’s now failed there too. It’s too soon to write off such a young talent but 2017 will be the year he is remembered for all the wrong reasons.
Gabriel Barbosa
We were told Gabigol was the next Neymar. We now know that was all to do with his cockiness and the fact he was at Santos. They share nothing else. Following a horrid spell at Inter (Gabigol made six sub appearances – all under 20 minutes – in 2017), he was sent to Benfica on loan. Surrounded by a familiar language and culture he has nose-dived. Yep, Benfica have given him 13 league minutes and his loan will probably end next month.
Arda Turan
Arda Turan plays for Barcelona. Plays being the operative word. In 2017, Arda has played 505 minutes in LaLiga and 25 minutes in the Champions League, scoring one goal. The Turkish midfielder actually should fit Ernesto Valverde’s Barcelona nicely but the writing is on the wall and he has no future at the club. In June he retired from international football after a bust up with a journalist during a flight … only to reverse the decision in August. It has certainly been a turbulent 12 months.