FIFTEEN FOOTBALLERS WHO BROKE INTO LIMELIGHT DURING THE DECADE

During the years of the decade (2010 and 2019), the football world witnessed one of the greatest outturn and upturn of new footballers who were wonderful prospects. This could be attributed to the heavy investments in the Sport due to improved Academies, improved wages and better stadia, alongside the growing competition for silverwares, but this piece would not be dwelling on that. New footballers have emerged from everywhere all around the world be it Asia, Africa, North America, South America and Europe. Nigeria is not left out as players like Victor Moses, Odion Ighalo, Kenneth Omeruwo, Victor Osimhen, Alex Iwobi and Wilfred Ndidi all came into limelight during the years.   
Kayode Kolade Christopher, a member of The Whistle Sports Group (WSG) takes a look at some of the notable footballers that have so far stood against all odds to break into limelight in the beautiful round leather game.

15. Ngolo Kante 
From playing in the French third division in 2012 to winning the most publicised football league in the world in the 2015/16 season, Ngolo Kante is not ready to disappear from the radar of attention and is clearly on the path to being regarded as one of the legends of the game after retirement. The names “Ngolo” and “Kante” are actually legendary in capacities! Ngolo Kante was named after one of the kings of the Bamana Empire (Present day Mali) and according to Walter Rodney, the famous writer of the book “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa”, “Kante” was one of the royal clans in the ancient Western Sudan Empire. Due to the defensive aspects of his game, Ngolo Kante has been a joy to watch since his debut season in England. During his second season in England with Chelsea, the media came up with the saying “Water covers 70% of the earth, the rest is covered by Ngolo Kante”. And in addition, after a particular game during the same season, a cartoon photo went viral on the Internet showing Ngolo Kante covering everywhere on the pitch while all other Chelsea teammates were enjoying a nap! Kante has been likened to Claude Makalele, another defensive midfielder who once played for Chelsea, but he declared he admires Lassana Diarra.


14. Manuel Neuer
Manuel Neuer rose to prominence with his hometown club, Schalke 04 before the turn of the decade but everybody gets to know more about him while saving penalties from two Balon D’or recipients [Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo] for Bayern Munich in the return leg of the Champions league match against Real Madrid. Dubbed sweeper-keeper by the media and pundits alike, Manuel Neuer revealed to the world of football that sweeping could also be combined with goalkeeping. His superb shot-stopping and sweeper skills earned him a third place finish behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in the 2014 FIFA Balon D’or Awards. Since the start of his career with Bayern Munich, Neuer has earned himself a quite number of silverware capable of tracking only through good record keeping of stats.

13. David De Gea
How would a David De Gea without Hypermetropia (long-sightedness) have been as a goalkeeper? That’s clearly not a problem for the Spaniard standing at an incredible height of 192 Centimetres. Making his debut for Atletico Madrid in 2009, De Gea was very instrumental in the club’s Europa league title winning campaign, [the final of which was with Fulham FC of England] and subsequent victory over Inter Milan in the UEFA Super Cup in 2010. Same year, David De Gea rose to media attention when he was rumored to be Manchester United’s replacement for the retiring Edwin Van der Saar. De Gea went on to sign for United the following year. Just like Peter Schmeichel one of the greatest goalkeepers in United’s history, David De Gea is a force to reckon with even when there are lapses in the defence! Despite the little setbacks encountered during the start of his career with United, De Gea has been the best goalkeeper in England since then with his inclusion in the PFA Premier League team of the year for  2013, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018; he was also awarded the best Manchester United player of the season for three consecutive years in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

12. Virgil Van Dijk
From almost dying due to peritonitis and being rejected by Ajax to winning The Champions League, PFA Player of the Year and FIFA’s Best Player Awards, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup in 2019, Virgil Van Dijk story is an inspirational one. Almost going unnoticed during his stay with Celtic, Van Dijk’s incredible defensive and eye-for-goal abilities earned him a spot in the limelight during his time with The Saints. One cannot say whether there was a second thought when Liverpool went hunting for him with a world record fee for a defender, but so far, Van Dijk has surpassed expectations from even the perfectionists in the world of football and continues to prove he is the boss in the defence against anybody whether they were born of a woman or cesarian section.   

11. Paul Pogba
Popuparly called Il Popo Paul (Paul The Octopus) during his time in The Italian Serie A due to his long legs that become conspicuous while running and making tackles, Paul Pogba is the perfect example of a fine player and a complete midfielder. A central midfielder in actual sense, Paul Pogba is also capable of playing other midfield roles such as box-to-box, defensive midfielder and attacking midfielder. Pogba rose to prominence when he completed his return to United with a world record fee of ₤89.3M and has won major honours including The FIFA World Cup, Europa League, FA Cup and League Cup.

10. Romelu Lukaku
A Congolese by descent, Romelu Lukaku had a dream to play for Chelsea since his days as a child, but that dream was probably taken away by the loan system of Chelsea and the subsequent sale to Everton. Good with aerial balls and a very strong left foot, Romelu Lukaku is undoubtedly a born goal scorer and an “out and out striker” no defender would want to take for levity! This is evident in the fact that he has scored a league goal in his debut for three different clubs! He topped the scoring chart of the Belgian elite division in 2011 at just age 16 and is currently proving doubters wrong in Italy, not caring too much about the White racism predominant there. Still under 30 years of age, Romelu Lukaku had already surpassed the league goal tallies of Didier Drogba though a lot would not want to compare the two!

9. Sadio Mane
Sadio Mane is another footballer with a touching and inspirational story. Born poor, raised poorly and forbidden from playing football by his father when he was a child [just like a typical Africa parent might decide to due to the fear of injuries], Sadio Mane stood against all odds to get to the top and is currently one of the best footballers in the world! Mane was a subject of attention when he scored the fastest hat trick in the history of the Premier League while playing for Southampton against Aston Villa in 2015. Sadio Mane is a Champions League winner, UEFA Super Cup winner and a Premier League winner in the embryo with Liverpool.

8. Mo Sallah
A very philanthropic, considerate, shy and religious man, Mo Sallah is a complete footballer. Not considering the days at Chelsea, Sallah’s rise to the top was very fast. In under three years he already transferred to FC Basel from Al Mokawloon of Egypt and from Basel to one of the best clubs in the world! After loan stints at Fiorentina and Roma, Mo Sallah attracted interest from Liverpool and joined in 2017. Originally a natural winger, the influence of Jurgen Klopp made him play further forward for Liverpool and ended his debut season with a record 32 league goals. Mo Sallah has continued to evolve and has built a very strong bond with Sadio Mane and Roberto Firminio.

7. Kylian Mbappe
With a Cameroonian father and an Algerian mother, Kylian Mbappe is another footballer of African descent that broke into the limelight during the decade. Not relying on set pieces to score goals like his teammates Neymar and Cavani who always scramble for penalties and free kicks, Mbappe reminds an informed football fan/pundit of Pele, who refrained from taking penalties during his time as a football player because he sees it as a cowardly way of scoring goals. Mbappe is a recipient of the Golden Boy Award, A FIFA World Cup Gold medal, French Young Player of the Year Award and FIFA World Cup Young Player of the Tournament Award. Ambidextrous with the foot, Mbappe could play as a winger in both flanks due to his physical, explosive pace and other precocious abilities. Mbappe’s style of play has earned him comparison to one of the greatest ever in the game, Pele.   

6. Antoine Griezmann
A Frenchman of German descent, Antoine Griezmann was second only to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in 2016! Griezmann and Dimitri Payet were clearly the bosses of The Les Blues team as France finished second in UEFA EURO 2016. In the 2018 FIFA World Cup which France won, Antoine Griezmann received both The Golden Ball and Silver Boot Awards.

5. Raheem Sterling 
Football is clearly “inborn” in Raheem Sterling due to the fact that he was born and bred in Jamaica during his days as a child. Since the days he came out through the Youth ranks of Liverpool after a transfer from Queens Park Rangers, Sterling has been improving year every year and was very instrumental in Manchester City’s back to back winning of the Premier League title in the 2017/18 and 2018/19 seasons, with the former won with a record tally of 100 points. He is very comfortable with the ball on either of his feet, pacey and a great team player. Sterling has been a subject of controversies due to his on and off the pitch activities, the first major one being the transfer from Liverpool to Manchester City in 2015. A recipient of the Golden Boy Award just like Kylian Mbappe, Sterling was instrumental in The Three Lion’s fourth place finish in The 2018 FIFA World Cup. He has been described as one of the best footballers in the world and a potential Balon D’or winner by Barcelona legend, Xavi.

4. Luka Modric
It would be hypocritical to exclude Luka Modric from a list like this because he is the only footballer who won the Balon D’or apart from Messi and Ronaldo during the decade. Though his childhood days was blighted by The Croatian war of independence, Luka rose from being a shepherd to one of the best players of the game and the best ever footballer in his country. He was transferred to Tottenham Hotspur in 2008, almost joined Chelsea two years later and is currently playing with Real Madrid. Another complete midfielder, Luka Modric has played in every midfield role since 2008; he could play as box-to-box and deep-lying playmaker, enabling him to make late attacking runs resulting to explosive shots, he could play as an attacking midfielder and defensive midfielder. Believing he is able to read games better when deployed deeper in the midfield, he was first played in the role by Harry Redknapp during his days with Tottenham.


3. Harry Kane
Despite the slowdown in progression which led to loan stints with three different clubs, Harry Kane has being an addictive goalscorer since the 2014/15 season and has been consistent in the act since then. Harry Kane is a perfect example of a fighter and hardworker. A good leader and another “out and out” striker just like Romelu Lukaku, Harry Kane is one of the nightmares of defenders in the world of football. He is a Member of The Order of The British Empire (MBE), a recipient of The PFA Young Player of The Year and The Premier League Golden Boot Award on two different occasions. In addition, no other footballer has won more Premier League Player of the Month Award than Harry Kane (6).

2. Eden Hazard
With the ability to dribble pass all opponent’s players like cones if the need arises, Eden Hazard is surely one of the greatest dribblers to ever grace the game! A complete footballer, Eden Hazard has a very strong right foot and a left that always lift powerful shots off the bar despite being the weaker foot. No one would ever dispute the fact that he is strong, pacey, full off vision and tactical movements with or without the ball. During the course of his career with LOSC Lille in The French Ligue One, Eden Hazard became the first Non-French player to win The UNFP Young player of the year and the youngest player to win The UNFP Player of the year Award. An older player, Dimitri Payet has described Eden Hazard as one of the players he learned a lot from. Hazard required no time to acclimatise to all the conditions of English Football when he was transferred to Chelsea in the summer of 2012. A season later, Hazard was voted The PFA Young Player of The Year in spite of scoring less than another nominee, Daniel Sturridge. Hazard improved season by season at Chelsea apart from the 2015/16 season, which was obviously the worst season of his career so far. In the 2014/15 season Hazard won the prestigious PFA Player of The Year Award, The Premier League title and League Cup, subsequently resulting to the comparison with Cristiano Ronaldo by Jose Mourinho. Hazard is also very active with his country, Belgium. Belgium has been a wonder when it comes to the upcoming of good footballers since 2011. This led to a third place finish in The 2018 FIFA World Cup with Hazard being one of the players playing prominent roles in getting the bronze medal; he was also awarded the Silver Ball in the competition, coming second only to Luka Modric. Hazard helped Chelsea to a Europa League triumph in 2019 and left for Real Madrid same year.


1. Neymar JNR
Neymar is undoubtedly the most complete player after Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. A gift to his parents and his generation, Neymar moved from Santos to Barcelona in 2013 and subsequently completed a transfer to PSG with a world record fee of €222 million. Currently, his career has been blighted by injuries but arguably, he is still next to Messi and Ronaldo because he is a sparking talent. Neymar has been a serial winner of trophies and individual awards since the outset of his career; he won The Puskas Award while at Santos, FIFA Confederations Cup Golden Ball, Brazillian Serie A Player of the Year Award, La Liga Best World Player, UNFP Player of the Year Award and a lot more. In addition to the honours, Neymar was named the most marketable athlete in the world ahead of Rory McIlroy, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi by SportsPro in 2012 and 2013.


Kayode Kolade Christopher (Ksound)
Member, Whistle Sports Group (WSG).