Every year after the season begins there will be teams that have the best players, the teams with the mediocre players and teams where the whole team including the owner believe in the marquee player. Apart from these, there are certain players who break into the first team, perform exceptionally well and then fizzle out the next season- these types of players are called One Season Wonders. Now not every player falls under this description. Even Harry Kane, Mohamed Salah, N’Golo Kante all were thought to be so, but they have proved their haters wrong time after time.
Here is a list of footballers who didn’t or rather couldn’t prove their haters wrong in time:
Andy Johnson:
England International, Andy Johnson was playing for Crystal Palace in 2004/05 when he scored 21 times, including 11 penalties to finish 2nd behind Thierry Henry in the golden boot race. What’s more important to notice is that, these 21 goals comprised 41% of all goals he scored in 9 years in the Premier League.
Even with his breathtaking form, Palace got relegated and Andy Johnson again played in the PL in 2006/07 for Everton but was only able to score 11 and the record fell downwards.
Roque Santa Cruz:
Santa Cruz has played close to 19 years of top flight football in Spain, Germany, Mexico and England and only managed to reach double figure goals only once. After spending eight years with Bayern Munich, he arrived at Blackburn Rovers for €5 million and proceeded to do his best. Santa Cruz scored 19 times in 37 matches, finishing 4th in the golden boot race. He scored 23 in all competitions and impressed everyone so much that City signed him the following year. A total flop from the next year, he couldn’t even score half the goals in the next 3 years, of the amount he managed in the first year.
Michu:
Another Spaniard who couldn’t make much in England. He signed for Swansea City behind a 15-goal season with Rayo Vallecano and tore up the field with 18 goals in 35 appearances in his first season, which got him the 5th position in the Golden Boot race and also got him a Spanish National Team Call up. Ultimately it wasn’t enough to take him long before he had to retire at 31 due to incessant ankle issues.
Marcus Stewart:
Another classic example of a one season wonder who scored 19 times in the 2000/01 season and even got Ipswich to the 5th position of the Premier League. He finished runner up behind Hasselbaink. However, both the team and the player turned out to be one season wonders. Stewart only managed to score 6 times in the next season and Ipswich got relegated. He played with Sunderland the next season and only managed 1 goal in 19 matches.
Asamoah Gyan:
It is needless to say that every kid’s dream is to join Sunderland after having a breathtaking performance at the World Cup. Why not? That’s what Asamoah Gyan did after scoring thrice to take his nation to the quarters of the World Cup. He made good use of his chances, scoring 10 times in 34 matches before moving on to play in the UAE. He even played in ISL for North East United in the 19-20 season.
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