With the recent long term injury to budding star Gavi of Barcelona, an alarming trend of extensive and continuous injuries to young footballers continues to rise. This seems especially prevalent in some of the larger and more celebrated clubs in the global game, who for one reason or another, have fallen from their perches and are searching for any way back to the top. With stricter regulations being continuously imposed on football teams (and rightly so), these club are turning more towards their youth and further away from the transfer market. Clubs such as Barcelona, who have in truth historically relied on a stellar academy system as well as transferring superstars in, are now placing enormous strain on their youth. In recent years, Barcelona have made players such as Gavi, Pedri and Ansu Fati mainstays in the team, from as early as 16 or 17. In fact, current left wing sensation Lamine Yamal made his debut at just 15 years old last season. All four of these players are now full internationals for Spain, who themselves have had to undergo a rebuild of sorts with the general ending of their ‘golden generation’. As a result, they have all played extensive minutes long before even legally being considered adults. Pedri’s breakout season for example, culminated in Spain’s deep run in Euro 2020 (2021 due to COVID). and he was also one of Spain’s most used players after a long and draining first season as a Barcelona senior player. This issue is not restricted to Barcelona however, as they just have the most high profiles cases of this. Liverpool and PSG for example have also been leaning heavily on youth players of late to help arrest any sudden declines. In Liverpool’s massively disappointing 22-23 season, when left with almost no viable midfield options, they turned to 17 year old Stefan Bajectic who performed admirably. Indeed, after a couple months of consistent starts in the midfield, star player Mohamed Salah admitted he had been their best player over the stretch. Sadly after a couple months of intense first team football, Bajcetic’s season was ended through injury, which really sounded like it was a result of overuse. Indeed, it has been more than 8 months and he still struggles with niggling injuries, as he has only made two brief appearances this season before succumbing to more injuries. His return status seems up in the air, because as soon as his return seems imminent there is another delay. There should be credit to Liverpool however, as even though they do not need him like they did last season, they are showing patience and manager Jurgen Klopp has stressed that he is still a growing boy, so there is optimism that he is being managed correctly now. PSG have used 17 year old Warren Zaire-Emery to make up for the massive Messi-Neymar-Verratti shaped hole that was left in their team this summer. Whilst he has performed admirably. his form led to a first call-up for France’s senior team, only to have his debut cut short within minutes due to injury. This was a contact injury as opposed to a muscle or ‘growing pains’ type one for example, but still it is a shame to see someone so young be at the risk of a burnout.
The rate of these injuries and the level of player they are happening to may be increasing. but this is not a new phenomenon. As such, we can point to some examples as to how different levels of care in management shaped some careers. Players like teenage sensation Freddy Adu of America, as well as England and Everton duo James Vaughan and Jose Baxter made their professional debuts at 14, 16 and 16 respectively. All three of them had several injury issues at their first clubs and did not establish themselves there. All 3 ended up playing for a whole host of clubs, failing to truly hold down a place at one for more than a couple of years, while in Baxter’s case, he even retired before his 30th birthday. Then you have examples where, players were exposed at a high level exceptionally early again, but their bodies gave out on them early, and by their late 20s and early 30s could barely stay fit and would soon have to consider retirement. Such examples are Wayne Rooney, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Gareth Bale and Neymar. Rooney by the time he was 30 was already an all time premier league great but was starting to lose his place in the Manchester United squad, and was sold before he turned 32. This after announcing himself on the global stage as a 16 year old, scoring a phenomenal goal vs arsenal. Theo Walcott. while not hitting similar heights, seemed to peak in his early 20s while still at arsenal, and he spent the last few years in the lower end of the Premier League before retiring last season at 34. Gareth Bale and Oxlade-Chamberlain were also prodigies at Southampton before achieving greatness; Bale at Tottenham and Real Madrid, and ‘the ox’ at arsenal and Liverpool. Bale retired at the conclusion of the FIFA 2022 World Cup at 33, while ‘the ox’ has left England to play at a lower level in Turkey, only having just turned 30 and struggling to produce at the level he once had for the Premier League in England. Finally, Neymar was seen as the heir apparent to Pele for Brazil, and to Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in the European game, such was his talent. Indeed in many ways he succeeded, having recently surpassed Pele to become Brazil’s all time leading goal-scorer. However, as Neymar suffers from what seems to be a yearly ankle injury that keeps him out for most of the season at his new club, Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia, it was recently revealed that he has been struggling with ankle problems since leaving Barcelona in 2017. Having been thrust into the spotlight from age 17, Neymar’s body was already that of a seasoned veteran at just 25, and his precocious talent meant that every team he played for implored him to play through the damage and pain. It now seems increasingly likely that the best of Neymar was long gone by the time he only turned 30. Unlike the first examples of players, all of these players had excellent careers; in fact some were genuinely in “best player in the world” conversations at some point, but just imagine what could have been if they were better managed and were healthy and firing till approaching 40? A couple such examples are Cristiano Ronaldo and Luka Modric. ‘CR7’ is actually only a few months older than Rooney, having been a co-star with him at Manchester United in his early 20s. However, as Rooney started to decline in his late 20s, CR7 was not even peaking, as it can be argued he did not play his best football till at least 28, and kept this stunning level up till around 35. Ronaldo was certainly a child prodigy, and did play games as a teenager, but definitely not as early as 15 or 16 and definitely not as often. He really started to announce himself at 19, a much more steady age to do so. Of course, how the players take care of themselves plays a massive factor as well, you would be hard pressed to fins someone more dedicated to fitness than CR7 for example, while Rooney was known to not be nearly as diligent. However with sports medicine improving all the time, and top players playing well into their late 30s and even 40s at a high level, 30 is the new 25, and we must be careful to not ruin these talents and regress 20 years, making the 36 year old Balon d’or winner like Messi just was a brief reality.