Instead, Addo stayed in Ghana, spending the following four seasons at Accra Hearts of Oak and becoming a club legend in the process as they won four league titles and, in 2000, a CAF Champions League. Addo scored in that game and did so again in the 3 rd place play-off against the United States to cap off a fantastic tournament for him, one that would normally have led to a move to Europe. In 1999, Ishmael Addo scored seven times as Ghana made it to the semi-final of the competition before being edged out on penalties by eventual winners Brazil. The man who held the title as the competition’s top scorer before Sinama Pongolle is a case in point. Even so, compared to many who enjoy similar success in the FIFA Under 17 World Cup, Sinama Pongolle did pretty well. He failed to establish himself as a regular in the Spanish capital and then embarking on a somewhat nomadic career that took him to America and Asia. Road to nowhere rd full#In 2006, he moved to Spain and lowly Recreativo Huelva where he showed what he was capable of, finishing as their top-scorer in both of the two seasons he spent there before earning a move to Atlético Madrid whilst winning a full French cap in the process. Yet, whilst he did manage to carve out a decent career for himself, Sinama Pongolle never really hit the heights expected of him.Īpart from a pivotal goal against Olympiakos in the famous 3-1 win that propelled Liverpool into the latter rounds of their memorable 2005 Champions League, there were very few highlights for him on Merseyside. Certainly, no one who saw him in the U17 tournament would have held any doubts, so obvious was his talent. During the tournament played in Trinidad and Tobago, he scored nine times to finish as the competition’s top scorer whilst also being voted as the best player of the tournament, one of only two players in the competition’s history to win both titles (the other being Cesc Fabregas).īlessed with speed and technical ability, it seemed inevitable that Sinama Pongolle would become a world great. Of the two, the most obvious talent was Sinama Pongolle. Two years earlier, the two had represented France at the U17 World Cup and had shredded defences as they led their nation to its first ever success at this level. Partly this was down to the recent arrival of Harry Kewell, a player who they felt was just as good, but also because Liverpool had already snapped up two young and hugely talented players, Anthony Le Tallec and Florent Sinama Pongolle.Īlso Read: Cognitive Entrenchment and the curious case of Jose MourinhoĪt the time, their fate was more than justified as the two were considered among the most promising players in the world. Yet there wasn’t any disappointment to go with that feeling of disbelief. Not only were they taken back by the speed with which United had made their move for a player both Gérard Houllier and Phil Thompson had been closely following, but also by the amount of money they had spent on him. There was surprise among the management team at Liverpool FC when Manchester United agreed to pay £12.24 million for Cristiano Ronaldo in 2003, making him the world’s most expensive teenager.
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