Chile is pretty much the textbook definition of a dead end team, as in it has to qualify for the World Cup in South America. Doesn't mean it's necessarily a bad side, just that it's screwed by the region. For the sake of argument can we stop with the pedantics over what constitutes dead end? As far as I'm concerned, it can encompass any team that doesn't qualify more often than it does. It doesn't have to be Fiji ffs.
I think that's far too strict a definition. Chile has been to the knock-out stages of the World Cup for crying out loud.
Well, obviously, the definition of a dead-end national team is up for debate. South Africa is probably not one, as they SHOULD be good, but at the moment they aren't and have very few quality players (Mokoena and who?). But T&T is definitely one, I don't really care that they went to the World Cup. Honestly, I would define pretty much every team in CONCACAF as dead-end, with CR, Mexico, and the US as the exceptions. Any team from CONCACAF that makes the World Cup other than these three found a way to bottle lightning, i.e. they got pretty lucky. And England, for their size, is dead-end because they will never win the WC again. Poor Rooney Ryan Nelsen for New Zealand should also be added to the list.
What is your definition then? Does it have to be a team with a shot of winning the World Cup? Of making the knockout stages? Of getting there consistently?
come on guys Chile, Colombia, Cameroon, Ireland, and Korea are not dead end teams. They have all been to the World cup more than once, they have all made it to the knockout rounds, this is just stupid to suggest them as dead end teams. A dead end team is really a team that has no hope of making the world cup, thus a great player on that team cannot showcase his talents on the world cup stage. The classic example has to be George Weah for Liberia, (although Nigeria's slack play in qualifying almost saw Liberia qualify in 2002 ). Others could be Litmanen for Finland, Suazo for Honduras, Giggs for Wales.
I'm not sure about how dead-end a national team Honduras is. In 2002, Mexico scraped into the World Cup after Honduras ran into some extraordinary bad luck and hit the woodwork 5 times in a shock 1-0 loss to Trinidad & Tobago. Probably one of the three or four best teams missing from that World Cup, in fact - their record against non-CONCACAF opposition was 8 wins, 6 draws, and 3 losses, including a victory over Brazil during a run to the Copa America semifinals, a 5-1 shellacking of Slovenia's World Cup team, and a 3-3 away draw against the Japanese team that got into the second round. Of course Suazo may have arrived a bit too late to join Honduras' golden generation...
Midfielder Massimo Bonini, who played with Juventus during the 80s, is probably the greatest player ever to come out of San Marino: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massimo_Bonini
I'm Suprised many didn't Mention Carlos Ruiz, Scored 12 goals in WCQ and carried Guatemala to final round and was eliminated on the last day of qualfying , they lost the last spot to T&T, even after beating Costa Rica 3-1 (he scored an amazing Bicycle kick goal too)
Fandi Ahmad - Singapore Played a few seasons in Holland as a striker for Ajax and later Groningen in the early 1980s. His goals took Groningen to the UEFA Cup, and he scored against big teams like Inter and Atletico Madrid.
His name was Arsenio Erico, he is the all time leading scorer in Argentina, with 293 goals in 332 games, he was one of the best players of the era, but he never played for the Paraguayan national team, because of some political reasons, he was known as the Saltarin Rojo (Jumping Red devil).
India's captain Baichung Bhutia had a brief spell at Bury. Also Simon Elliott of New Zealand who currently plays for Fulham.
Surprised noone mentioned Israeli Haim Revivo yet. He played in Spain with Celta de Vigo and in Turkey with Galatasaray, and helped Fenerbahce take the title. Salvadorian great Jorge Gonzalez who played in the 1982 Cup, and was sought after by both Real Madrid and Barcelona before settling with Cadiz FC is another one. Others Hidetoshi Nakata(Japan) possibly Asia's best-ever playmaker, Marcelo Salas & Ivan Zamorano(Chile) both world-class, Didier Drogba(Ivory Coast) now one of the best in the world, Ali Daei, Ali Karimi(Iran) the highest goal scorer ever and Asian Maradona, Kevin Keegan(England) at his prime when England couldn't qualify and when they finally did('82) was way past it, Sir Stanley Matthews(England) best ever British dribbler, first footballer to be knighted and first ever European Footballer of the year, but because of England's refusal to play in the World Cup in the 30's didn't make it until in his mid-thirties in 1950 and 1954 Alfredo Di Stefano(Argentina, Spain) played for two national teams and regarded along with Pele, Maradona and Cryuff as one of the best ever, but never made it to the World Cup Hugo Sanchez(Mexico) CONCACAF's greatest and at his prime when Mexico were expelled from the Cup in '90, Billy Bremner(Scotland) Scottish great/defensive midfielder, Saeed Al-Owairan(Saudi Arabia) topped Maradona's '86 goal in '94, Kasey Keller, Brad Friedel(USA) and several other world class US keepers, Mustapha Hadji(Morocco) '98 African player of the year and probably best-ever playmaker after Jay-Jay Okocha Thomas N'Kono(Cameroon) Africa's greatest keeper ever and veteran at 3 World Cups, played at RCD Espanyol and CE Sabadell[Spain], Bolivar[Bolivia] and Mexico a bunch of other guys at African teams who may never make it to the World Cup
When I mean dead-end, I mean teams that have little chance of making the World Cup. Saudi Arabia may be a crap team and if they played in Europe, they have no chance of making the World Cup, but they play in Asia where World Cup qualification has been practically automatic. Pretty much no one on Antonio's list fits the definition.
Well if you apply that definition, this will be a very short thread. Dead end should mean, a player fails to fulfill his potential because of the team he was on at that time.
that definition could probably fit 90 % of the national teams, what is the point ? According to you every great player who hasn't won the World Cup is on a dead end national team.
No, qualified for the World Cup. For example, you could argue, incorrectly, that Gascoigne was a great player who was on a dead end national team in the sense that England failed to qualify in 94 and he was too fucked up by 98.
I don't think these teams are dead end teams though...playing for England, weather they qualified or not, will always a candidate for winning. Even if the often don't. If they didn't qualify, it's because they simply had a bad run for a few matches that either cost them points or had dificult competion within their group. Dead end teams are teams that just never made it AND if they did, it was considered a miracle. Ecuador was a dead end until it has qualified for a WC twice in a row and should no longer in that category even if they fail for the next 5 WC...simply because they have done it and shown that it can be done. In that region, Venezuela is a dead end team, never having progressed outside of CONMEBOL despite having a great playerevery now and then play for their NT.
We need to have a clear definition. I think the thread starter should list what he considers dead end teams for starters. Should be fun...