I was thinking Ben Olsen. I was also thinking he'd signed permanently - he did well there - but now that you mention it, he was loaned with the intention of being signed, but he got a nasty injury and must have come back before that happened. A second link would be new to me. I remember Stern John being at Columbus, but don't know where else in MLS he may have played. edit: must have been three. After googling, it shows Lewis O'Brien and Kristian Fletcher (never heard of either) as being the only two. But that's wrong, as I'm 100% sure Ben Olsen did it. My memory fails me every day anymore, but I know I'm not wrong about that.
Let's get this thread back on track: Chris Wilder Dejphon Chansiri Sol Campbell ... I'm sure I've brought up that last one before. But it's worth another mention.
Stern John only played for Columbus in MLS. He then went to England where he played for 10 different teams, including Forest.
Again, international breaks. Off topic, there's a meme going around that says men can sit around and mention an old obscure footballer and be having a great time. The posts above can confirm this.
Footballers who could've been gods but wasted it. This applies even to players who looked like they 'made it', but pretty much only played at 60-70% of their level. Played within themselves and preferred to party. Ronaldinho, Romario, Johnny Dos Santos, Taraapt, that French guy we loaned from a French team back in the day and he scored one worldie (against Birmingham iirc) and vanished. Add your own
Stephane Dalmat. Horrible attitude. Taraabt has to be near the top of that list, too. Adebayor could have been sooo much more. Ndombele certainly let himself (and the rest of us) down. As mentioned, Johnny Two Saints - ugh. Gazza, ffs. He could have been the best English player ever. He wasn't.
Pogba, Sancho, Balotelli... I would say Rashford and Grealish were on their way, but maybe they can find redemption away from Manchester. For Spurs, another is David Bentley maybe. Dele Alli never fulfilled his promise, but his story wasn't just about wasted talent.
Bentley, for sure. People don't remember how good he was at Blackburn. Steve McLaren raved about when he first got into the England set up. A like-for-like replacement for Beckham, folks said. But Harry didn't fancy him (for personal reasons as much as ability, allegedly), and his descent was swift. Dele definitely squandered a massive talent, as well, however sympathetic one may be to his distractions.
Silly goose. That was Freddy Adu. ... for a few months, at least, between his descent from 'the American Pele' to 'the American Franny Jeffers'.
I specifically remember a commentator calling him the American Michael Owen. This was back in the days of MLSnet and MLS chat, just before Big soccer. Why my brain chooses to remember this information and not something useful is beyond my understanding
My friend Jennifer's son Paul's fiance Zoey's twin sister Kaya's fiance was Ben Olsen's brother Jeremy. I watched (on tv in a pub) a friendly between DC United and Chelsea with him and his mates. One of his friends, who knew nothing of football, found Hernan Crespo's name funny, and referred to him as 'the great Crespo' the whole game. "You dare defend Crespo the Great?!" ... or "The Great Crespo will be your undoing!" ... it sounds (and was) childish and stupid, but it was embarrassingly funny. When Olsen was subbed off early in the second half, they all got up and left. How's that for useless info retention?
Now that sucks: one fixture on Boxing Day? https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/oct/27/premier-league-boxing-day-2025
The PL has confirmed the only Boxing Day fixture will be Manchester United v Newcastle at 8 pm UK time. Now that is totally pants.
In all of London, there will only be two Boxing Day fixtures - Millwall host Ipswich and Wimbledon v Stevenage in the 2nd and 3rd tiers, respectively. Thirteen League (& Prem) clubs in London and only two home games.