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What were you doing at 16? What were you doing at 18? Do you think you could have coped with being in an international spotlight while you were doing that?
That's the way of the sporting world. There's nowhere for the modern prodigy to hide. God forbid you make a mistake, be that on or off the pitch. It must be exhausting and, more importantly, devastating on a mental level.
For whatever reason, young athletes don't always live up to the expectations we set upon them. Maybe they were stunted in some way, maybe they were put on a pedestal, maybe injuries harmed their development beyond repair. The tales are always fascinating and proof that growth isn't always linear.
NXGN has been running for ten years now, and while there have been plenty of success stories from players on those lists, some have fallen by the wayside. Career resurgences aren't out of the question, but they haven't lived up to the hype just yet.
Here, GOAL ranks the 10 biggest underachievers to mark a decade of NXGN.