This is of course HITC Sevens, and in this chaotic world in which I now do XI’s and other such non-sevens based videos, sometimes it’s nice to restore some order and normality with a good old fashioned seven. Sometimes, on particularly enthralling occasions, we even manage to slip a second seven in there for good measure, such as my video on the 7 best teenagers 7 years ago and where are they now.
Today is one of those days, and we have a subscriber to thank for sending in this suggestion, which I found to be quite an intriguing one. Now obviously someone like Jadon Sancho wasn’t very well-known seven years ago, given that he was 12 years old, so we have only considered players aged 25 and above.
I’ve also been quite strict, so anyone who was playing in one of Europe’s top five leagues or internationally seven years ago is out, and you’re unlikely to make it if you were playing international youth football either. For example, the likes of Mohamed Salah, Kevin De Bruyne and Harry Kane were all considered too high-profile in 2012 to feature, before you suggest them in the comments…
Here are the 7 best footballers no one had heard of 7 years ago:
7. Callum Wilson
Callum Wilson is only 27, so perhaps it’s no great surprise that he wasn’t a household name seven years ago. However, you might be surprised to learn that a 20-year-old Wilson had only made two first team appearances for his boyhood club Coventry City, and was yet to bag his first goal. What’s more, in the season that followed – the 2012-13 campaign – he scored just 1 goal in 11 games in League One.
The following season would be Wilson’s breakout season, as the pacy youngster bagged 21 goals in League One and 22 in all competitions. That was immediately followed by a £3 million transfer to Bournemouth, where he struck 20+ goals once again in the Championship, playing a major role as the Cherries won promotion to the Premier League.
His introduction to top flight football was halted by an ACL injury shortly after a hat-trick against West Ham, which is just about the most devastating injury a footballer can sustain. It’s taken some time for Wilson to find his feet again, he’s maybe not quite as quick as he once was, but he is a bit better built and more of an all-round threat. He bagged 15 goals and broke into the England team last season, and it’s fair to say most followers of the Premier League are now well-aware of the frontman.
6. Jamie Vardy
Jamie Vardy (Leicester City) shows frustration during English Premier League between Sheffield United and Leicester City at Bramall Lane Ground, Sheffield, England on 24 August 2019
Another centre-forward, I must admit that I personally did know about Jamie Vardy seven years ago, as would most followers of the English non-league game, but globally and for the purposes of this seven I think he’s a perfectly valid inclusion. Vardy made his first foray into senior men’s football with non-league Stocksbridge Park Steels, having been released by Sheffield Wednesday as a boy.
Impressive form earned him a £15,000 move to Halifax Town, followed by a £250,000 transfer to Fleetwood Town and eventually a potential £1.7 million switch to Leicester City. The fee paid by the then-Championship club made Vardy the most expensive non-league footballer of all time, and there were one or two doubts about his ability to cut it in the second tier. The Englishman took some time to adjust, bagging just 4 league goals in his debut campaign.
He kicked on the following season as the Foxes won promotion, and then it was a similar story in the Premier League, where Vardy scored just 5 goals in his first season, but an incredible 24 the season after, winning the Premier League Player of the Season award as Leicester won a remarkable top flight title. Between the 2015-16 season and now, only Harry Kane, Sergio Aguero and Romelu Lukaku have scored more Premier League goals than Vardy.
5. Riyad Mahrez
Sticking with 2015-16 title winning Leicester City stars, if you had heard of Riyad Mahrez seven years ago you either support Le Havre or you are his Mum. The 28-year-old broke through from the Ligue 2 sides reserve team and into their first team in 2012, making nine appearances in the 2011-12 campaign. That rose to 34 appearances in 2012-13 for the second tier outfit, and six months later he’d caught the eye of Leicester City.
Mahrez scored 3 goals for the Foxes in his first half-season there in the Championship and 4 the following season in the Premier League. Then came the Leicester City explosion under Claudio Ranieri, and Mahrez bagged 17 league goals and 18 in all competitions from the right flank. That made him Leicester’s Player of the Season, the PFA Players’ Player of the Year and the African Footballer of the Year.
He continued to impress at the King Power before pushing through a £60 million transfer to Manchester City. That’s an awful lot of money, and Mahrez wasn’t without his critics last season, but his statistics in terms of goal involvements per minute were actually among the best in the Premier League. Whatever your views on his role at the Etihad, few can deny Mahrez’s rise since 2012 has been nothing short of meteoric.
4. Kalidou Koulibaly
Kalidou Koulibaly during the Serie A match between ACF Fiorentina and SSC Napoli at Stadio Artemio Franchi on August 24, 2019 in Florence, Italy.
From one French-born African international to another, in at fourth we have Kalidou Koulibaly. Now widely regarded as one of the best centre-backs in the world, this time seven years ago the Senegal star had just joined Genk in Belgium after a season in which he played 22 times for Metz in the second tier of French football.
He went on to have two really solid seasons in Belgium though, before Napoli snapped him up for around £5 million. That proved to be a master-stroke, and the now 28-year-old has got better and better in each of his five seasons in Naples. Koulibaly was initially released by Metz as a 15-year-old for being too much of an introvert and below the levels the club expected of its youth players.
He’s now one of the most accomplished and assertive central defenders on the planet, coveted by numerous European giants and reportedly valued by Napoli at £107 million. Positionally sound, dominant in the air and comfortable striding out from the back with the ball at his feet, Koulibaly is a really well-rounded defender, and anyone with even a fleeting interest in football has heard of him in 2019.
3. Andy Robertson
Andy Robertson is the youngest player in this seven, aged 25, so it is worth pointing out for those who struggle with mathematics that he was only 18 seven years ago. If you look at the majority of top class 25-year-old’s though, say Samuel Umtiti or Paolo Dybala, they were being widely discussed as prospects of real note at 18, in fact both were already playing top flight football in a major league.
When Andy Robertson was 18 though, he was playing semi-professional football for Queen’s Park in the fourth tier of Scottish football. To put that in context, Queen’s Park average around 550 fans at their home games, which is above average for that level of football. Robertson impressed with the Scottish minnows having been released by Celtic, and in 2013 he joined Dundee United.
After a single season in Scotland’s top flight, Robertson joined Premier League Hull City. He looked very raw but talented, and wasn’t a regular fixture under Steve Bruce. He developed a lot as a player in the Championship following Hull’s relegation, and has been an absolute revelation since his 2017 transfer to Liverpool. Robertson is now among the best left-backs in the world, he hit double figures for assists last season and he’s a huge fan favourite at Anfield. He deserves to be in this seven as much as anyone.
2. N’Golo Kante
NGolo Kante of Chelsea during the Premier League match between Chelsea FC and Leicester City at Stamford Bridge on August 18, 2019 in London, United Kingdom.
Making it a trio of Leicester City title winners in this seven, and the three best players from that side you would have to say, all three emerged from almost total obscurity just a few years earlier. N’Golo Kante is 28, but his professional career only began in 2012 at the age of 21. That was in Ligue 2 with Boulogne, during a season where the club were relegated and Kante made just one appearance. He was a regular fixture the following year, as the club finished in the bottom half of France’s third tier, a league that comprises of professional, semi-professional and amateur teams one ought to add.
Kante had done enough to earn himself a move back into the second tier with Caen in 2013 though, where he spent a couple of seasons as a virtual ever present. Then came the call from Leicester City, whose master talent spotter Steve Walsh had recommended the purchase of the Frenchman, who arrived for a fee of £5.6 million. He spent just a single season with the Foxes, but what a season it was. The tireless midfield destructor played in all but one of Leicester’s league games, making the PFA Team of the Year as Leicester won the title.
He joined Chelsea that summer, where he won a debut Premier League title once again, this time winning the Premier League Player of the Season award and earning himself a Ballon d’Or nomination. Then came the 2018 World Cup, which Kante obviously won with France, and that put him in Ballon d’Or contention once again. All in all, it’s not been a bad few years for the chirpy little midfield gem, who is now arguably the best player at Stamford Bridge.
1. Virgil van Dijk
In top spot, I think I have to go for Virgil van Dijk. Now, one could argue Virgil van Dijk was too high-profile seven years ago to feature here, given that he was playing for Groningen in the Eredivisie. That would be a fair criticism, except for the fact that I would respond to people who’d say that by asking them, had you heard of Virgil van Dijk at this time seven years ago?
I suspect the answer would be no, except for the 0.003% of people watching this video who actually support Groningen. In van Dijk’s breakout campaign the Dutch outfit were almost relegated, although they did a little better in his last season there finishing 7th. Van Dijk left Groningen to join Celtic for a reported £2.6 million, where he had two outstanding seasons before joining Southampton for a reported £13 million.
Although he has been in some respects a bit of a late bloomer, only making his international debut aged 24 and only having reached the knockout stages of the Champions League for the first time aged 26, van Dijk has always been a good player, it just took time for him to get the right opportunities, develop as a character and really prove himself at the highest level.
He left Southampton to join Liverpool for £75 million, making him the world’s most expensive defender for 18 months. He’s brought heaps of authority, composure and calmness to Jurgen Klopp’s backline, and now considered by many to be the finest centre-back on the planet, it would be safe to say he’s pretty well-known in 2019.
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