Seven Greatest Late Bloomers in Football History

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Former Bayern Munich, Udinese, Juventus, Arsenal, Crystal Palace, Lazio stars feature, as well as the current Club America captain.

Late bloomer Aritz Aduriz just missed out on our Top Seven

In football, like any sport, people develop at different rates. Some players are simply physically incapable of playing at the highest level until they are into their twenties, whilst others may have the physical aspect but lack the mental attributes during their formative years. The players on this list, for one reason or another, played at a low level or looked unimpressive as youngsters, but burst into life later in their careers.

Top class late bloomers are rare but not unheard of in football. If a player is going to make it at the highest level, they will normally have shown some promise as a teenager. It’s difficult to put your finger on just what makes a late bloomer bloom. As alluded to, sometimes it can be a physical or mental deficiency, but at other times it is purely that they find a team that plays to their strengths and all of a sudden they flourish and go from mediocre players to quality ones. Here are our top seven late bloomers in football history:

7. Oribe Peralta

Oribe Peralta of Mexico celebrates scoring his sides second goal during the FIFA Confederations Cup Russia 2017 Group A match between Mexico and New Zealand

Oribe Peralta started playing in 2002, and for almost a decade he was seen as a fairly average striker in Mexico. He had averaged less than a goal every five games prior to the 2011-12 season, and few could have predicted that he would smash in 28 goals in 40 games the following season to become the divisions top scorer. Peralta’s impressive goal scoring form continued over the next two seasons, and, at the age of 30, he was signed by Mexico’s top club, America, for $10 million, becoming the most expensive Mexican footballer ever at that time.

6. Antonio Di Natale

Italian players seem to age better than most. Di Natale is the first Italian to feature in this seven, but certainly not the last. It is rare for a player to be better at 37 than 27, but that really is the case with Di Natale. He scored 7 goals in 33 games in the season that he was aged 27 and 14 goals in 33 games the season he was aged 37. Di Natale was a late bloomer in every sense of the term. He didn’t start playing in Serie B until the age of 23 and made his Serie A debut aged 25. Di Natale played all his best football after turning 30 in 2007. He scored 29 goals in 2009 and 28 goals in 2010, aged 32 and 33, with his best season prior to that only hitting the tally of 17.

5. Ian Wright

Former Arsenal and Crystal Palace forward Ian Wright

At the age of 22, Ian Wright had resigned himself to having failed in his attempts to become a professional footballer. After failed trials at Brighton and Southend, he was playing non-league football for Greenwich Borough FC when a scout from Crystal Palace saw him playing and invited him for trials. Wright was given a contract and thus began his professional career in the second tier aged 22. He was 26 before he got his first taste of Premier League football and 28 before he was handed his England debut. It was also at the age of 28 that Wright signed for Arsenal, yet he still became the club’s all-time record goal scorer, a record that Thierry Henry eventually took from him.

4. Miroslav Klose

Miroslav Klose overtook Brazilian Ronaldo at the 2014 World Cup as the top scorer in the history of World Cup finals. Some were disappointed, feeling Ronaldo was the more graceful and gifted of the two, and they were probably right, but that doesn’t make Klose any less deserving of the accolade. A real poacher, a rarity in the modern game, he is Germany’s all-time record goal scorer, and his country have never lost a game in which he has scored. He has been to four World Cups; scoring 16 goals, winning one and never failing to make at least the semi-finals. All this is quite staggering when one considers that Klose’s professional career began at 21 and he only began to make an impact at 23.

3. Fabio Grosso

World Cup winner Fabio Grosso

Having made his Serie A debut in 2001 at the age of 24, in 2004, aged 27, Fabio Grosso returned to Serie B. He was promoted from Serie B at the age of 28 though and returned to the top flight. It was at 28 that Grosso would really begin to announce himself within Italian football, far later than is the norm. He moved to Inter Milan at 29 and played for both Lyon and Juventus once into his 30’s, an indication of his improvement with age. Grosso went on to win 48 caps for Italy, winning the World Cup in 2006, as well as winning titles in both Italy and France.

2. Dado Prso

At the age of 21, Dado Prso was playing football part-time while working as a car mechanic. At 23, he was playing in the third tier of French football. At 26, he had won the French title with Monaco. And at 30, he scored four times in a single Champions League game and played in a Champions League final. That is some progression, especially since the Croatian had thought his career may be over before it even started having been released after medics told him he had an irregular heartbeat. He got his break with Monaco though and made it count. Prso made his international debut at the age of 29, and went on to make 32 appearances for Croatia.

1. Luca Toni

Luca Toni of Hellas Verona Greets and thanks fans after his last match after the Serie A match between Hellas Verona FC and Juventus FC

Luca Toni is the king of the late bloomers, and there are no prizes for guessing that it would be an Italian to take top spot. Toni spent the first six years of his career darting around various lower league sides in Italy, playing in the second and third tier. He got his first taste of Serie A football at the age of 23 but found himself back in Serie B with Palermo at the age of 26. It was at this age that Toni really broke through, scoring 30 goals in Serie B as Palermo were promoted, and a further 20 in their first Serie A season, aged 28.

Toni subsequently joined Fiorentina, where he had his best season, scoring 31 goals, earning himself a move to Bayern Munich. Aged 38, Toni scored an incredible 22 goals in 38 games in Serie A last season, making him the division’s top scorer ahead of the likes of Carlos Tevez and Gonzalo Higuain, a quite incredible achievement at that age.