10 players with bright starts that faded early

#1 Alexandre Pato

Tianjin Quanjian v Guangzhou Evergrande - AFC Champions League Round Of 16 1st Leg

Surely everyone remembers when Alexandre Pato broke out onto the football scene with AC Milan in the late noughties. He was only a teenager at the time and yet he was scoring goals for fun at one of the biggest clubs in the world. He attracted attention from virtually every top club across Europe but AC Milan would not sell, whatever the price, and at the time, you could see why.

But then, all of a sudden, things began to fall apart. His goals dried up and his form dwindled. Pato was swiftly benched and forced to watch as other strikers did the job he was supposed to do without any problems. As a result, his confidence simply dissolved and things would never be the same from then on.

He was sold to Corinthians in 2013 for £13m, and from there, his career has been in a steep decline - save for a brief six-month loan spell at Chelsea where he flopped. He was recently playing for TJ Tianhai in China,, but has now returned to Brazil to play for Sao Paulo.