The 10 most overhyped footballers of all time

#5 – David Bentley

David Bentley was once labelled as the "new Beckham"

Another victim of the “new” tag, David Bentley had the misfortune to be labelled the “new David Beckham” thanks to his casual good looks, his skill from the right-hand side of midfield and his ability to shoot from long range – an ability that allowed him to score some truly spectacular goals during three seasons at Blackburn Rovers. But after a successful 2007/8 season at Ewood Park, a move to Tottenham proved to be his undoing.

Spurs paid over £15m for his services and it seemed to be a good move at first, especially when Bentley scored a great goal in his new club’s legendary 4-4 draw with Arsenal in October 2008. But Bentley’s form quickly faded as 2008/09 ended, and he only made a handful more appearances for Spurs before going onto a string of loan moves, first to Birmingham City, then to West Ham, Russian club FC Rostov, and finally back to Blackburn.

None of the moves could help him recover his mojo and he ended up retiring prematurely at the age of 29, stating that he’d simply fallen out of love with football. It’s hard to compute exactly what went wrong with Bentley – perhaps he believed his own hype a little too much? It’s safe to say, however, that he was certainly no David Beckham.