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    Players who fell off the face of the earth

    Which sportsmen or women have gone from the very height of their sport to being an utter also ran, for reasons other than injury, inactivity or incarceration (so in Tiger Woods' case, all three)?

    The other golfer that springs to mind is Luke Donald. Golf history is littered with players who had one good week, won a major and then vanished, but Donald was ranked world number one for almost a whole year in 2011-12. Players who reach that level - especially in their 20s - tend to hang around, even if they drop down the rankings a bit. Donald's been outside the top 100 for two years now, so isn't even in this week's world matchplay event for the top 64.

    Any equivalents in other sports?

    #2
    Igor Belanov

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      #3
      Michael Stich seemed to blaze and fade very quickly in the early 90s

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        #4
        Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
        Igor Belanov
        Was he one of the Soviet players caught up with selling stolen cars?

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          #5
          No, but his wife was involved in a shoplifting ring.

          Brief summary of his decline

          The Soviet team finished runners-up at Euro 88, but Belanov’s tournament ended on a personal low note after missing a penalty against Holland in the final in Munich. It would not be his last disappointment on German soil. By 1989, the USSR had begun to allow some players to move to western Europe. Belanov was one of the first to try his luck, moving to Borussia Mönchengladbach.

          It was a disaster. Unprepared for life in the west and without the guiding hand of Lobanovski, he floundered, scoring just four goals for Borussia and battling constantly with the management. His wife’s arrest for shoplifting was the last straw and an exit, to lowly Eintracht Braunschweig, was inevitable – European Footballer of the Year to the bottom half of Germany’s second division in four years.

          Belanov eventually returned to a Ukraine liberated from Soviet rule and independent, back to play for Chernomorets and to coach Metalurg, before retiring to “Masters Football” and other avenues. Success in bookmaking, a sports dietary business and a soccer school back in Odessa have left him happy enough.
          He barely started for Braunschweig in his final season there.
          Last edited by ursus arctos; 21-03-2018, 20:57.

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            #6
            Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
            No, but his wife was involved in a shoplifting ring.
            Didn't know that. Who were the ones into stolen cars?

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              #7
              Ilhan Mansız had the 2002 World Cup and a little bit around that but then disappeared and became a reality TV star.

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                #8
                Tanju Çolak was sent to prison for dealing in stolen motors, a handful of years after he won the Golden Boot. I know he's Turkish not Soviet, but he's the highest profile one I can think of.
                Last edited by blameless; 21-03-2018, 21:03.

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                  #9
                  Vitali Scherbo was another hugely successful athlete (6 gymnastics golds at the Barcelona Olympics) whose life turned into a bad soap opera soon after his greatest triumph:

                  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitaly_Scherbo

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by blameless View Post
                    Tanju Çolak was sent to prison for dealing in stolen motors, a handful of years after he won the Golden Boot. I know he's Turkish not Soviet, but he's the highest profile one I can think of.
                    It was after he retired and for not paying duty on an imported car. He became a candidate for the fascists, MHP, and then the AKP.

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                      #11
                      Steve Blass, pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

                      He was a solid thrower for the 71 & 72 seasons; ERA under 3, combined 33-16 won-loss record. Also had two complete game victories in a World Series win for 1971.

                      1973 was an unbelievably ugly year, one of the worst for any starting pitcher ever, and he retired shortly after. He wasn't injured but was one of the first athletes to suffer from the YIPS and even got a 'disease' named after him.

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                        #12
                        David Duval is another golf example. Between 1997 and 2001 he won 13 tournaments on the PGA Tour and spent about four months ranked number one in the world. His 13th PGA Tour win was his first major, the 2001 Open. From 1998 to 2001 he appeared in 15 majors, winning one, finishing second twice, having another seven top ten finishes and two elevenths. In that spell he missed the cut at a major once.

                        Then things changed. That first major win turned out to be his last win of any type on the PGA Tour (he did win one tournament in Japan later that year). Over the next five years he appeared at 18 majors but made the cut only four times with a best finish of 16th. There was a brief return to the spotlight, when he finished second at the 2009 US Open (that single result moving him from 882 to 142 in the rankings) but it was a false dawn and he failed to keep his tour card for the following year.

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                          #13
                          I first started seriously following the Cheltenham Festival around 2006 or 07, and the top jockey then was Robert "Choc" Thornton. He was leading festival rider in 2007, with 4 winners, and was lead jockey for then leading trainer Alan King, and hadn't hit 30. But within a few years he was nowhere to be seen, and he quietly retired a year or so ago. He's still under 40, younger than a few current leading jockeys, so it's a real shame he didn't go on to become one of the greats.

                          Obviously maintaining weight and lifestyle in either order are factors here.

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                            #14
                            Jody Scheckter
                            1979 - three wins, three 2nds, 12 point scoring finishes out of his 13 completed races. Ended the season as F1 World Champion.
                            1980 - one 5th place. Next best finish of 8th in 10 completed races. Or really nine because, as defending World Champion, he failed to qualify for the season's penultimate race. Ended the season with 2 points, in 19th place in the Drivers Championship, and promptly retired.

                            The 1980 Ferrari seems to have been a complete dog, mind. So the wild decline wasn't all Scheckter's doing.

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                              #15
                              Oh, and a player you could watch falling off the face of the earth - Scott Boswell. He went from taking important wickets for Leicestershire in the C&G Trophy Semi-Final to bowling an over containing 8 wides in the Final. This article lays it all out. The man played just one more match, and bowled one more over as a professional cricketer after that. The particularly ghoulish can watch a man's world fall apart on YouTube.

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                                #16
                                Michael Spinks - first round KO by Tyson was his last fight.

                                Michael Stich did OK - Wimbledon semi in 1997. 39 career wins over Top 10 players.

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                                  #17
                                  Alexis Sanchez. Another couple of weeks like this, and he'd be lucky to get a job in a chip van near a football ground.

                                  That's not his fault though.

                                  Taylor's bit about Jody Schekter on the christmas Chart music was very funny.

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                                    #18
                                    Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                    Igor Belanov
                                    Blimey, there's a Proustian rush. I had more spares of him in my World Cup '90 sticker album swaps than any other player – at least 5, I swear.

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                                      #19
                                      Originally posted by Janik View Post
                                      Oh, and a player you could watch falling off the face of the earth - Scott Boswell. He went from taking important wickets for Leicestershire in the C&G Trophy Semi-Final to bowling an over containing 8 wides in the Final. This article lays it all out. The man played just one more match, and bowled one more over as a professional cricketer after that. The particularly ghoulish can watch a man's world fall apart on YouTube.
                                      I can't watch the video, the article is hard enough. Poor bloke

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                                        #20
                                        Andy Schleck
                                        Last edited by Kevin S; 22-03-2018, 15:01. Reason: for some reason wrote it twice

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                                          #21
                                          Edit - so I might need to put some flesh on the bones. For 2009, 2010 and 2011 Schleck was one of the top GC riders in the peloton, disputing the Tour against the likes of Contador, Cadel Evans, Samuel Sanchez and Wiggins, getting on the podium and then being awarded the 2010 win eventually after Contador was disqualified for clenbuterol.

                                          A long and glorious career was expected - remember, most people hadn't heard of Chris Froome before 2012, his big Grand Tour breakthrough came in the Vuelta at the end of 2011.

                                          But Schleck disappeared in 2012 - the year Wiggins and Froome dominated the Tour. He was utterly failing to finish or compete in the key week-long tours.

                                          Paris-Nice? DNF. Catalunya? DNF. Romandie or Trentino? Did not enter. Apparently he had some virus. Then it gets to the final week-long races before the Tour (Dauphiné in his case) and his new team boss starts to criticise his poor performances, Schleck was terrible.
                                          Losing time early in the race:
                                          http://www.velonews.com/2012/06/news...s-alarm_222425

                                          And later in the race too:
                                          http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/12...n-minutes.aspx

                                          The crash gave him an injury which kept him out of the Tour:
                                          https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/18428361

                                          Did he come back strong in 2013? Did he bollocks. Tirreno-Adriatico? DNF. Vuelta al Pais Vasco? DNF. He did manage to finish the Tour of California - not a top level race - and the Tour de Suisse - which is (it's the Dauphiné alternative) but he came 40th. Then at the 2013 TdF, well, it was never about him at all really. We were looking at Froome, Quintana and Contador. Schleck was nearly 42 minutes back.

                                          Come 2014, he was done for. Able to finish races, but nowhere near the pace of other GC riders. He called it a day at the end of the season. And Andy Schleck (10/06/85) is actually younger than Chris Froome (20/05/85).
                                          Last edited by Kevin S; 22-03-2018, 15:00.

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                                            #22
                                            A glorious tribute to Schleck from the 2014-2016 cycling thread. Hence the *cough, splutter* in my pre-editing post.

                                            Originally posted by Toro Toro View Post
                                            So, farewell then, Andy Schleck.
                                            You were pretty good, I suppose, though your greatest victory
                                            Will always have an asterisk attached to it.
                                            No less than had you not won, I suppose.
                                            We'll always have the memories
                                            Like your Dad and coach being busted at the border with a bootload of drugs
                                            Or your brother who he also coached being busted for drugs
                                            Or your baffling collapse in form following the introduction of biological passports.
                                            Still, it's not like you ate a dodgy steak.
                                            Anyway, good luck in your new life.
                                            Perhaps you can use all the free time to learn new skills

                                            Like shifting to the small ring

                                            Or descending.

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                                              #23
                                              I’d need to have a think for some names, but I’m sure F1 must have loads to contribute beyond Scheckter - there’s been a whole host of pay drivers who’ve disappeared without trace once their money ran out.

                                              In WRC the most recent shooting star to achieve rapid burn out was Evgeny Novikov - two top 8 finishes in the championship whilst driving for Ford in 2012/13, dropped after one destroyed Fiesta too many and I’m not sure he’s done more than an occasional rally show since - and he’s still only 27.

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                                                #24
                                                After winning the world driver's championship, Damon Hill won 1 of his final 48 Grands Prix.

                                                It was a cracker, mind you.

                                                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o02s_g5AUUE
                                                Last edited by Kevin S; 22-03-2018, 15:45.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Funnily enough I thought of Schleck as soon as I read the OP. There used to be loads of cyclists who were good for a while and then, erm, weren't. Joseba Beloki, Evgeni Berzin, Romans Vainsteins, Laurent Brochard, Iban Mayo, Armand de las Cuevas.

                                                  Damon Hill's replacement at Williams was Heinz-Harald Frentzen and he had a swift descent. Got the Williams drive in 1997 when they were still the best team on the grid. There were big expectations of him and Alan Henry tipped him to be world champion in the Grauniad. Won a race early on at Imola I think. He didn't gel with the team though and as their performance declined he was given the sack after a couple of seasons. Rocked up at Jordan and nearly won the world title in 1999 - he was only a handful of points behind Hakkinen / Irvine going into the third last round at the Nurburgring. Midway through the race he was leading, the other contenders were out of contention then his car failed (it was that absolutely bonkers race that Johnny Herbert won in the Stewart). Fell out with the team again, got sacked midway through the 2001 season, had a year or so bouncing around at the back and then pretty much disappeared entirely.

                                                  Pastor Maldonado didn't hit the same heights but he took a completely inexplicable victory at the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix. He kept repeatedly crashing and being involved in incidents, lost his drive at the end of 2015 (to Jolyon Palmer!) and doesn't appear to be actively involved in any motorsport series at the current time.

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