7 Footballers Who Were Rejected as Youngsters But Still Went on to Become Stars

Being rejected as a youngster doesn't always mean that a footballer won't still go on to become a top player anyway, as these seven superstars have proven...

Harry Kane

Almost as soon as Harry Kane first started making headlines at Tottenham, a few old pictures of him wearing Arsenal shirts started to surface and be shared online. He was a Gunners fan as a child and earned a place at the club's academy at the age of eight.

However, Kane was released after barely a season and ultimately joined Spurs instead when he turned 11. Arsene Wenger admitted last year that he didn't even know about the youngster being at Arsenal until he read about it in a newspaper and was a little miffed that he was let go.

Kane eventually reached the first-team at White Hart Lane after a number of loans at lower league clubs and in 2015/16 became the first Englishman to win the Premier League Golden Boot for 16 years.

Diego Costa

Now plundering goals for Chelsea, Diego Costa had a long journey to make it to the top after starting his early working life helping out at a shop owned by his uncle in Sao Paulo. The teenage Costa had moved away from his roots in poor Lagarto, where he believed it would be near impossible for him to make it as a footballer.

He had unsuccessful trials at the city's big three clubs - Palmeiras, Santos and Corinthians - before starting out at little known Barcelona Esportiva Capela on the recommendation of his uncle.

From there, Costa managed to land a move to Braga in Portugal and worked his way up the ladder in neighbouring Spain before breaking out as a star as Atletico Madrid won La Liga against the odds in 2013/14.

Antoine Griezmann

Antoine Griezmann has never played professionally in his native France because no French club was prepared to take a chance on a youngster that was deemed too small and lightweight to make the grade at the highest level.

He was notably passed on by Lyon and was eventually spotted by Real Sociedad while trialling with Montpellier. Despite the reluctance of his parents, the 14-year-old Griezmann made the move to Spain in 2005 and rose through the ranks at the San Sebastian club.

After 20 goals in 50 appearances in 2013/14, Atletico Madrid prised him away for €30m and he is now considered to be among the very best forwards in world football.

Javier Zanetti

Javier Zanetti played close to 900 games for Inter Milan during a 19-year spell with the club. Since hanging up his boots in 2014 with numerous trophies to his name, he's seen his old number four jersey retired in his honour and now serves as the Nerazzurri's vice-president.

They are a collection of incredible achievements considering the versatile defender was rejected by Buenos Aires giant Independiente back home in his native Argentina. Zanetti wasn't deemed physically strong enough and had to settle for a place at regional club Talleres.

After joining top flight Banfield in 1993, Inter came calling in 1995 and the rest is history.

Michel Platini

He may be disgraced as a football administrator, but Michel Platini remains one of the finest players in football history. Long before Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the Frenchman was second only to Johan Cruyff in winning a third Ballon d'Or award.

But his start in professional football wasn't an easy one. He earned a trial with Metz at the age of 16 only to see it ruined by injury. The teenage Platini eventually managed to land a second one, but he then lost the chance of a contract after fainting during medical tests.

A third trial never followed and Platini later joined Nancy instead where his father was a director and former player. He eventually excelled at Nancy and Saint-Etienne, peaking at Juventus in the mid-1980s.

Ruud Gullit

Ruud Gullit became a Ballon d'Or winner at his peak in 1987, captained the only Dutch team to win international silverware in 1988, and was then a part of the great AC Milan side that still remains the last team to capture back-to-back European Cups in 1989 and 1990.

Several years earlier in 1982, Ipswich Town, UEFA Cup winners in 1981, and Arsenal saw fit to pass on a 19-year-old Gullit. In particular, Gunners boss Terry Neill is said to have decided the Dutch forward was "lazy and undisciplined" and therefore not worth the risk at the £200,000 asking price.

Instead, the player left first club Haarlem for Feyenoord, later joining PSV Eindhoven in 1985 and then Milan two years after that, spending a total of six seasons with the Rossoneri.

Roy Keane

One of the most revered players in Premier League and Manchester United history, Roy Keane's career started at Cobh Ramblers in Ireland. He'd been told as a 14-year-old he wouldn't make it in football because of his size, failing to make an all-Ireland schoolboy team and get in the 'shop window' for precisely that reason.

Unemployed at 16 and faced with life flitting between menial jobs, Keane wrote to a number of English clubs asking for a trial. The likes of Derby County, Sheffield Wednesday, Chelsea, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest, who he would eventually sign for, all turned him down. Brighton had previously offered the teenager a trial only to pull out at the last minute.

Keane's form for semi-professional Cobh did later attract attention and he left for Nottingham in 1990, going on to become a British record buy for Manchester United within three years.