'Well, Djimi Traore has a Champions League medal has proven to be a modern culture retort to anybody who ever downplays a potential ambition as being too far out of their reach. To this day, Traore himself probably still cant believe that he actually ended up on a Champions League-winning side. If one were to see a video clip of the disgraceful drag-back own goal against Burnley in the 04/05 FA Cup, they would never have envisioned that this was a man who would be kissing the Holy Grail of his sport within a matter of months. In the 2005 Champions League Final against AC Milan, Traore was predictably torn apart, with the Italian giants capitalising on errors in the Merseyside backline to sink three past a hapless goalkeeper. However, it was in the second half, where the greatest sporting intervention of the Malian internationals career occurred, clearing off the line to deny Ukranian goal-poacher Andriy Shevchenko a certain goal. With the side somehow rescuing themselves from the brink of devastation, Liverpool reigned supreme on penalties, leaving many to contemplate the incredulous prospect had they suddenly entered an alternate reality where it was Djimi Traore, and not Cafu, who was a European champion? Almost hell-bent on a mission to prove that his crowning achievement in Istanbul was a fluke, Traore embarked on blotting his CV, with a series of ill-fated career decisions, winding up at the likes of Charlton Athletic and Portsmouth. Its been nine years, and we still cant quite believe that the man so fundamentally inept in every aspect, reached the very pinnacle of his profession. No matter how low you feel, how severely you belittle your ambitions, just remember a man who was once deemed surplus to requirements at Charlton Athletic thwarted the likes of Kaka and Shevchenko on his way to picking up a Champions League medal. Not even his mother could believe it. Dont blame it on the Hamann, dont blame it on the Biscan, dont blame it on Steve Finnan, blame it on Traore. He just cant, he just cant, he just cant control his feet. Which other terrible Champions League winners do you think deserve to be on this list? Share your thoughts below in the comments thread.
Recent Journalism & New Media graduate. Insatiable thirst for all things football, and hopes to break into the field of sports journalism in the near future.
Have made a significantly insignificant playing career out of receiving several slaps around the head for not passing the ball.
