8 World Class Footballers (Who Were Useless By 30)

Everton will hand Wayne Rooney a career lifeline this summer, thirteen years after Manchester United paid them a then-record fee for a teenager to bring him to Old Trafford in 2004. The interim has seen Rooney reach the top of the European game, and them tumble back down again.

Despite becoming the all-time leading goal-scorer for both club and country since reaching his 30th birthday, Rooney has for a long time been struggling to recapture the magic of his explosive teenage days. The forward's record in front of goal was always streaky but fans began to lose patience his touch and energy began to allude him as well, compounded by the whopping pay-rise he demanded back in 2010.

Where many others on this list were struck down by serious injury, Rooney's loss of form seems instead to be linked to gradual physical decline which, for a player who began his Premier League career aged 16, was perhaps inevitable from the very outset.