El Shaarawy had the potential to be one of the best, but never fulfilled it

Stephan El Shaarawy was one of the brightest young talents. He was predicted to have a great future, but he never reached the top.

El Shaarawy made his debut in the Italian league for FC Genoa. In the 2009/10 season, he started his first two games as a 17-year-old. The following season he went on loan to Padova in Serie B, where he scored seven times in 11 games.

He was thus noticed by AC Milan, who bought the Italian winger from Genoa in the summer of 2011. The first season was still adaptive, El Shaarawy scored four times. In the second one, however, he was already in full swing. He scored 16 goals in 37 league games, one in the Italian Cup and two in the Champions League.

Immediately, people started talking about him as a great talent who could be one of the best footballers in the world in the future. But that never came true.

El Shaarawy was subsequently plagued by injuries, and after that great season, he played only 6 games in the next season and did not score a goal or an assist. In the 2014/15 season his health didn’t hold up much either, he played 18 league games and scored 3 goals.

So he went on loan to Monaco for the next season, but even there God did not favour him football-wise. In the autumn he played 15 games and didn’t enter the statistics even once. So he went back to Italy for the spring season, this time he started a guest stint at AS Roma. There he recovered slightly, played 16 league games in the first half of the year, scored 8 goals and added 2 assists. He also scored twice in the Italian Cup.

AS bought him permanently from AC Milan, so for the next three seasons El Shaarawy played in the Italian capital. In his first season he had a record of 8+4, in the next one 7+4 and in the 2018/19 season he scored 11 goals and 3 assists.

So he took advantage of this successful season to make a big transfer. However, not to a more famous club in Europe, but to Chinese Shanghai Shenhua. There he played two seasons, appeared in 16 matches and had a record of 1+2.

El Shaarawy’s career can certainly not be considered completely ruined. However, the speedy winger was definitely better than that, after his breakthrough season he was one of the biggest talents in the world and was predicted to have a huge future. Now he is 29 years old, with a two-year commitment in China, he could have been somewhere else.

Source:: Livesport