The wasted talent of Adel Taarabt. The balloon magician failed to capture the glory

Year after year, a wave of brand new promising youngsters with the potential to become future superstars has been flooding the football public. But only a select few make their way to the top of the world. Unsurprisingly, most of these hopefuls don’t make it that far and at best fall into mediocrity. One of the latter group is Moroccan midfielder Adel Taarabt.

Trained to play great football in Lens, France, Taarabt moved under the wings of the London Roosters at eighteen from Tottenham, where he was sent on loan to Queens Park Rangers due to his young age, where he was soon to become a superstar.

After two successful loan spells at QPR, The Hoops brought him in permanently and new coach Neil Warnock decided to build an entire team around him. At twenty-one, he was given the captain’s armband and the club staked their future on the Fes native.

The young Adel proudly led his teammates and performed magic on the pitches of the English Championship. With his creativity and arsenal of tackles, he was the star of the competition and made the opponents’ defences look good time and time again.

As captain, he dragged the Loftus Road club to promotion to the dream Premier League, where his quality and, above all, consistency were yet to be tested. But for a young footballer, such success and admiration must create solid pressure and the threat of egos soaring somewhere into the stratosphere.

As rosy as the season looked in the second top flight, so black has the one among the English league elite begun. Right from the start, a 6-0 loss at Fulham, Taarabt’s substitution midway through the game and even his departure from the stadium. That doesn’t sound like the ideal head set for a regular player, let alone a team captain.

During QPR’s first season in the Premier League for fifteen years, he still managed to show flashes of brilliance from the previous season, but his ego problem was already blatant and after Queens Park were relegated to the second division again, Taarabt stamped out a loan spell at Fulham.

Fulham, to put it crudely, didn’t smell of him and there were rumours not only of his bad behaviour but also of his lifestyle and associated overweight. Adel’s immodest declaration that he should play in the jersey of one of the European giants didn’t help his popularity much.

Eventually, however, he managed to have his way and headed to the famous AC Milan for six months. Although he left a good impression in Italy, he did not impress the Rossoneri directorate enough to take steps to buy him and so he returned to the old familiar Loftus Road stadium.

In QPR colours, however, it was an old song. A hint of genius soon buried by Taarabt’s own egotism and utter unprofessionalism, sadly. Even when he was given the chance again, he didn’t take it and couldn’t even come close to his best Championship form.

In the summer of 2015 came a loan spell at Benfica Lisbon, where he also transferred as a free agent a year later. For a technical footballer, the Portuguese league may be ideal, one would think. But as it turns out, arrogant and indiscriminate behaviour drinks the blood of managers in Portugal as much as in England.

However, it must be credited to the skilful midfielder that he is trying to make amends in his own way and has been making regular appearances in recent seasons. And even though he doesn’t have great numbers, he plays his part reliably on most occasions.

The performances that Adel Taarabt put on in the Championship were truly mesmerizing and eye-pleasing if you weren’t his opponent. However, a talent for kicking the meruna is not everything and much more about the right and healthy mind-set. This is what the Moroccan dribbler lacked at a crucial age. He has talent to spare.

Sources: Transfermarkt