Denilson: The World’s Most Disappointing Player?

By: Daryl | June 24th, 2009

Back in 1998, Denílson de Oliveira Araújo became the most expensive player in the entire world when Real Betis paid São Paulo $32m for his services. But it didn’t really work out the way it was supposed to.

After spending seven years failing to live up to that pricetag, Denílson decided to wander the earth. He spent single seasons (or sometimes less) at… Bordeaux, Al-Nasr in Saudi Arabia, FC Dallas (as arguably the least successful Designated Player in MLS history), back to Brazil with Palmeiras, an unsuccessful trial with Bolton Wanderers and most recently at Vietnamese team Xi Măng Hải Phòng.

Surely the one time world’s priciest player (still only 31) could make it in Vietnam? Well, he sort of could. He actually averaged a goal every 45 minutes for Xi Măng Hải Phòng, which is a seriously impressive strike rate.

But that may be because Denílson only ever played one half of football for his Vietnamese team, before quitting the team through injury.

In Denílson’s defence, it was a nice free kick:

[vid via DT]

So how did a player who looked destined for greatness end up playing half a game in Vietnam? I can’t claim to know what went wrong with Denílson, but I do know how to copy and paste from someone who does. BBC South American football expert Tim Vickery was asked about Denílson last year:

Q: What happened to the Brazilian Denilson? I’m sure he was at Sao Paolo in the late 90’s and then went on to Real Betis for a huge amount. Was it a case of him being over- hyped, or moving on too early to fulfil his potential? Also where’s he at now?
Chris O’Neill

He certainly was hyped too early, and I’m as guilty as anyone on this charge.

The Betis move – he was the most expensive player in the world at the time – was a disaster. He was talented, had good acceleration, but he was all left foot – and how many wingers can you think of who can carry a side?

He’d believed all the hype about himself, thought that he was well on the way to being crowned the world’s best player, and when he saw that it wasn’t going to happen he lost momentum.

He’s been all over recently – a spell in Saudi Arabia, a (bad) spell in the US with Dallas. In 2008 he was playing in Brazil for Palmeiras – usually as an impact substitute. But the impact wasn’t enough – they are letting him go.

If Vickery is to be believed (and he usually is) then it was that infamous pricetag that did for Denílson. Whether Betis were trying to make a few headlines or really believed they were signing a superstar, the size of the fee was enough to ruin the player. Betis are at fault for overpaying, Denílson’s at fault for believing his own hype. But there’s a lesson here for all of us: transfer fees are just business transactions, and we’d be wise not to take the numbers too seriously.