The Most Talented Footballer That Never Made It

The Most Talented Footballer That Never Made It
Ravel Morrison should have been the best footballer in the world but his career spiralled out of control due to constant arrests and personal battles.

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Ravel Morrison should have been the best footballer in the world but his career spiralled out of control due to constant arrests and personal battles. Born into a council estate in Wythenshawe, Manchester, Ravel started playing football aged 5 at Fletcher Moss Rangers, the same youth side Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard

And Danny Welbeck played for. From his first day at the boys’ side, his coaches knew he was going to be special; his cockiness, confidence and skill allowed him to play with kids a year older than him. For years, Premier League sides Man United, Man City and Everton battled for the signature

Of football’s next star, but it was City who won that race bringing the young playmaker into their Under 9s academy. He didn’t make a great first impression as he would fight with his teammates if they weren’t performing well and would kick people if he were tackled off the ball.

The only way he could be disciplined would be to threaten to not play him. At this time, Ravel moved across Manchester, and knocked about with new street kids, building his toughness mentally and physically. He grew up in a poor family without a father, and his mum could never afford a car to take

Him to training, so the Manchester City scouts had to pick him up every day. Unfortunately, Ravel became too much of a problem for the club and they released him, resulting in him returning to Fletcher Moss Rangers where he represented them in a football tournament watched by popular Manchester United scout Phil Brogan.

Brogan watched thousands of players a year however the one player and moment he remembers most, was watching Ravel Morrison for the first time. Ravel took Brogan’s breath away, his skills and playstyle matched that of a young Brazilian Ronaldinho, not a kid from Manny.

At the end of the day, Brogan asked Ravel’s mother if he would trial at Man United, where he spent 6 weeks before signing his first Red Devil’s contract at The Cliff aged 9 years old and would spend years scoring goals for fun.

He earned the reputation of the hardest worker at Man U as in training he would beat five or six players and chip the keeper, then go back to the halfway line and do it again. Unfortunately, his troublemaker persona followed him to Man United as in one session, fellow

Academy teammate Paul Pogba made a great challenge on Ravel winning the ball, to which he had an outburst and kicked the French midfielder. Pogba retaliated and the two had a strange and misunderstandable argument in their own native languages, their youth team manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær even had to intervene in the incident!

Competing in the same age group as Jesse Lingard and Paul Pogba sounds tough, however Sir Alex Ferguson to this day quotes Ravel as the best kid he had ever seen and called him up to train with the first team at just 15 years old, bearing in mind, this was a team made

Up of legends like Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs all competing for and winning the Premier League and Champions League! Ravel felt very comfortable and trained extremely well with the first team, even nutmegging Nemanja Vidic 3 times in 1 session and annoying Darren Fletcher as he made everyone look silly

Because of his amazing skill moves. He was a loud and popular character in the dressing room who made jokes and entertained the iconic players around him. I suppose at the time, they were very lucky to have him as he could’ve played for any club in the world at that point!

The United players would even discuss how he could fit into a Pep Guardiola Barcelona team, but Ravel, as an Arsenal fan, would flex to the players that he would one day be playing for The Gunners! Fergie’s best-kept secret started to get more recognised as Ravel was called up to

The England Under 16 National Team, whose games would, of course, be watched by people outside of Manchester and in a time when discovering hidden gems and wonderkids was slightly harder, word quickly spread about how good this talent really is.

One person who watched the attacking midfielder play for England said the lad had the ‘skill of Ronaldo, the speed of Thierry Henry and the finishing of Ruud van Nistelrooy.’ United captain Rio Ferdinand was absolutely great with Ravel and always put a shoulder

Around him to keep his confidence going, as, sadly problems at home started to spill on the pitch, distracting his development. Sadly, the senior coaches were unable to dedicate 1 to 1 time to Ravel as they had to focus on the first team’s high goals and expectations, although the academy coaches were great to

Him and would protect him, covering him when he was late. Some would even go out of their way to take him to places and help him with his education. Also, off the pitch, Ravel was a member of a Manchester gang who would portray regular

Anti-social behaviour and would speed around the city on bikes wearing hoodies and balaclavas. He even turned up to Man United training on his bike multiple times, much to the amusement of the first team. Despite training with the first team, Ravel still played matches for the Under 16s, he

Recalls a story when before going off to an academy match, Ravel asked Ferdinand to charge his phone in the training ground dressing room. Ferdinand took a charger out of Rooney’s Blackberry and put it into Ravel’s. Rooney came back from training furious his phone was taken off charge, and after no one

In the room owned up to it, he lost his temper and smashed Ravel’s phone down on the floor. There was no bad blood and Ravel continued impressing on the training ground, however, he had many personal issues, which I will come to later on in the video, and those problems

Became more and more visible. He lost confidence, self-belief and was too afraid to openly talk about his emotions however the rest of the boys, particularly Gary Neville could see something was upsetting him, and Neville even offered to share his home with him to help him get away and continue his

Football development and personal development. Ravel’s teeth were rotting and he had terrible hygiene as he couldn’t take basic care of himself. The club ordered him to stay in the company of adults and he was forced to live with his family.

Timekeeping also became a huge issue for him, and would continue to do so throughout his career, it was evident he took his role at Manchester United for granted as he would prioritise other activities before training, causing him to be late on many occasions.

That led to Rio Ferdinand having a stern discussion and advising Ravel to arrive 15 minutes before the session starts and stay later as well, but Ravel didn’t listen. On the flip side, Man United signed him on as a first-year scholar and he became professional on his 17th birthday.

Furthermore, he made his senior debut during a 3-2 League Cup win over Wolves in October 2010. The day after, he went into manager Alex Ferguson’s office handing him a letter of thanks, it’s somewhat clear Ravel does have a good heart, but his reputation and career would be potentially

Washed down the drain as Ravel was arrested in early 2011. He was summoned to Trafford Youth Court where he admitted to two charges of intimidating a witness of a robbery. Ravel was part of a gang of up to 20 youths who had gathered outside a victim’s house,

And the gang confronted the teenager in the street. Ravel also made a threatening phone call to the victim in an attempt to stop them from giving evidence at the trial of his muggers. The victim was so traumatised his family had put the house up for sale and wanted to leave Manchester.

The judge, who called Ravel’s behaviour “appalling,” could have sent him to prison. Instead, he was given a 12-month referral order and sternly warned about his future behaviour. He showed no remorse or emotion during the trial, maybe as he was also ordered to pay

£1,445 in ‘costs and compensation’, during that trial it came to light that he had received a diagnosis of ADHD. Man United found out about the diagnosis and sought an exemption to permit him to use the prescribed medication for said ADHD. Unfortunately, their request was rejected.

To sidestep the risk of facing a ban for breaching doping regulations and following Manchester United’s directives, he refrained from taking his prescribed ADHD medication. With that court case looming over him, Ravel continued tearing up on the field for The Red Devil’s academy, scoring against Liverpool in the FA Youth Cup quarter-final and winning

Over every United fan’s heart by kissing the badge in front of Anfield’s Kop End, he then scored against Chelsea in the semis then helped the team lift the trophy after defeating Harry Maguire’s Sheffield United 4-0 in the final.

This young United group emulated the Busby Babes and the iconic Class of 1992 and Ravel was the superstar of it. The club and media had a firm belief that he was the best 17-year-old in the world, because he was! However, Ravel’s off-field troubles came to light once again when he appeared in Salford

Magistrates’ court to face charges of assaulting his girlfriend and causing criminal damage. Although the assault charge was dropped due to the woman’s refusal to make a statement against him, Ravel admitted to the charge of criminal damage for destroying her mobile

Phone by throwing it out of a window during an argument at her parents’ house, he was also asked to undergo domestic violence counselling as it also came to light that Ravel received a police caution for assaulting his own mother and looked to secure a restraining order against

Her after their relationship was deteriorated by the fact he was always hanging out with the wrong crowd and wouldn’t listen to her advice of staying away from people who won’t help you – a problem which will come back to haunt him in later life…

Despite his legal problems, Ravel worked hard to have further League Cup appearances for the senior side. Because of his dreadful reputation, a believable rumour surfaced that Ravel was responsible for stealing Ferdinand’s watch that went missing in United training.

Ferdinand was quick to shut down the rumours and ensure his apprentice to not worry about it. There was increasing despair that Ravel, who had long been Man United’s most cherished project, was on the verge of wasting the talent the club had spent a decade nurturing especially

As Ravel grew frustrated at his lack of opportunities and would express it in the wrong ways by skipping training, turning up late for games and being disrespectful to the coaches who had shown great loyalty to him. Some nights, Ravel and his gang would sit in McDonald’s till 4 am even though he had

A training session coming up at 9 am. He even once got kicked out of the training ground dressing room as he’d steal the player’s boots and take them to Goals to show his mates. Sometimes he’d even sell them down there for 500 pounds and one time he took 30 in 1 go!

He’d do this so he could go home to his family and buy them a treat takeaway meal. Man United were also very unimpressed by the fact he sent derogatory tweets during and after the club’s player-of-the-year awards dinner. Despite the wonderkid’s contract set to expire in June 2012, Man United in January

2012, confirmed their rejection of an offer from Newcastle United but an offer from Championship side West Ham United was accepted, with Ravel moving out of his grandparent’s house to join the London club on a three-and-a-half-year contract with an initial £650,000 fee.

The agreement included a stipulation that Man United would receive £25,000 for each match Morrison participated in for West Ham. Alex Ferguson, endorsing Ravel’s talent, facilitated the move by informing West Ham manager Sam Allardyce that Morrison was a ‘brilliant footballer with top-class ability’ who needed a fresh start away from Manchester.

Ferguson was right, and Ravel was enjoying life again. The West Ham players were very welcoming and the atmosphere around the club was great, the fans were also excited and were a delight to Ravel. Regrettably, London became a new distraction for Ravel and would frequently go out drinking and clubbing.

Additionally, controversy quickly gave Ravel a bad name at West Ham as he posted a homophobic threat on Twitter, responding to criticism by directing a derogatory slur towards another user. Consequently, he faced charges under FA rule E3, which governs the use of abusive and/or insulting words including reference to a person’s sexual orientation.

He accepted his guilt and was fined £7,000 as a consequence. West Ham already had a well-performing squad pushing for Championship promotion meaning it was hard for him to break into the starting 11 and so it was decided best for his development

That he joins Birmingham City on loan, where he was guaranteed game time. He arrived at his new training ground with a big ego and told all the players he had 3 flashy expensive cars before later admitting he couldn’t actually drive!

On the pitch for Birmingham, he started off incredibly well, even being labelled by manager Lee Clark as ‘the best footballer since Paul Gascoigne’ before being dropped from the team because of attitude problems during training. In one particular session, the assistant manager informed the squad that Ravel wasn’t allowed

To leave the training pitch because the police were here for him due to an unknown incident which happened at home, Ravel spotted a hole in the fence, climbing through it before running off! Furthermore, players of that Blues era will remember the time they arrived at St Andrew’s

To find their boots covered in mud and gave the kitman a hard time for being lazy and not doing his job properly. Upon checking CCTV cameras, Ravel had gone in and stolen the players’ boots to give to his friends for them to play 5-a-side in!

He made his league comeback in October and played a total of 30 games for the Blues, scoring just 3 goals. He then returned to The Irons and was assigned the number 15 shirt and chose to have just his first name, ‘Ravel’ on the back, because he didn’t want to be associated with his

Unknown father’s last name and also to mark ‘the start of a new era’. Ravel kicked off his ‘new era’ in stunning fashion, his morale was high and he had a new goal of retiring at West Ham as a club legend! He was well and truly fulfilling the potential that he had.

It was all there: the fluid movement; the elegant manner and ease with which he moved the ball; that immaculate first touch; his pace; that dominant belief that this was now his moment. It all came together in one memorable game; he became a fans hero after scoring the ‘Goal

Of the Season’ to seal their derby win over Tottenham. His notable performances led to him being called up for the England Under 21s where he started his trip away with a 4-0 away win at San Marino before playing a memorable part against Lithuania.

In this game, Ravel Morrison and Saido Berahino both had 2 goals to their name and they discussed between them who would be the first to score a hat trick. Ravel, determined, hogged the ball and started doing tricks on the pitch.

Teammate Wilfried Zaha called him out on the pitch and then Ravel pushed him out of the blue. Zaha pushed him back and that was that. After the game, the team were celebrating their 5-0 win however Ravel was sitting sulking in the corner, Zaha also walked in and said nothing.

Despite the scuffle on the pitch, Ravel’s performance was discussed by sports media around the country and there was serious talk of him graduating to the senior squad and going to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. I mean seriously, look at some of the names on this squad, and yet still, Ravel was the

Superstar! Ravel’s talent was top class but his attitude was utterly unprofessional, the story of his life… It got to a boiling point in December 2013 when after a game away at his old club Man United, Ravel decided to stay up there with his family and not travel back down with the

Team, who were still hard at work trying to stay in the league during the middle of a busy December schedule. It was also noted by Allardyce, that Ravel’s friends would come down from Manchester and lead him astray distracting him from his football career.

It was hard for him to claim a wage, as he’d be fined every time he didn’t turn up for training. There was still hope, as ‘Big Sam’ presented Ravel with a new two-year contract but it demanded that he leave his current agent for the one that represented Allardyce.

Ravel turned the contract down and as a result, he found himself excluded from the starting line-up and relegated to the reserves. Fulham submitted a £4 million bid for Ravel Morrison, but West Ham promptly rejected it. The Hammers then lodged a complaint with the FA, accusing Fulham of tapping up, citing

The fact that Ravel’s former youth coach, was in charge at Fulham. Despite these complications, Ravel’s career found itself back in limbo, and Allardyce grew even more tired of him, sending him back to the Championship on loan to Harry Redknapp’s

Queens Park Rangers where he contributed 6 goals in 17 games to help QPR reach promotion to the Premier League. Ravel was loving his football once again and a key reason for that was because Redknapp installed confidence and would encourage him rather than berate him after mistakes. Everything was great, er, until it wasn’t.

He returned to his parent club West Ham who had stayed in the Premier League but was remanded in police custody after being charged with 2 counts of common assault against his former girlfriend and her mother, he was released on bail after spending 3 days locked up but

Then he appeared at Manchester Crown Court and pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault, one of assault causing actual bodily harm, and one count of harassment. A provisional trial date was set for 26 January 2015.

Back at West Ham, he went on to play 1 league game before being sent out to Championship side Cardiff City on a short-term loan just before the end of that summer window. While at The Bluebirds, the Crown Prosecution Service withdrew the harassment charge against

Him, and he was found not guilty but faced serious allegations of threatening to throw acid in the face of his ex-girlfriend and do something else which I’m not allowed to say. Also, he threatened to ‘blow up’ the house of an ex-girlfriend.

On the pitch, Ravel failed to impress in Wales, with their manager saying ‘he has no future at the club’ and it was the same story at West Ham. But before we get into that, please like the video and subscribe to the channel as it helps me a lot!

West Ham terminated Ravel’s contract in February 2015 after a falling out with ‘Big Sam’ and because of the fact he had not played in 6 months and made only 24 appearances in 3 years at the London club, scoring just 5 goals.

Because of his terrible reputation, no club wanted Ravel, so he looked abroad for a new chance and he joined Italian Serie A side Lazio. The club’s director praised Ravel’s footballing abilities, stating that he ‘has undoubted quality and is world-class, as well as being a little mad’.

FourFourTwo magazine also predicted that Ravel could become a fan favourite at Lazio if he adopted a humbler approach and brought the comparisons of Paul Gascoigne back to the surface, however just 4 months later, reports came out of Italy that he couldn’t settle

In the country, prompting him to instruct his representatives to explore a return home. Subsequently, there were suggestions that QPR, his former club, were in the lead to secure his signature. At least he got game time in Italy, making his debut in a 14, yes 14-0 victory, with

Him bagging two goals and two assists. He could’ve been a hero in Italy but just didn’t put the work in with his manager Pioli criticising the fact he couldn’t be bothered to turn up for training and couldn’t be bothered to learn the language, significantly hindering his development, Ravel simply did not care!

He wandered around the club like a dark cloud and would argue and say bad things about other players. Ravel felt very depressed; his friends would fly over from Manchester to the annoyance of Lazio fans who were appalled by the havoc they would cause.

His reputation took an even bigger hit when he was nominated for the Italian ‘Bidone d’Oro’ award, translating to ‘Golden Bin’, a popular award in Italian media given to the biggest flop of the year! His horrendous time in Italy seemed to be coming to a much-needed close with him posting

A cryptic message on Twitter with the sole word “January..” fueling further speculation about his potential departure from the club. Furthermore, Ravel who was still contracted to Lazio, moved back to Manchester and started unofficially training with Wigan Athletic ahead of a potential move.

The Wigan boss, Warren Joyce, his former United youth coach, observed Ravel was immensely different from the player he had last coached and was thoroughly unimpressed by his significant weight gain and pure laziness. The January window quickly came around and after some disagreements regarding a wage,

It was actually QPR where he returned on loan until the end of the 2016–17 season. QPR also noticed vast changes in Ravel; he never seemed fit, never tried very hard and there were countless rumours around the ground that he rarely turned up for training, let alone on time!

He made just 5 appearances for them in the Championship, all but one as a substitute, and the West London club of course didn’t trigger their option to sign him for £2 million. With a bad reputation in England and now Italy, it became even harder for Ravel to find a

New club resulting in him becoming the second-ever Englishman to play in Liga MX, when he signed for Mexican side Atlas. He thoroughly enjoyed himself in Mexico, thanks to the 10 am to 1 pm training sessions, the

Warm weather and because of the fact he was joined by his family, who also loved the lifestyle. Most importantly, he felt Mexico matured him and he grew up a bit: he really looked back at his career and what could’ve been.

His ex-teammate Paul Pogba, who Ravel was once better than by a country mile, was about to lift the World Cup trophy after returning to The Red Devils for a £89 million transfer fee, and yet Ravel was sat as a forgotten player in Mexico!

Moreover, Ravel struggled to adapt a little bit due to his naivety towards learning another language. At Atlas, Ravel transformed his position from an attacking midfielder to a deeper-lying ‘number 8’ kind of playing the role of a deep-lying playmaker, which was interesting and worked well.

He left Los Zorros as a hero statistically scoring 4 goals in 25 appearances nonetheless his performances were adequate for him to be invited to a training camp with the Jamaica national team to discuss switching his national allegiance as he never has, and most certainly

Never will play a competitive game for the England senior side. Just as you thought his career couldn’t get any weirder, Ravel, still contracted to Lazio started training with Swedish side Östersund before they made it permanent, only offering a 6-month contract because of his problematic reputation and his incapability to perform

At a club for a decent period of time. He had engaged in discussions with Rangers manager Steven Gerrard, and while Championship clubs expressed interest, he ultimately opted against transferring to a team in the midst of their season due to insufficient match fitness but Ravel clearly found his level

In Sweden and impressed during games, when he played. It’s important to note, that despite not making too much of an impact on the field at Östersund, he made a positive impact on their tight-knit community. In particular, he developed a close friendship with Mobarak, the club’s kit man and a refugee from Darfur.

He generously offered to sponsor flights for Mobarak to visit his family and gifted him an iPad for entertainment during away trips. Shortly after his arrival, Ravel noticed a young fan in the local high street wearing a jersey with “MORRISON” on the back instead of his intended first name above the number.

Without hesitation, Ravel told the child and his parents to wait and returned minutes later with a correctly printed shirt, delighting the young fan. The boy’s parents later expressed their gratitude in an email to the club. Furthermore, Ravel also took on a mentoring and leadership role with the club’s young

Players, inspiring him to continue that role by setting up the Ravel Morrison Soccer School. You’ll find out his acts of kindness will eventually pay off! Unfortunately, Ravel only managed 6 league games as he couldn’t be bothered to have an athlete’s active lifestyle, resulting in him being injured constantly, and of course,

There’s no point paying a player who doesn’t want to turn up so unsurprisingly, that chapter of his career closed. In a dramatic twist of fate, Ravel was offered one more shot at the Premier League, with newly promoted side Sheffield United offering him a place to train and a potential contract if he impressed.

The Blades manager Chris Wilder described Ravel in just 5 words as: “unpredictable, maverick, humble, a natural, and frustrating”, you’re probably wondering, is that a good thing? Well, the answer must have been yes as he was signed and registered onto the team.

Sheffield United endured an unexpected brilliant season back in the Premier League and Chris Wilder was rightly unwilling to change his winning 11, which didn’t include Ravel. As a result of minimal game time, just 4 appearances, he joined Middlesborough on loan in January

2020, failing to make an impact there and having to be recalled early. It was back to square one for Ravel, he was linked with moves to Eredivisie sides Vitesse Arnhem and FC Utrecht before signing a one-year deal with ADO Den Haag – the 11th club of the 27-year-old’s career.

2 months later, Ravel proudly and finally made his debut for the Jamaica national team in a 3-0 friendly loss against Saudi Arabia and expressed his new dream to send the ‘Reggae Boyz’ to the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

In Holland, he made a total of just 5 appearances failing to score a single goal before his contract was cut short in January 2021. That summer, he played as a triallist under his ex-teammate and now manager Wayne Rooney’s Derby County.

After impressing Rooney, who already knows what Ravel is capable of, he was offered a lifeline through a one-year deal. That season was a huge struggle for Derby County, who faced numerous financial problems and point deductions however Ravel responded well to the manager and the thirty-odd-thousand

Fans he’d play in front of every week, scoring 5 goals in 38 appearances for The Rams, the most football he’s played in a long, long time! With Wayne Rooney jumping ship as Derby got relegated to League One and Ravel now a free agent, the pair moved together to D.C.

United in the MLS, Ravel’s 13th club! His first season in America ended with 2 goals in 14 appearances. However, Morrison was left out of D.C. United’s MLS squad for the 2023 season, which meant that he was unable to play in the competition while still being allowed to train with his teammates.

Ever since, Ravel has been without a club, partly because nobody wants to take a chance with him, but also because Ravel only wants to stay local to Manchester, where his own family are happy and settled, which is of course the most important thing to him.

Fortunately, it appears the rift with his mum has now subsided, which is of course great news. Ravel still plays football, of course, competing in smaller-sided games and taking part in private sessions to keep fit and sharp.

He is also a member of a secret WhatsApp group chat made up of former Premier League players who are without a club looking to organising competitive matches amongst themselves in and around Manchester, with the losing team apparently paying the bill at the end.

To this day, he struggles to talk about his mental health and past problems. That’s why I’m going to pin some links to mental health charities in the comments. Looking back on his life and career, Ravel admitted on Rio Ferdinand’s podcast that:

“If I could go back in time, I’d change 90% of my life!” and he plans to publish an autobiography about his insane career. In November of 2023, he was arrested and fined for pleading guilty to fraud. He had purchased a disabled parking permit for £50 from someone in Manchester, which

Belonged to a person who had passed in February 2022. Morrison used the permit to park his car in Manchester city centre, which led to his conviction. Ravel became a talking point for Man U fans again in December, when he expressed his controversial opinion that United need to bring back Mason Greenwood.

While you could argue, that Ravel ‘made it’, he certainly wasted his potential as I think he could’ve been what Jude Bellingham is now. Throughout his life, he was compared to Paul Gascoigne however his career ended way worse, which you can learn about by clicking the video on your screen!