12 forgotten footballers overshadowed by their superstar family ft. Messi, Maradona, Alonso…
It can’t be easy to be related to footballing royalty. Just by virtue of your name, or genes, people will expect you to live up to almost impossible standards.
Just ask relatives of the likes of Lionel Messi, Diego Maradona, Xabi Alonso, Toni Kroos and Eden Hazard.
We’ve listed 12 footballers who were thoroughly overshadowed by their far more successful and talented family members.
Emanuel & Maxi Biancucchi (Lionel Messi’s cousins)
Messi has not one but two professional footballers in his extended family – brothers Emanuel and Maximiliano Biancucchi are sons of the Barcelona icon’s mother’s sister. The former was even represented by Jorge Messi.
How good were they? Well, they were both good enough to earn a living from the game. Which places them above 99.99% of the population. But in the grand scheme of professional footballers, pretty forgettable all in all.
Older sibling Maxi, a winger, came up through San Lorenzo’s academy and enjoyed the classic South American journeyman career, with 14 different clubs represented in a career that spanned from 2001 to 2017.
Maxi’s career highlights included stints with Brazilian giants Flamengo and Mexican powerhouse Cruz Azul, while he won eight pieces of silverware across five different clubs in three different countries.
Younger brother Emanuel, a year younger than his legendary cousin, left Newell’s academy in 2008 to continue his development with 1860 Munich.
The midfielder made 15 appearances for the historic German outfit and subsequently had a brief spell at Girona before returning to South America, following in Maxi’s footsteps by dotting about many different clubs. He’s still going today at lesser-known Brazilian side Resende FC.
Lalo & Hugo Maradona
Raul ‘Lalo’ Maradona was born six years after El Diego. He made his debut for Boca Juniors in 1986, the same year his iconic older sibling lit up Mexico ’86 to bring the World Cup back to Argentina.
But he only made a handful of appearances for Boca, and after a fairly forgettable season at Spanish outfit Granada, went on to spend a 1990s career away from the spotlight at a series of North American clubs with fantastical names like Fort Lauderdale Strikers, Toronto Italia, Toronto Shooting Stars, North York Talons and Buffalo Blizzard.
Youngest sibling Hugo, nine years Diego’s junior, played in Argentina (Argentinos Juniors), Italy (Ascoli), Spain (Rayo Vallecano), Austria (Rapid Wien) before later stints in Venezuela, Uruguay, Japan and Canada.
He tragically died of a heart attack in 2021, a year after Diego, aged just 52.
Neither of them ever represented Argentina at senior level, but they did memorably play alongside their big brother on one occasion…
READ: The story of the day all 3 Maradona brothers played for Granada
Mathias & Florentin Pogba
There was always something striking about the discrepancy between the levels Paul Pogba and his elder twin brothers reached in the game.
Paul, of course, started in a Champions League final for Juventus, remains Manchester United’s record signing and scored a banger of a goal in France’s 2018 World Cup final victory over Croatia.
That’s quite the contrast with Mathias, whose CV includes Crewe, Crawley and Patrick Thistle and was last seen turning out for Belfort in the French third tier.
It’s less of a contrast with Florentin, who played over a hundred times for Saint-Etienne, won a US Open Cup with Atlanta United, and has received 31 international caps with Guinea.
Kylian & Ethan Hazard
While he was never quite the world-beater Eden was in his prime, regular Belgium international Thorgan boasts a better-than-decent career. He won cups with Borussia Dortmund and PSV and was even named Belgian Footballer of the Year in 2013-14.
Lesser known are the two younger Hazard brothers. 28-year-old Kylian was briefly on Chelsea’s books but never made it onto the pitch and has carved out a modest career in Belgium. There’s still time for Ethan, 20, but plying his trade for Belgian minnows Tubize-Braine B doesn’t suggest he’s destined for a career at the top level.
Still, four brothers all making it as professionals is quite something. Some genes from their two professional footballer parents, Carine and Thierry.
READ NEXT: 11 footballing relatives you didn’t know about: Modrić, Wijnaldum, Romário…
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Felix Kroos
It feels really mean saying it, but Felix Kroos looks a bit like if you bought Toni off Wish.com.
The lesser-known younger brother represented Germany from Under-16 to Under-21 level but never received a senior call-up. He spent more of his club career in the lower tiers of the German game, but he did play Bundesliga football with both Werder Bremen and Union Berlin, having helped the latter get promoted in 2019.
Like Toni, he called time on his career early, hanging up his boots at the age of just 30 after a forgettable spell with Eintracht Braunschweig. Unlike Toni, he didn’t go out with a sixth Champions League winners medal.
Ultimately, Felix is probably better known for hosting a podcast with his more famous brother than anything he achieved on the football pitch.
Mikel Alonso
Older brother of Xabi, Mikel also came through Real Sociedad’s academy and progressed to make over a hundred La Liga appearances for the club. Unlike his brother, those years at his boyhood club probably represented the pinnacle of his career.
Premier League Years watchers may recall the midfielder making seven appearances on loan at Gary Megson’s Bolton as they finished 16th in 2007-08. There was also an inconspicuous year at Charlton, in which he only played in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy and gave away a penalty in a 3-0 defeat to Charlton.
Chedric Seedorf
Clarence Seedorf famously won the Champions League with three different clubs – once with Ajax in 1995, once with Real Madrid in 1998, and twice with AC Milan in 2003 and 2007.
You probably don’t remember his younger brother Chedric, whose career path can be neatly divided into two categories.
The first we’re just going to say it – we suspect nepotism. Youth spells with Ajax, Real Madrid and Inter and a random stint at AC Milan sandwiched between Cambuur Leeuwarden and Monza.
The second you can class as him going his own way, and it’s even more underwhelming than you could possibly imagine. Stints with NAC Breda, Legnano, Oostende. Zero appearances for Milan but loans away to Evian TGFC and Haarlem. A career total of just 24 league appearances, more than half of them in the Italian lower tiers with Monza.
READ: 11 footballing relatives you didn’t know about: Modric, Wijnaldum, Romario…
Mattheus Oliveira (Bebeto’s son)
We’ve tended to go for footballing siblings and cousins here. There are plenty of lesser-known fathers and sons.
But we’re making an exception for Bebeto’s son, if only for the kind of beautiful fact that his birth was celebrated with one of the most iconic and widely copied celebrations in football history – rocking an imaginary baby after scoring for Brazil against the Netherlands at USA.
That baby was Mattheus Oliveira, born two days before in Rio de Janeiro. He’s a professional footballer himself, formerly of Sporting Lisbon and Flamengo, but he’s never quite managed anything as notable as the celebration that marked his birth.