5 brilliant players who enjoyed a renaissance after converting into a wing-back

Finding elite wing-backs isn’t the easiest thing for a football club to do, which often leads to managers having to get creative with their selections.

While attacking full-backs have become increasingly common and the difference in profiles between them and a wing-back has diminished somewhat, it’s still an extremely specialised role which requires very specific attributes and plenty of discipline.

Over the years, managers have opted to convert players into wing-backs from another position, which has been the making of them. Here are five examples of players thriving with the unique change.

Alphonso Davies

The ultimate example, Bayern Munich picked up Davies from the Vancouver Whitecaps as a young attacker with bags of potential and converted him into a lethal wing-back who was ready for the top level straight away.

Davies hasn’t looked back since making the switch and is now arguably the best left wing-back in world football. With his contract running out at Bayern, he essentially has the pick of the bunch in terms of top clubs to join.

Ivan Perisic

Having impressed in spells throughout his career as a winger, Perisic unlocked new levels to his game when Antonio Conte converted him into a left wing-back at Inter.

The Croatian had always been an impressive attacker with a solid work rate, which is why he flourished in such a tasking role. Perisic was key as Inter won Serie A with Conte in 2020-21 and only improved under Simone Inzaghi, increasing with importance and enjoying a huge renaissance in Italy.

In fact, he was so good under Conte that the Italian signed him at Tottenham to try and repeat the magic. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out.

Juan Cuadrado

From impressing at the 2014 World Cup but then very quickly flopping at Chelsea, all as a winger, Cuadrado did exceptionally well to rebuild his career when returning to Italy with Juventus.

And a big part of that revival came down to him transitioning into a right wing-back for the Old Lady, where his skillset aligned perfectly. The Colombian spent the best years of his career putting incredible work rate and blistering recovery pace to use for Juve, which has undoubtedly given him more longevity.

In the time since, he’s also done so at Inter and now Atalanta. He’s gotten better with age.

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Victor Moses

A player with plenty of potential, little was thought of Moses for a long time, who had appeared to have developed into a run-of-the-mill winger not good enough for Chelsea.

That was until – you guessed it – Antonio Conte arrived at Stamford Bridge, saw Moses and transformed him into the ultimate wing-back as the Blues won the Premier League in 2016-17.

Moses was so good that Conte brought him on loan to Inter in 2020. An unexpected transition, but one that gave his career some serious direction.

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Jesus Navas

While it didn’t quite stick for Navas in the Premier League, he enjoyed a brilliant first half of his career as a winger, before subtly shifting into a wing-back/right-back and perhaps becoming an even better player for it.

Once renowned for his insane pace, the Spaniard leaned on his experience and reading of the game as he advanced in age, using that to become an incredibly effective wing-back in a Sevilla side that was set up to win trophies; namely the Europa League.

Now 39, time has caught up with Navas who struggles to stay fit and feature, but there’s no doubting that he’s one of the best examples of a winger transitioning into a wing-back and enjoying a renaissance.