The World Cup's biggest disappointments: footballers who lost value at Qatar

At 37 year old and playing his fifth World Cup tournament, Cristiano Ronaldo is no longer the spry young striker he once was. In fact, Portugal's best score in Qatar was 6-1 against Switzerland, a match where Ronaldo spent the game on the bench. As much as it hurts, this seems to be the farewell to CR7.

Seeing Eden Hazard play without energy, without physique, without a strategy, and pretty much without a will, it's hard to imagine this Belgian footballer was once regarded as one of the best players in the world.

Ferrán Torrest cost Barcelona FC 55 million euros (over 58 million US dollars), so he was expected to give a grand performance at the World Cup for the Spanish team. Instead, his last two matches, against Japan and Morocco, were a disaster for him.

The Belgian footballer had a left thigh injury that made him miss the first two games and force himself against Croatia, where he missed four goals.

Bale could have easily been the World Cup's most valuable player. However, Wales finished last in their group and the footballer went under the radar in Qatar.

After being transferred to Liverpool FC, the World Cup was meant to consolidate Nuñez as a world-class striker, but his performance at the tournament has not been exactly memorable.

Lautaro seems like the sole exception in the Argentinean national team, which seems to have grown stronger in every match. He has been lacking confidence and, at times, disconnected from the game.

Almost everyone predicted that the performance of this giant German striker would be a thing to remember. Instead, he barely had a presence on the field.

This Costa Rican goalkeeper let 11 goals pass during the group stage, almost an average of 4 goals per game!

He was meant to be one of the biggest stars of the Spanish team, leading the team to their second World Cup. Instead, Pedri, as he's nicknamed, lacked body, experience, and boldness.

The high hopes Denmark and Eriksen had at the World Cup vanished after the opening match. The Scandinavian team failed to dominate the first round and Eriksen's performance is nothing but a footnote.

Qatar 2022 was a chance for Resurección to Koke, as he's nicknamed, to redeem himself after that disastrous match with Russia at the previous World Cup. Instead, his performance here has been inconsequential.

News about De Bruyne has been all over except, funny enough, on the Sports section. Seeing him play in Qatar, you wouldn't believe he's supposed to be one of the best players in the world.