Footballers who have failed to live up to their famous fathers’ legacies

Children naturally tend to follow in their parents' footsteps, especially when they are successful and football is no different.

We have seen multiple successful footballers whose offspring went on to be professional footballers themselves and while some turned out great and even outdid their fathers, others have failed to carry on the legacy of footballing excellence.

Here are selected footballers who failed to live up to their famous father’s legacies in no particular order.

Justin Kluivert broke into the Ajax first team in 2017 as a teenager and looked destined for the top just like his father, Patrick.

But while Patrick went on to establish himself as a true great of Dutch football thanks to his exploits at Ajax, AC Milan, Barcelona and the Dutch national team, his son’s early promise has faded.

23-year-old Justin is currently on loan at Valencia from Roma and while he still has time to reach his full potential, it looks unlikely that he will even come close to his father’s legacy.

The most remarkable thing about Isaac Drogba’s football career so far is his last name which the 21-year-old is yet to live up to.

His father Didier was a formidable striker for Chelsea and Ivory Coast in his prime years but Isaac currently plays for Academica Coimbra B in Portugal’s lower divisions after touring similar levels in France and Italy.

The consolation for Isaac now is that his famous father was also a late bloomer as Didier signed his first professional contract as a 21-year-old with French side, Le Mans so it may not be too late for him to live up to his father’s legacy just yet.

Zinedine Zidane is known as one of the best players and managers in football history but he proves that football abilities don’t necessarily pass through genes.

All four Zidane brothers, Enzo, Elyaz, Luca and Theo followed their father’s footsteps by playing football but none have remotely come close to replicating even a fragment of their father’s abilities.

The jury is still somewhat out on 16-year-old left-back, Elyaz Zidane Fernández who currently plays for Real Madrid’s Juvenil C team and has plenty of time to come good, same as 20-year-old midfielder Theo Zidane Fernández who currently plays for Real Madrid Castilla.

The older children however look extremely unlikely to match Zinedine as they both play in the Spanish second division, 27-year-old Enzo plays in midfield for Fuenlabrada while 24-year-old goalkeeper Luca plays for Eibar.

George Weah’s legendary football career was defined by being the first and only African Ballon d’Or winner while Timothy Weah’s career is defined by being George Weah’s son.

So far though it seems the last name is all Timothy took from George football-wise, not even representing Liberia internationally, the country where his famous father currently serves as president, choosing to play for the United States instead.

22-year-old Timothy Weah showed decent potential early on but has yet to progress as expected and currently plays for Lille for whom he has not made a single appearance this season.

Much like Zidane, another ex-Real Madrid superstar David Beckham has tried and failed to pass on the gift of football abilities to his children so far.

The two eldest of the four Beckham kids were cut by the Arsenal academy at 15 years old and while the eldest, Brooklyn pursued other passions, his younger brother Romeo is back in the game.

Romeo Beckham took a five-year break to pursue tennis as a career but the 20-year-old now plays football again for Inter Miami, a club owned by his father and he predominantly features for the second team.