I was inspired by Jason's "best bargains" thread to create this one. This is a celebration of all the footballers not blessed with the talent of the world's elite, your 3-3.5 potential and 1-2 learning players that the most elite managers would never think of buying and would release from the youth academy without a moment's hesitation.

I'll start, I bought this WF, Nick Gomes, for 50m just before my third season in F4, just as I was being promoted to USA 1.1. At the time, I was inexperienced and couldn't afford to scout too much, so I bought him purely based on rating, price, and immediate fit. Little did I know, he only had 3 star potential and 2 star learning:

https://www.f4football.com/players/show/196496

Now, he has scored almost 198 goals and notched 62 assists for me in 6 seasons (331 and 108 overall) and has been the most valuable player I have ever owned. A large part of this success is due the other hidden attributes being 4 and 5 star and very high XP, especially now, but the fact that he has achieved all this in his career is remarkable to me and I'm curious if anyone has similar or better stories to share.