PES 5 might just have been the pinnacle of football gaming.
While now the graphics look polygonal and edgy like Goldeneye 007 in comparison to the latest PES and FIFA games, and the gameplay seems rigid and slow, back in 2005 there was no better way to spend an afternoon than cracking on with your Master League.
If you bought the official PES 5 Guide from Pigsback, you would have gotten a helping hand in finding young talent in the form of position by position lists of the players with the highest potential rating, and now, in 2016, the list is a who's who of failed potential.
Of course, Konami did get a few right with Rooney, Ronaldo, and Messi all ranking among the top potential players, but they got a few terribly wrong as well which we will now highlight with the benefit of hindsight.
Goalkeepers:
Yves Ma-Kalambay - Potential rating: 91
Then at Chelsea, you could ditch Petr Cech after a season or two and put this absolute beast in goal. He never could manage to replace Cech in real-life, however, and now plays for Oțelul Galați in Romania.
Lenny Pidgeley - Potential rating: 89
Another Chelsea youth keeper here, and a man who famously got a front and centre picture as John Terry lifted Jose Mourinho's first title at Chelsea without every playing a minute of Premier League football. Chancer.
David Marshall - Potential rating: 93
Good keeper, just not as good as the likes of Gigi Buffon and Iker Casillas as his potential would have suggested.
Defenders:
Emmanuel Eboue - Potential rating: 89
Oh dear.
Yohan Djourou - Potential rating: 88
We can see where they were coming from; young, Arsenal, Arsene Wenger... But Djourou turned out to be a tad calamatous and now plays for Hamburg who escaped relegation in Germany by the skin of their teeth.
Reto Ziegler - Potential rating: 90
Now playing for FC Sion back in his native Switzerland, Konami had him pegged as a potentially elite full back.
Julien Faubert - Potential rating: 87
He did play for Real Madrid, he's just, considered one of the worst players to have ever played for Real Madrid. He was on loan from West Ham.
Midfielders:
Hugo Viana - Potential rating: 89
Disaster. A Premier League chancer if ever there was one, this guy was absolute crap for Newcastle.
Charles N'Zogbia - Potential rating: 91
Yikes. Unfortunately 2005 may well have represented the peak of N'Zogbia's career, not the start of it.
Mark Noble - Potential rating: 88
A solid player, but Konami tipped him to be a dominant midfield force and a nailed on England starter. He never earned a cap.
Bradley Wright-Phillips - Potential rating: 89
Top scorer in the MLS last season, not the Premier League.
Daniel De Ridder - Potential rating: 94
94?! That is bonkers. Where did they come up with that? He now plays for SC Cambuur after being fairly crap for Birmingham and Wigan in the Premier League.
Attackers:
David Bellion - Potential rating: 87
The less said about him the better. Should have been a sprinter.
Quincy Owusu-Abeyie - Potential rating: 91
The term "headless chicken" spings to mind.
Park Chu Young - Potential rating: 93
Konami always had an Asian bias, but this Arsenal flop was absolutely devastating in Master League.
James Vaughan - Potential rating: 93
Huddersfield's finest was supposed to be banging them in for Chelsea by this stage.
Ryan Babel - Potential rating: 94
Another young Dutch talent with 94 potential. A shame for Liverpool that it didn't work out like that, he now plays for Kasimpasa in the Turkish league.
