Hidden Gems FC: Didier Drogba, Luca Toni and football's top 10 late bloomers

After being released by hometown club Sheffield Wednesday at 15, Vardy ended up working at Trulife, a carbon fibre factory, while earning £30 a week playing for Stocksbridge Park Steels. By the age of 23, he'd long since given up on ever turning pro.

His career began to take off, though, after being picked up Halifax Town in the summer of 2010, with Vardy enjoying a prolific year at The Shay that earned him a move to Fleetwood Town, who were playing in the fifth tier of English football at the time. Vardy enjoyed an even better debut season with The Fisherman in the Conference Premier and was signed by Championship outfit Leicester City at the age of 25.

The rest of his story is known to almost everyone, with Vardy going on to play a pivotal role in the most remarkable title triumph in Premier League history by scoring netting 24 times in the Foxes' dream-like 2015-16 campaign. 

He eventually left Leicester in the summer of 2025, after 200 goals in 500 appearances for the club, but is now taking Serie A by storm with Cremonese, underlining that Vardy's love for the game is still as strong as ever. Indeed, if anyone is living proof that it's never too late to chase your dreams, it's Jamie Vardy.

At 21 years of age, Luca Toni was back playing in Serie C1. He was viewed as a lanky forward with limited technical skills. However, one thing that Toni did not lack was motivation. He had the requisite determination and goalscoring instincts to make a real name for himself in Italian football and, after getting a taste of top level football with Vicenza and Brescia, Toni's career took off when he dropped down to Serie B to join Palermo. 

He scored 30 times in his first season in Sicily as the Rosanero secured a return to Serie A, where another 20 goals secured him a switch to Fiorentina. After winning the European Golden Shoe with the Viola (31 goals in 38 games), Toni then helped Italy win the 2006 World Cup. 

The following year, he returned to Germany after agreeing a move to Bayern Munich and finished as the top scorer at the end of a triumphant Bundesliga campaign for the Bavarians. Toni was 33 by the time he returned to Italy on a permanent basis in 2010 but he was far from finished. He had spells at Genoa, Juventus and Fiorentina (again) - as well as a short stint at UAE Pro League side Al-Nasr - before becoming the oldest Capocannoniere in Serie A history (38) by scoring 22 goals for Verona in 2014-15. Like a fine Italian wine, Luca Toni just got better with age.

When he was only two years old, Franck Ribery and his family were involved in a car accident that left him with serious facial injuries. Such visible scarring would have traumatised most kids but Ribery later revealed it was the making of him. "In a certain way, this accident helped me," he said. "As a child, it motivated me. God gave me this difference."

Ribery was also blessed with a talent for the game that was eventually brought to light by his fantastic fortitude. Indeed, Ribery did construction work with his father before joining Brest in 2003 and all of his hard graft eventually paid off when he joined Marseille in 2005. The winger enjoyed two fine seasons at the Velodrome and was snapped up by Bayern Munich in 2007 at 24 years old.

Ribery became a legend at the Allianz Arena, forming a lethal partnership with Arjen Robben that helped the Bavarians win one trophy after another, including a historic treble in 2013.

Of course, he was infamously robbed of the Ballon d'Or that year but the France international's entire playing career - which only came to an end in 2022, when he was 39 - is testament to Ribery's remarkable resilience.

Riyad Mahrez began his career in France's lower league, at Quimper and Le Havre, and wasn't exactly considered a potential superstar. His coaches found him to be too lightweight, too frivolous, and too selfish. Mahrez, though, continued to hone his skills and, just before he turned 23 in 2014, Championship outfit Leicester City offered him the opportunity to show them off.

After helping the Foxes get promoted to the Premier League, the left-footed winger developed into one of the most dangerous players in England. "Mahrez plays as if he is playing street football and I mean that as a compliment," Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri says during the club's astounding 2015-16 title triumph, which features 17 goals from their amazing Algerian attacker.

After eventually forcing through a move to Manchester City, Mahrez went on to lift another four Premier League trophies at the Etihad, as well as two FA Cups, three EFL Cups and, most significantly of all, the Champions League.

At 34, the Sarcelles native is still scoring goals and bamboozling full-backs in the Saudi Pro League with Al-Ahli.

Emiliano Martinez is the ultimate example of patience. As a young goalkeeper at Arsenal, he spent years sitting on the bench at the Emirates, with his only meaningful game time coming during his numerous loan spells. At one point, he even considered walking away from professional football.

However, after impressing during the injury-enforced absence of Bernd Leno during Arsenal's 2019-20 campaign, the 28-year-old Martinez secured a move to Aston Villa that changed the course of his entire career.

By the end of his first season in Birmingham, he'd proved himself one of the best shot-stoppers in the Premier League and broken into the Argentina national team, with whom he would go on to win two Copa America and a World Cup.

Martinez was absolutely integral to all three triumphs, too, winning the Golden Glove award at each tournament, with his crucial saves - and incessant mind games - quickly becoming the stuff of legend.  

N'Golo Kante's move to Leicester in the summer of 2015 didn't attract much attention. The 24-year-old defensive midfielder had only one season of Ligue 1 football at Caen under his belt. However, Foxes coach Claudio Ranieri quickly realised that he had a phenomenon on his hands. "When I see him run," the Italian said, "it seems like he's playing for two players at once."

Consequently, while other players may have generated more headlines than Kante during Leicester's stunning title triumph, nobody gave more than the diminutive but seemingly indefatigable Frenchman.

Kante's greatness was only further underlined by the fact that after being signed by Chelsea in the summer of 2016, the Blues also immediately won the league in his first season at Stamford Bridge. Even after moving to the Saudi Pro League when it appeared his legs had gone, Kante managed to earn a recall to the France squad for Euro 2024 due to his relentless running at Al-Ittihad.

Kante - who is almost universally revered within the world of football for his quiet, unassuming character - essentially epitomises the idea that anything is possible with the right mindset.

Miroslav Klose was an apprentice carpenter before his professional football career really got going after being signed by Kaiserslautern in 1999 at 21 years of age.

In four full seasons at the Fritz-Walter-Stadion, the striker never failed to hit double figures in all competitions and his impressive strike-rate only improved during a very productive spell at Werder Bremen.

By the time he joined Bayern Munich in 2007, Klose was renowned for his aerial prowess, with nearly half of his record-breaking tally of 16 World Cup finals goals coming via his head - something that the forward attributed to his mother, who was a former handball player. "She taught me how to jump," Klose said. "Without her, I would never have been able to achieve that record."

Klose, a humble character long considered the consummate professional, only retired in 2016, just before turning 38, after achieving legendary status at Lazio too.

For many, many years, Olivier Giroud was considered too slow and too limited to reach the highest level of the European game. Consequently, he only got to play in Ligue 1 for the first time shortly before turning 24.

However, Montpellier's decision to sign the striker from second-tier team Tours proved a masterstroke, with Giroud top-scoring as La Paillade sensationally pipped Paris Saint-Germain to the French title in 2012.

A move to Arsenal immediately followed and although Giroud continued to be occasionally criticised for his occasional struggles in front of goal, he became a firm favourite at international level with France coach Didier Deschamps.

Indeed, after winning the World Cup with les Bleus in 2018, Giroud eventually became his country's all-time leading goalscorer - and at the age of 36. As it transpired, then, Arsene Wenger was right about Giroud all along: he was just one of those players that "gets better with each passing year".

Crazy as it may sound now, Willem II didn't think Virgil van Dijk was physically or technically strong enough for the professional ranks - so they released him after more than a decade in their youth sector. Luckily for van Dijk, Groningen saw his potential and picked up the 19-year-old for nothing in 2010.

Van Dijk quickly cultivated a reputation as one of the more intriguing centre-backs in the Eredivisie during his three years at the Euroborg and Ajax considered signing him before Celtic swooped in to take him to Glasgow. Van Dijk's commanding displays in Scotland attracted the attention of Southampton and it was at St. Mary's that the Dutchman's talent became obvious to everyone. 

After one failed bid to sign Van Dijk, Liverpool agreed to pay Southampton £75 million for the Netherlands international during the 2018 January transfer window. It proved money very well spent. At Anfield, Van Dijk proved himself the most dominant defender in world football, helping the Reds win two Premier League titles and a Champions League.

His importance to Liverpool was only further underlined last season, when the club captain's pivotal role in a record-equalling 20th English championship resulted in him being given a new contract at 33 years of age.

Didier Drogba didn't make his first appearance in Ligue 1 until he was 24. Before that point, there had been scant evidence to suggest that the forward was destined for greatness, as the former accountancy student had been hindered by incessant injury issues.

However, after a breakout season at Guingamp, Drogba joined Marseille and absolutely exploded at the Velodrome, scoring 32 times in 55 games in all competitions.

Eyebrows were nonetheless raised when Chelsea bought Drogba for £24m but Jose Mourinho was absolutely convinced by the striker's world-class potential.

"I didn't sign Drogba for how he played then, but for what he could achieve later," the Portuguese subsequently revealed.

The Special One couldn't have been more right about Drogba, as the Ivorian became an icon at Stamford Bridge thanks in no small part to his heroics in Chelsea's unlikely 2012 Champions League final triumph over Bayern Munich.

Drogba eventually brought the curtain down on his glittering career in 2018, at the age of 40.