I have the second highest FIFA rating in history, ahead of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, but I turned down Carlo Ancelotti for the accounting diploma.

Every year, budding footballers are dubbed “the next Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo”, but one star remains the original wonderkid.

Former Juventus Midfielder Matteo Brighi continues to hold the second highest position. fifa (NKA FC) all-time rating with a whopping score of 97.

The Italian was crowned by EA Sports as the best in the world following the release of FIFA 03 in October 2002, two months after a teenage CR7 made his professional debut with Sporting Lisbon.

Ironically, it's just ronaldoThe Brazilian namesake who has ever earned a higher overall score than Brighi in any edition in franchise history.

The then 21-year-old beat the FIFA 03 cover stars Henry Thierry, Roberto Carlos and Ryan Giggs to receive the prestigious honor.

To put that into further context, Messi and Ronaldo, who have won a combined 13 Ballon d'Ors between them, have never surpassed 94 in any individual EA entry.

In Brighi's defense, the youngster had just received the Serie A Young Footballer of the Year award, following in the footsteps of Francesco Toti and Alessandro Nesta.

However, FIFA's bigwigs had been overzealous in investing in the potential of a player who was emerging as the next big thing.

Just two years earlier, Brighi was starring in Italy's now-defunct fourth division, formerly known as Serie C2 and then Lega Pro Seconda Divisione.

The midfielder had come through the ranks of the Rimini children's club, where he caught the attention of the now Real Madrid coach. carlo anceloti.

Ancelotti took the reins at Juventus in February 1999 and hoped to include Brighi among his first signings for the club that summer as part of a campaign to accumulate Europe's best young talent.

The teenager surprised the former Chelsea player by choosing to stay in Rimini for one more season to finish his studies in accounting.

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“I didn't feel like coming immediately, I wasn't ready yet,” Brighi said in 2000. “It was better to wait and have a little more experience.”

Brighi, on the other hand, arrived a year into Ancelotti's reign at Juve having scored six goals in 34 games as Rimini ultimately lost in the playoffs.

The Bianconeri hierarchy waxed lyrical about their new prodigy, with controversial former club executive Luciano Moggi comparing him to real Madrid legend Fernando Redondo – who had just won UEFA Club footballer of the year.

Ancelotti was also impressed by Brighi's talent and even admitted that his qualities were similar to his own as a player.

La Repubblica quoted him as saying: “In some ways he is like me, he is a simple and direct player. He should just be less shy.”

That last piece of advice from Ancelotti turned out to be a cautionary tale in retrospect, as it turned out to be a theme of Brighi's career.

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Brighi did little to dispel doubts about his shy nature after expressing doubts that he would be able to take the plunge.

He said: “It's early to make judgments, I don't even know if I can maintain myself at these levels. “I'm here to learn, in a couple of months we will decide if I can stay in the first team.”

Juventus already had Zinedine ZidaneAntonio Conte and Edgar Davids as options in midfield at the time of Brighi's arrival in Turin.

At 19, he appeared just 12 times during the 2000-01 campaign and was largely kept out of the spotlight by Ancelotti.

Brighi was loaned to Bologna the following year, which is where he showed the form that made EA Sports sit up and take notice.

He played 32 games and Rossoblu finished an impressive seventh place, where he was rewarded with a place alongside Andrea Pirlo in midfield as the Italian under-21 team reached the semi-finals of the European Championship.

On the way to the four finalists, Brighi and company. defeated an England team captained by David Dunn that also included Peter bends downJermaine Defoe Jermaine Jenas, Bobby Zamora, Scott Parkerand Gareth Barry in the group stage.

Three months later that same summer, Brighi made his full international debut, and by then EA had seen enough.

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Juventus were not convinced that his future lay at the Stadio delle Alpi and he was hired to Parma and then Brescia.

Brighi finally joined Roma in 2004 in a package that saw Juventus land emerson but he had to wait three years to debut.

The former star spent three years on loan at Chievo Verona before finally donning the Giallorossi colors upon his return in 2007.

During this time, EA Sports had lowered its overall rating on FIFA 05 to 81, but still with a potential 98 should things start to click.

But a year later he was relegated to a rating of 79 (18 ratings lower than his peak of 97) and his rapid downward progression had led to a revamp in the way Canadian editors rated footballers each season.

The end of Brighi's transfer merry-go-round at least allowed him to spark a brief resurgence of his Roma career.

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His exile from the Italy national team ended, with legendary Azzurri coach Marcello Lippi lamenting the enormous expectations he had subjected himself to in order to halt his rise.

“From a human point of view he is a splendid boy, and from a technical point of view he is one of those diligent midfielders that every coach would like to have,” Lippi said.

“I warn you that at the beginning of his career he was praised so excessively that too many expectations were created around him.”

In total, Brighi made 142 appearances for Roma, the most for any club, before becoming a journeyman during his remaining playing days.

He was linked to transfers to Fulham and Celticbut instead he played for Atalanta, Turin, Sassuolo, Perugia and Empolibefore quietly hanging up his boots with the latter in 2019.

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“I'm not one of those who make announcements and goodbyes,” said the four-time Italy international. Rome club website the following year.

“I have started a new path that continues in football and that suits me.”

Brighi oversees his own football academy in Rimini, where he has the opportunity to foster the next big thing.

He seems to have his own opinion about why he never reached the heights expected of him, telling Sky Italia in 2013: “I like to work, not talk.

“Other players talk and sell themselves, certainly better than me. I don't blame them for that. It's just not me.”