Chelsea FC’s young German star Marko Marin has been recalled from his loan at Fiorentina and sent to Belgian club RSC Anderlecht also on loan. The move is believed to be the end of Marin’s career with Chelsea FC as the loan deal reportedly has a permanent option for a price under five million euros this summer. Marin was expected to be a big time player at Stamford Bridge but things did not work out that way so what went wrong with his career?

When Marko Marin was signed in April of 2012, the Blues were in the middle of what could have been one of the worst seasons in recent memory for the Blues. Chelsea had recently fired Andres Villas-Boas, was outside of the top four in the Premier League, and there was not much light at the end of the tunnel. The FA Cup was still in sight but the Blues were a longshot to win the Champions League with a date set to face Bayern Munich in Munich for the final.

It was a remarkable Cinderella run in the Champions League with a remarkable comeback against Napoli and a cathartic win over Barcelona with 10 men in the second leg. That match was of course characterized by the legendary Fernando Torres goal on a breakaway. It appeared that the clock had struck midnight and the Chelsea carriage was about to turn back in to a pumpkin when they would face a vastly superior Bayern side.

By Steindy (talk) 15:05, 21 July 2009 (UTC) (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

So with the prospect of missing out on Champions League football the next season, the Blues went out and purchased a player that fit that profile. It is difficult to attract the right talent at the right price without the prospect of Champions League football and so they settled for a player like Marko Marin who was good, but not great.

Instead the Blues pulled off a miracle and of course won the final in Munich and that changed everything. They went from chasing and signing players like Marko Marin to man the wings, to signing Lille superstar Eden Hazard who famously tweeted that he is signing for the Champions League winners to announce his decision. Despite finishing outside of the top four, Chelsea found themselves back in the elite European competition courtesy of their dramatic victory. That is when things went awry for the little German magician.

After a solid preseason, Marko Marin was part of the Chelsea FC squad for the 2012-13 season under the guidance of Roberto Di Matteo. He was not a major player in that squad and only made 15 appearances in all competitions. That in itself is remarkable considering Chelsea played in their usual competitions but also featured in the FIFA Club World Cup and the notoriously long Europa League. In contrast, striker Fernando Torres made 64 appearances during that same period of time.

After winning the Europa League with Chelsea and not making much of an impact, Marko Marin was sent on loan to Sevilla for the 2013-14 season. It was more of the same for Marin who despite making 30 appearances for the Spanish club, only managed to score two goals. He became the first player to win consecutive Europa Leagues with two different teams but he had little to do with that success.Sevilla had a permanent option on his loan but they refused it and he was sent back to Chelsea.

This season he was sent on loan to Serie A club Fiorentina but again, Marin failed to make much of an impact. He only made four appearances in all competitions in the first half of the season and they could not wait to send him back to Chelsea once the transfer window opened. So Marin went from playing in the World Cup with Germany in 2010, to signing for one of England’s biggest clubs, to a club in Belgium in just under five years.

So why did that happen? Simply put, Marin is just not good enough for Chelsea and he never found a club willing to invest in his development. He also suffered numerous niggling injuries which kept him from gaining any sort of momentum. It was a typical path for a player who once thought his career was about to take off only for it to stall and falter. At just 25 years old Marko Marin still has some of his best years ahead of him.

He has a real chance to impress at Anderlecht and can revive his career with little expectations and against less stiff competition than he faced in Spain or Italy. Marin may not have been the caliber of player we have come to expect at Chelsea but he was simply a signing they should not have made.

The Blues reacted to the prospect of missing out on the Champions League and they spent money on a player that did not belong at Chelsea. It was not the first time and will certainly not be the last time this happens. Hopefully for Marko Marin the detours he took to these other clubs will not compeltely derail his career and that this move to Belgium gets it back on track.