Burnley nightmare was the last time Sheffield Wednesday supporters saw 2013 signing: View | OneFootball

It's fair to say this move won't be chalked up as a success

The 2013/14 season was a relatively forgettable year for Sheffield Wednesday, but there was one debut that may be remembered for the wrong reasons.

It was at the beginning of that campaign that the Owls took a gamble on a relatively unknown Portuguese prospect by the name of Rafael Floro.

The gamble didn't pay off, and Floro went on to play just minutes for the club, never to be seen again for the Yorkshire side.

The defender has since embarked on a career across Europe, but never got another chance in English football.

Wednesday seemed convinced they'd found a strong young prospect

Floro had spent his youth career in his native Portugal and had most recently been part of Porto's academy setup before making the switch to England. He had spent time as a youngster with another giant of that league, Sporting Lisbon.

Finding himself on the hunt for a new club in the summer of 2013, a trial brought him to Hillsborough and the decision makers there were impressed, so much so that they offered him a deal.

He signed a one-year contract with the Yorkshire outfit in August of that year and was in for his first appearance on the same day.

His Wednesday stint was over before it started

On the same day he was unveiled by the media, Floro was in the starting XI for the Owls' League Cup fixture against Rotherham United. The defender appeared for 70 minutes at left-back, with his side ultimately losing 2-1.

Just days later, with the Yorkshire Post reporting at the time that the club were undergoing a significant injury crisis at the time, Floro got his first Championship start, against Burnley in the second league game of the season.

It would prove to be another tough outing for Floro, who was withdrawn at half-time by Dave Jones as the Owls went on to lose 2-1 again, both goals coming from the Portuguese teenager's side before the interval.

Following the game, team-mate Jose Semedo remarked: "This is crazy, this is unbelievable but I told him this is English football. He has a big future for this club.

"He is a top, top player, he was training with us last season and I am sure the club sees a big future for him."

Things never worked out in Sheffield

Sadly, Semedo's prediction never came true, the Burnley game being the last time Floro would ever see competitive action for the Owls.

He did remain at the club for another year but was released in the summer of 2015, returning to Portugal to sign for Belenenses.

His career following his Yorkshire stint took him to Portugal, Lithuania, Finland and, most recently, Serbia, with top-tier outfit FK Novi Pazar.

Though the full-back built a respectable career across Europe, he would never again reach the heights of a club like Wednesday, suggesting that Jones' decision to withdraw him early was the right one.

Had Floro been bedded in more slowly rather than thrown in straight away as a teenager, who knows what might have been, but instead it will likely go down as an opportunity that was too much, too soon.