The Premier League has been the highest competition in England since 1992, thus leaving out several excellent footballers who have played in the island in the past.
Still, one gets a lot of sweat when making an ideal selection and still feels guilty about not fitting players like Rio Ferdinand, Petr Cech, Roy Keane, Sergio Agüero, David Beckham, Dennis Bergkamp, Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba, Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie, Luis Suárez, Gianfranco Zola, Wayne Rooney or Patrick Vieira into the line-up.
Enough talk, however. The following will show you the best eleven footballers in Premier League history. Obviously, you might see it differently, so we’d be happy for you to present your own (equally good) selections in the comments section.
Peter Schmeichel (Goalkeeper)
With all respect to Czech goalkeeper Petr Cech and other great goalkeepers for what they did or are doing in the Premier League, nobody can match the legendary Dane.
During his eight seasons at Manchester United, he has helped them win the league title five times, FA Cup three times, Champions League final and Super Cup. Four times he won the European and twice the World Goalkeeper of the Year award.
Gary Neville (Right-back)
Gary Neville became a legend of English football, having collected eight league titles and winning the Champions League trophy twice. For almost twenty years, he was loyal to Manchester United and never donned the jersey of another club. Undoubtedly, Gary Neville proved himself to be the best right-back in the history of the English Premier League.
Tony Adams (Central Defender)
When the top English competition, called the Premier League, started in 1992, Adams was 26 years old and had already won two First Division titles. He had spent his entire career at Arsenal, with which he won two more Premier League titles, along with three FA Cup trophies and a Cup Winners’ Cup victory.
John Terry (Central Defender)
In this selection, Chelsea legend John Terry is another stalwart, having won five league titles and enjoyed five FA Cup victories. He’s also come close to winning the Champions League. He has also been indispensable to the England national team, from which he retired in the autumn of 2012.
Ashley Cole (Left-back)
Used to be a mainstay at Arsenal but was damned and cursed after his move to rival Chelsea. Perhaps a little, because he became a star at Stamford Bridge too. Ashley Cole won two league titles with the Canaries and one with the Blues. He enjoyed seven FA Cup wins at both clubs, finally touching the Champions League trophy at Chelsea and adding the Europa League trophy to his collection a year later.
Steven Gerrard (Right-midfielder)
Admittedly, this is not a position that Steven Gerrard normally played in. Still, considering his flexibility, we could easily put him in this spot in our starting eleven. Steven Gerrard’s phenomenal performances earned him a nomination for the Ballon d’Or for the best footballer in the world in 2005 when he won the Champions League with the Reds. He finished third in the poll behind Ronaldinho and Frank Lampard.
He led Liverpool to victory in the FA Cup in 2006; a year later, he had to survive defeat in another Champions League final by AC Milan. He scored a personal best in the 2008/09 season, setting up 24 goals in 44 matches. The sad thing is that Liverpool finished just one step below the top in the domestic competition back then.
Back in 2009, Frenchman Zinedine Zidane said of him that he was the best footballer in the world. He began on the right-wing but moved to the center of midfield, which was his steady place after a while. He played an incredible 50 games in all competitions in the 2000/01 season. He was the team captain from 2003 until he departed from the club in 2015.
He lifted the Carling Cup trophy at Wembley in 2012. Only weeks later, he did something that made him an immortal hero in the eyes of the fans – he managed to score a hat-trick in the Liverpool derby at Everton, something that last happened in 1935.
Following a failed 2003/04 season, there had been talk of him moving to Chelsea for £20m, but he remained with new coach Rafael Benitez. Gerrard is one of the greats in the club’s history and one of the most important figures to have worked in the Premier League.
Frank Lampard (Central midfielder)
Until recently, when people talked about a midfielder who can score damn good goals, most of the talk was about Frank Lampard. The top goal scorer in Chelsea’s history can’t be missing from this selection. Playing in 610 league games (counting games for West Ham and Manchester City), Lampard has scored 177 goals, a tally that would make most strikers proud.
He came to Stamford Bridge in 2001 from West Ham for £11 million and has repaid the club that money many times over with his performances. Lampard is arguably one of the few players who could be successful in any era of football.
Paul Scholes (Central midfielder)
He is yet another legendary man from Alex Ferguson’s team. Very few can replicate what Paul Scholes achieved at Old Trafford during his playing career. He has 11 English Premier League titles to his name, with three FA Cup wins, and two Champions League title wins. Respect…
Ryan Giggs (Left-midfielder)
Before he retired from playing, Welsh veteran Ryan Giggs became a Manchester United legend. He first played his first game at Old Trafford in the 1990/91 season and played continuously in the red jersey until the end of the 2013/14 season, when he was still able to lead the team, first as an assistant coach and in the last games already as head coach after the dismissed David Moyes.
He has two more league titles than his partner Scholes. He’ll always be remembered as one of the greatest players in the club’s and also English Premier League’s history.
Alan Shearer (Striker)
When England’s First Division became the Premier League, shearer was 22 years old and transferred from Southampton to Blackburn. From 1996 he then played ten seasons at Newcastle United.
Shearer was a goalscoring machine. He won the Premier League at both Blackburn and Newcastle, was the top scorer at Euro 1996 and still has a record of 260 goals in the English top flight.
Thierry Henry (Striker)
French offensive killer Thierry Henry spent eight seasons at Arsenal, where he rose to club legend status. He was the competition’s top scorer four times, winning the Golden Boot for Europe’s top goalscorer twice. His statue outside the Emirates Stadium depicts him kneeling in celebration of scoring one of his legendary goals.
