10 Great Premier League one-season wonders of the decade (2010-2019)

#7 Adam Le Fondre

For one season at least, Adam Le Fondre took the Premier League by storm

It’s always tricky for players to match the form they show in the EFL Championship when they make it to the Premier League, particularly when it comes to goalscoring exploits, but on the odd occasion, someone manages it.

Back in 2012-13, that someone was Reading’s striker Adam Le Fondre, who was able to score 12 goals in a tremendous debut Premier League season – the same amount he’d managed in the Championship in the previous season. It was even more unbelievable given that the striker had been plying his trade in League Two with Rotherham just two seasons prior.

Le Fondre’s goals helped Reading to gain promotion, and once in the Premier League, he took to the division like a duck to water, scoring on his divisional debut in a match against Stoke with a 90th-minute penalty. The striker went on to score goals against the likes of Manchester United, Everton, Arsenal and Newcastle and was named Reading’s Player of the Season.

His goals weren’t enough to keep the Royals up, though, and surprisingly no Premier League team signed him in the summer of 2013. It became clear why a little later on, though, as despite scoring 15 Championship goals in 2013-14, Le Fondre’s form quickly fell off, and he only managed 15 goals in his next 3 seasons, proving to be a classic one-season wonder.