There are players that just play football for the money or the fame, and then there are those that do it for the love of the club they represent. A club that, on the majority of occasions, they will have been at since their youth team days.
What it means to play for such clubs will be ingrained into their psyche before they even make their first-team debuts and that’s what makes these players so special and beloved by their fans.
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In some cases, the player won’t necessarily be the best in the team, but the one whom the supporters most identify with.
Be that because the player is from the local area and so understands his responsibility completely when pulling on the shirt, or it could be that he has served the club with such passion, desire and will-to-win, that no one can imagine a team without him in it.
Here are 10 such players...
#1 Mark Noble
More than just your average ‘Cockney Geezer,’ Mark Noble has proved himself to be an astute captain and one who fully understands what it means to represent West Ham United.
That will have come from his years spent on the terraces cheering the Hammers on, a dream coming true when he could don the claret and blue for a living.
A Canning Town lad, born and raised just a couple of miles from West Ham’s old Boleyn Ground, he is admired and respected in the locale for not letting success go to his head and remembering his roots.
An incredibly popular figure both on and off of the pitch, he is surely a future Hammers manager.
#2 John Terry
The curtain is finally coming down on John Terry’s Chelsea career, and there won’t be a dry eye in the house on his final appearance at Stamford Bridge. The moniker of “Mr. Chelsea” suits him perfectly.
His is a career played at the very highest level and there’s arguably been no better English central defender in the Premier League era than the Blues colossus.
Not to everyone’s taste off of the pitch, his contributions on it are beyond compare. No longer at the absolute peak of his powers, it’s the right time to go, but he is one of very few players who are irreplaceable.
Chelsea’s loss will be another team’s gain and he won’t have a shortage of takers for his signature in 2017/18.
#3 Ben Woodburn
Ben Woodburn might not be a name familiar to too many, but everyone knows who he is on Merseyside. And why wouldn’t they when he is Liverpool’s youngest ever goalscorer and with the world at his feet.
In a team that is becoming more and more multi-national by the season, and with former players such as Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard long since departed, it is local boy Woodburn who’ll be flying the flag.
At 15 years of age, his star was already on the rise and he played in Pep Linders’ U18 side, shining on a stage replete with much older and stronger exponents.
The now 17-year-old is coming up to a decade with the club already and though he’s played for Wales at every level bar the senior side, his rise has been so meteoric that England are doing everything they can behind the scenes to convince the player to switch his allegiance.
The red half of Merseyside love a local-boy-made-good story and Jurgen Klopp already likes what he sees, so expect to hear much more about Woodburn in due course.
#4 Ross Barkley
Ross Barkley perhaps hasn’t quite hit the heights expected of him as yet, both for club and country, but he is one of the most naturally gifted players that Everton and England have.
Though he seems to have been around for an age, he is still just 23 and theoretically four years away from his peak. That’s frightening.
An attacking midfielder by trade, he was born on Merseyside and joined Everton as an 11-year-old. He would’ve made his debut for the Toffees at 16 – mirroring Wayne Rooney – were it not for a broken leg sustained in a challenge with Liverpool’s Andre Wisdom in an U19 match.
Quick, physical and aggressive, and with a decent footballing brain, Barkley is very much the modern day footballer and will be around for some time to come.
#5 Andy King
Not many players can say that they’ve played in the Champions League and League One, but Andy King has that distinction, having served Leicester City with aplomb since 2006.
A true one-club-man and a player’s player, he has never been the type to trouble the headline writers but his colleagues and manager know exactly his worth to the team.
Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez may have been the driving forces behind the Foxes’ epic Premier League triumph, but they owe a debt of gratitude to a ‘water carrier’ who has been with the club from his youth team days.
Priceless.
#6 Harry Kane
A whirlwind that swept onto a White Hart Lane pitch three seasons ago (though he’d been at the club far longer), and someone who has never looked back since. At just 23 years old, Harry Kane is Tottenham Hotspur. He has made himself that important to the team with not just his goals, but his team play as well.
He’s an old-school centre-forward and will bully the opposition to get himself on the scoresheet, but his awareness speaks of a young man who has a much more wide-ranging appreciation of the game than just seeing the ball hit the onion bag.
There to stay, it would be a surprise if he didn’t fire the Lilywhites to a league title in the next few seasons. How Arsenal must regret letting him leave their youth team!
#7 Lionel Messi
It’s long been contended that Barcelona are far too reliant on their talisman, Lionel Messi, and the phrase ‘Messi-dependence’ was coined as a result.
Given that he’s not ostensibly a winger, a striker, a false nine or an attacking midfielder, but he’s managed to be the best in any and every one of those positions over the years, could we be looking at the best ever player to play the game?
Someone with the most goals and assists in La Liga, most goals in El Clasico fixtures, most goals in a calendar year, most Ballon d’Or awards...the list is endless.
A once in a lifetime player and one who – to the delight of his club – hasn't cost them a penny. What’s more, he continues to be the model professional.
Genius.
#8 Sergio Ramos
When your backs are against the wall and you need someone to drag you through a game by the scruff of the neck, there aren’t too many better qualified than Sergio Ramos.
Real Madrid’s captain and centre-back is a no-nonsense throwback who likes to go in where it hurts and be at the forefront of the battle.
Though Messrs. Ronaldo, Bale and Benzema are normally the ones to garner the column inches, the former Sevilla man has had his fair share of headlines thanks to an astonishing run of goals in 2016/17.
It’s worth dwelling on the fact that Los Blancos really struggle when he’s not driving them forward. A player who is worth his weight in gold.
#9 Gianluigi Buffon
If there was a footballing god, then he would let Gianluigi Buffon finally get his hands on the Champions League trophy. It’s the one blot on an otherwise storied career that began at Parma in 1995 but blossomed at Juventus from 2001 onwards.
Like many others on this list, Buffon has been made the captain of his club side, and that he is still at the top of his game at 39 years of age, tells us a lot about the professionalism and dedication of the man.
He still holds the record for the most clean sheets in Serie A, the longest stretch without conceding a goal (12 games) and the most consecutive clean sheets.
To put into perspective just how long he has been at the top, Buffon had already been playing for four years before AC Milan keeper, and Buffon’s expected successor in the national team, Gianluigi Donnarumma, had been born.
#10 Philipp Lahm
What a shame for football fans generally that in just a few short weeks, Philipp Lahm will be hanging up his boots for good. A player that has been an example for everyone to follow throughout his career and the most deserving of Bayern Munich captains.
Still only 33, Lahm has been a mainstay of the Bavarian side ever since he burst onto the scene on November 13, 2002, just two days after his 19th birthday. He’d already been the captain of the Bayern reserve side and his coach at that stage of his career, Hermann Gerland, suggested that he was the most talented player he had ever coached.
Pep Guardiola in early 2017 stopped short of comparing Lahm with Lionel Messi but noted that the German had everything he loved, both professionally and as a person.
He will be sorely missed.
