5 players from the Championship who could light up the Premier League in 2018/19

#5 Sol Bamba

Sol Bamba has been in imperious form as Cardiff have secured promotion

Going into 2017/18 nobody was talking about Cardiff City as promotion hopefuls, but ten months down the line and the Welsh club are heading back to the Premier League for the first time since 2013/14. The tremendous work done by boss Neil Warnock must take a lot of credit, but in a squad containing few big names, the form of defender Sol Bamba has also been a key to their success.

Somewhat of a journeyman, Bamba has featured for the likes of Paris St. Germain, Hibernian, Leicester City and Trabzonspor during his career, which stretches back to 2004. At 33 he’s probably reaching the end of his time at the top level, but in 2017/18 he’s been in simply imperious form, appearing in all 46 of Cardiff’s league games and helping them to keep the joint-tightest defence in the league.

Cardiff have only let in 39 goals all season – less than a goal per game on average – and Bamba has gained 8 Man of the Match awards from WhoScored.com, the most of any Cardiff player. Incredibly strong and seemingly impossible to shake off the ball, the Ivorian is also an extremely reliable tackler – completing an average of 2.5 successful tackles per game while only being booked 7 times all season.

Defenders might not be the sexiest picks in terms of players who could light up the Premier League, but the success of Newcastle this season has been helped by the form of their defenders such as Jamaal Lascelles, and if Cardiff want to remain in the Premier League next season, then Bamba displaying the same form he has this season would help massively.