5 players whose journey to the Premier League was emotional

#4 Rickie Lambert

The journeyman footballer played for several clubs before taking Southampton to the Premier League

Lambert left the youth academy of his dream club as a teenager, only to come back years later, following success elsewhere – his story could not be any more different from that of Paul Pogba's. Released by the Liverpool youth academy at the age of 15,

Lambert took quite a detour through the lesser known leagues in English football, eventually finding his way to Southampton through Blackpool, Macclesfield Town, Stockport County, Rochdale and Bristol Rovers.

The Englisman wrote his name in Southampton folklore with his contributions to get them to the Premier League from league one – and when Liverpool came calling, no one at Southampton could grudge good ol’ Rickie the move of his dreams.

Even though the move never quite worked out, Lambert will always beam with pride when he looks back upon his career and sees Liverpool FC in his CV.