7 Great Footballers who never played in the Premier League

Modified Sep 23, 2018 19:33 GMT

Juventus v FC Barcelona - UEFA Champions League Final — Andrea Pirlo never featured in the premier league

#2 Zinedine Zidane

Zinedine Zidane is a footballing icon and has won almost everything there is to win in the world of Football. He started his career at Cannes and shifted to Bordeaux in 1992. He spent 4 seasons there, playing 179 games and scoring 39 goals, before securing a move to Italian giants Juventus in 1996. It was at Turin that the Frenchman finally announced himself to the world, winning two Serie A titles, one Supercoppa Italiana, one UEFA Super Cup, one intercontinental cup and one UEFA Intertoto Cup. He won the 1998 World Cup with France and the Ballon d'Or and the FIFA World Player of the year in the same year. He would go on to win two more FIFA World Player of the year awards. He also won the 2000 Euro with France.

In 2001, Zidane transferred to Real Madrid for a then World record transfer fee. He went on to play 225 games for the Spanish Giants, winning the La Liga and the Champions League among others and retired at the end of the 2005/06 season. He has since then made a successful transition into Soccer Management and was a revelation at Real Madrid.

In 2010 it was revealed by football agent Barry Silkman that Newcastle had the chance to sign Zidane before he joined Juventus, but rejected the offer to bring him to St. James Park. In addition, Manchester United’s ex-Chairman Martin Edwards has said that United were the front-runners alongside Juventus in 1996 for Zidane’s signature, but backed away because he and Eric Cantona occupied the same position. It is another story of missed opportunity for United because Cantona retired next year and a midfield of Zidane and Scholes would have made the Premier League sizzle.

About the author

Deepungsu is a veteran football journalist who has been covering daily transfer roundups and news for over six years at Sportskeeda. He has written over 8500 articles for the website, and has garnered over 19.5Million reads.

Deepungsu holds a PG degree in Microbiology and an MBA degree in Total Quality Management. He has an extensive two-decade long writing experience, which includes a decade of sports blogging. His writing prowess has even led his work getting cited on the legendary Franz Beckenbauer's Wikipedia page.

Inspired by Diego Maradona, Deepungsu played as an attacking midfielder for his local club at subdivision level in his initial years and scored an important goal or two. However, his all-time favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and evidently, he feels Argentina's glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment for fulfilling his long-standing dream. He is also an ardent East Bengal fan.

Deepungsu has been a Manchester United supporter since the year 2000. Unsurprisingly, his favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson and the Scotsman helped him get through some of the toughest days of his life. Like the fiery Scot, Deepungsu also leaves no stone unturned when it comes to accuracy in articles and only relies on credible sources.

Despite believing in Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland to create an iconic rivalry, Deepungsu reckons no one can match the longevity of Messi and Ronaldo. He spends his leisure time writing about life on his blog, reading books, and playing the guitar.

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Edited by Victor R. Lopez M.