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The Premier League is easily the most popular football league in the world and arguably the most competitive in Europe’s Top 5 leagues.
Most professional footballers dream of playing in England which is why the league has witnessed some of the all-time greats of the game over the years.
Given the competitive nature of the league and the often short nature of a player’s stint in the league, many top players bid farewell to their Premier League career without lifting the prestigious trophy.
The greatest XI to not win the Premier League features players from Chelsea before the Roman Abramovich era and unsurprisingly, from Liverpool also.
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Honourable mentions:
Sami Hyppia, Gary Speed, Paul Gascoigne, Ruud Gullit, Juan Mata, David Ginola, Matt Le Tissier, Gianluca Vialli, Robbie Fowler, Jermain Defoe, Les Ferdinand, Robbie Keane, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Harry Kane and Fernando Torres
We had to leave out some terrific players from the greatest XI to not win the Premier League and it wasn’t easy to leave out some of them.
For instance, Ruud Gullit is a Ballon d’Or winner who finished his playing career with Chelsea; Les Ferdinand and David Ginola are PFA Players’ Player of the Year award winners and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Harry Kane are two-time Premier League Golden Boot winners. The latter is also a PFA Fans’ Player of the Year winner.
Robbie Fowler, Jermain Defoe Les Ferdinand, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Robbie Keane, Harry Kane and Matt Le Tissier are seven of only 28 players with 100 or more Premier League goals.
In addition, the following players have been included in the PFA Team of the Year - Les Ferdinand, Harry Kane (4 times), Matt Le Tissier, Sami Hyppia (2 times), Gary Speed, Paul Gascoigne (2 times), Ruud Gullit, Juan Mata, David Ginola (2 times) and Fernando Torres (2 times). Three of these players; Hyppia, Mata and Torres, won the Champions League while they were in the Premier League even though the league title eluded them.
Goalkeeper - Pepe Reina (Liverpool)
Pepe Reina played 394 games for Liverpool across eight seasons with 284 appearances in the Premier League. Although Reina only won four trophies with the Reds, he is considered one of the greatest goalkeepers to play for Liverpool.
Reina won the Premier League Golden Glove award in his first season with Liverpool during which he kept 20 clean sheets. Since the Golden Glove award has been introduced, only two keepers have kept more than 20 clean sheets in a season - Petr Cech in 2004/05 (24) and Edwin van der Sar in 2008/09 (21).
The Spaniard went on to win the Golden Glove in three consecutive seasons and became the first player to achieve the feat. It has since been matched only by Joe Hart for Manchester City. In fact, only Hart and Cech have more Golden Glove awards than Reina and both players have played in the Premier League longer than Reina.
Reina came close to winning the league title with Liverpool in 2008/09 before he left to join Bayern Munich.
Defenders - Jamie Carragher (Liverpool), Ledley King (Spurs) and Marcel Desailly (Chelsea)
Jamie Carragher spent his entire playing career with Liverpool after coming through the club’s academy. He wore the Liverpool red on 737 occasions of which 508 were in the Premier League.
Carragher won 11 trophies with Liverpool and the only trophy which eluded him was the coveted league title. The Englishman was named in the PFA Premier League Team of the Year in 2005/06.
Ledley King might be one of the most underrated English players of his generation. King played in an era when England had the likes of Rio Ferdinand, John Terry and Jamie Carragher.
The central defender came through the Spurs academy and spent his entire playing career at the club before ending his career prematurely due to persistent injury woes. He only played 268 Premier League games and the only trophy he won as a player was the League Cup in 2008. In September 2004, he was named the Premier League Player of the Month.
When Marcel Desailly arrived at Chelsea in 1998, he was already a Champions League winner with Marseille and Milan, and a FIFA World Cup winner with France.
Chelsea was the Frenchman’s final club in Europe and he was at the club for six seasons during which he played 222 games for the Blues. He won the UEFA Super Cup, FA Cup and the Community Shield as a Chelsea player before leaving for Qatar Stars League ahead of the 2004/05 season.
Midfielders - Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Xabi Alonso (Liverpool), Javier Mascherano and Luka Modric (Spurs)
Without a hint of doubt, Steven Gerrard is the greatest players to not win the Premier League. Gerrard played 504 Premier League games for Liverpool scoring 120 goals in an illustrious career. He lifted several trophies as Liverpool captain including the Champions League but the Premier League title eluded him.
Gerrard was the PFA Players’ Players of the Year in 2005/06, the PFA Fans’ Player of the Year in 2001/01 & 2008/09, the PFA Young Player of the Year in 2000/01 and he has also been named in the PFA Team of the Year a record eight times. His despair of not winning the league title is well documented in his biopic titled ‘Make Us Dream’.
The former Liverpool captain has often said that the best Liverpool team he played in was the one from 2008/09 that finished runners-up in the league with 86 points. The reason why that team was special is that Gerrard was joined by Javier Mascherano and Xabi Alonso in midfield.
Alonso was at Liverpool between 2004 and 2009 during which he won the Champions League and the FA Cup. Mascherano, on the other hand, was at Liverpool for only three seasons and didn’t win a trophy with the Reds. Both players moved to the La Liga in subsequent years to play for rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona. In addition to winning the league title with their respective club in Spain, they’ve also won numerous other trophies including the Champions League.
The final player in the midfield is another Premier League star who moved abroad and found a lot of success. Luka Modric was a Spurs player for four seasons before joining Real Madrid in 2012. At Real Madrid, the Croat has only won one league title. However, he has won four Champions League titles and is now considered one of the best players in the world. He recently broke the ten-year-long duopoly of Messi and Ronaldo to win the Ballon d'Or.
Forwards - Gareth Bale (Spurs), Luis Suarez (Liverpool) and Gianfranco Zola (Chelsea)
Gareth Bale, like Luka Modric, left Spurs to join Real Madrid after finding no success with the North London club. Bale scored 42 goals in 146 Premier League games for Spurs en route to winning numerous individual honours including two PFA Players’ Player of the Year award, the FWA Footballer of the Year and the Premier League Player of the Season.
The Welshman left Spurs in 2013 for a then World record fee and has since gone on to win numerous trophies.
Luis Suarez is one many notable Liverpool players to leave the Reds and move to the La Liga in recent years. Suarez scored 69 Premier League goals for the Reds, won the League Cup and came agonisingly close to winning the league title in 2013/14 before he moved to Barcelona.
During his short Premier League stint, he was named the PFA Players’ Player of the Year, Premier League Player of the season, the FWA Footballer of the Year and was included in the PFA Team of the Year twice. He also won the Premier League and European Golden Boot in his final season with Liverpool.
Completing the XI is the current Chelsea assistant manager and arguably Chelsea’s greatest player from the pre-Abramovich era, Gianfranco Zola.
Zola was a Chelsea player for seven seasons and he’s best remembered for scoring some spectacular goals. In total, he scored 59 goals in 229 Premier League games for the Blues before departing in 2003. In 1997, Zola was named the FWA Footballer of the Year.
