10 footballers who will never leave their club

The legacies of Paolo Maldini and Ryan Giggs are examples of the charm the one-club man carriesThis is the age of the mercenary footballer. While player transfers is not a new phenomenon, never before have footballers’ transfer fees dogged their shadows like they do now. While evaluating a current player’s career, no less important than the goals and assists he has provided are the figures he has generated in the transfer market.Of course, there are exceptions. There are some greats who have valued their club’s crest and culture above all the money other places have offered, thereby permanently aligning their personal history with that of the club. Money, however, is taking over the realm of football like all other realms, and the one-club man is a dying breed.Home crowds revere this rare specimen as Gods. Paolo Maldini and Ryan Giggs are the two archetypal one-club men from recent history. AC Milan honoured Maldini’s loyal sevice for 24 years by having his jersey number retired (only his sons can choose to wear it if they make the grade)– there can only be one Number 3 in the Rossoneri history. Ryan Giggs was considered so invaluable to Manchester United that they drafted him into their coaching staff as he ran out of legs after thrilling fans for 24 years.This following list salutes some individuals who have stuck on with their club no matter how good an offer they received, or how lean a period their club went through.

#10 Darren Fletcher

There is something about Manchester United – not many people leave the club on their own volition. Giggs, Scholes and Gary Neville are all examples of United’s lifelong servants in the recent past. Darren Fletcher was only eight years old when Sir Alex chanced upon his immortal Class of ‘92, but the spirit of that group must have inspired him to permanently internalize the ethos of being an United player forever.

The Scotsman joined the Manchester United youth academy in 1995 at 11 years of age, and has never looked anywhere else since. In his early days he used to play on the right wing, and was touted to be the next David Beckham. He was slated to be the youngest ever player to play for the senior team in the 1999-2000 season, but Premier League rules stipulated that he was not ready to make the big leap yet.

In the ensuing years, Fletcher gradually moved to the position of a central midfielder, and was sporadically a member of the first team. His contributions were very important in the midfield battles of attrition, but tended to be overlooked amidst star-studded line-ups. It was in the end of the 2009-10 season that Fletcher was first given the captain’s armband for the club, but subsequent spells of injuries and illnesses meant that he would still not be able to consolidate his place.

It is unlikely that the 30 year old will move to some other club at this late stage of his career, in all likelihood he shall hang up his boots before that eventuality.

Years At Club:19Appearances(Senior Team):331Goals:24

#9 Daniele de Rossi

One of the most dependable Italian midfielders over the last decade, Daniele de Rossi’s tireless box-to-box approach to football has earned him admirers among pundits and fans alike, specifically those based in Rome. He is a versatile midfielder with a large set of skills, honed for the whole of his career at AS Roma’s Stadio Olimpico.

Rossi was born and brought up in the Italian capital, and he joined the youth academy of his hometown club as a 17 year old in 2000, and was promoted to make his maiden first-team appearance the next year. It did not take him very long to be considered a vital part of Roma’s setup, and he has been the one constant face in an ever-changing midfield line. In 2012, as a recognition of the value he brought to his team, Rossi had the honour of becoming the highest-paid Italian footballer.

Rossi has worn the captain’s armband at Roma on occasions when Fransesco Totti has been indisposed. During last season, there were reports of Manchester United having showed an interest in gaining his services. Though he had not been averse to the English transfer back then, he has later said he thinks that he did the right thing by sticking with his lifelong club.

Years At Club:13Appearances(Senior Team):448Goals:48

#8 Lionel Messi

It is stuff of legend how Barcelona scouts spotted a talented Argentine 13 year old boy with growth hormone deficiency back in the year 2000, and were so taken by what they saw that they offered to pay for his expensive treatment and signed the deal on a paper napkin with no other writing material on hand. That boy has proved to be an investment beyond the wildest beliefs of anyone who was witness to that historic moment, overhauling all club records by the age of 24 and generally doing much more than simply breaking records.

Messi was given his first-team debut in 2003 at 16 years of age, but it was clear among people at Barcelona long before that they were in the company of an exceptionally talented individual. Soon, Barcelona were crushing every opponent that they were facing, with a style of play christened tiki-taka, Messi being the most prolific source of goals in this legendary scheme of play. The players who were part of this divinely beautiful looking style of football can hardly be imagined playing in any other way, or for that matter moving to a different club – more on this later in the list.

Messi has won every possible individual and team honour in his Barcelona days; the club has influenced the direction his football has taken and he has similarly given direction to the club. Unless he can re-model his game completely, he cannot be easily accommodated in any other club – big or small. Not to mention the towering transfer fees that shall be involved in the process.

Years At Club:14Appearances(Senior Team):428Goals:356

#7 John Terry

As a boy, John Terry played as a midfielder in West Ham’s Youth Academy. At the age of 14, he was brought to Stamford Bridge, where he was eventually shifted to the defence because the Chelsea youth team lacked players in that position. Little did his coaches know then that the makeshift defender would later go on to define the position of the centre back at the club for many long years.

John Terry first played for Chelsea as a substitute against Aston Villa in a League Cup game in late 1998. Today, the sign bearing ‘Captain. Leader. Legend.’ hangs over the Matthew Harding stand at Stamford Bridge whether the team features him or not. Chelsea’s most successful captain is the team’s most prized centre back. To fans he is the long-standing picture of responsibility, rushing to the referee to negotiate every foul given and picking up trophy after trophy ever since he replaced Marcus Desailly as the Blues’ captain.

Terry is also one of the few players to have enjoyed a consistent resounding support from the fans of his club (even after having fatally slipped and fallen while failing to convert the final penalty shot at Chelsea’s tragic loss against Man United at Moscow). Considered synonymous with the new era at South West 6, in 2009, Chelsea’s lead warrior rattled his fans by expressing the desire to take up City on their ridiculously high offer for him. Terry eventually decided against it, and all was well at the Bridge again.

Years At Club:19Appearances(Senior Team):624Goals:57

#6 Steven Gerrard

Another ‘Captain, Leader, Legend’, Steven Gerrard has lived in the city of Liverpool all his life and has never known any training facilities other than those supplied by his hometown club. He has been used variously as a central midfielder, a holding midfielder, a right back and a right-winger in his time as a Liverpool player, but he is most famed for conjuring up screaming long-rangers and accurate set-pieces when his team has needed them the most.

The future legend made his entry into the Liverpool academy at the age of nine, but did not make any impact right away. Gerrard made his senior debut in 1998 at the age of 18, and as the maturity of his game came to light, replaced Sami Hyppia as club captain as early as in the year 2003. He has been leading his team out of the tunnel to the roar at Anfield ever since then. Never known for his dribbling abilities or on-the-ball skills, Gerrard nevertheless can rally a team like few others can – his best hour being the 2005 Champions League final at Istanbul.

In 2004, Gerrard turned down a very lucrative £20 million offer from Chelsea to stay with Liverpool.

Gerrard has become synonymous with the spirit of Merseyside, and in the unlikely case that Gerrard leaves his hometown at this late stage of his career, Liverpool will lose their captain figure, and Gerrard will lose the team leading which has become his second nature.

Years At Club:25Appearances(Senior Team):674Goals:175

#5 Sabri Sarioglu

This 30 year old right back and winger has played and risen through all the possible ranks at Galatasaray. As a result of his long association with the red-and-gold shirt, he holds a special reverence for his club strip, and Galatasaray fans accordingly hold up Sabri Sarioglu as a God.

This future Turkish international was inducted into the Galatasaray youth setup at the age of 15 years, and after knocking on the doors of a maiden senior team appearance for a long time, was handed a debut in 2003 at the age of 19. As if to celebrate his 100th match for the club some years later, Sabri undertook a solo run from within his own half and scored a fantastic goal.

In 2011, Sabri was made skipper of his club to reward him for his long and loyal service, but the treatment he receives from the home fans at the Turk Telecom Arena has to be seen to be believed.

Years At Club:19Appearances(Senior Team):370Goals:20

#4 Philipp Lahm & Bastian Schweinsteiger

German captain Philipp Lahm recently ended his long and illustrious international career after having finally got his hands on the coveted World Cup trophy, and he has been replaced by club mate Bastian Schweinsteiger as leader of Die Nationalmannschaft. The two 30-year-olds have been playing together at Bayern Munich for the longest time, even having made their respective senior debuts in the same match – against RC Lens on 13 November, 2002.

Lahm has been part of the Bayern Munich setup from the age of 11, and his rise to the senior team was as meteoric as his subsequent senior career, being named captain of all the junior Bayern teams before being thrown into the senior team at the age of 19. Schweinsteiger joined Lahm in the junior ranks a few years later at the age of 14, but his prodigious skills meant that the two would make their senior debuts in the same match.

Lahm was loaned out to VFB Stuttgart to gain first-team experience and Schweinsteiger was sent back to the reserves squad, but sparkling showings in German colours by the both of them precipitated their returns to the Bayern senior team. Since 2006, Lahm and Schweinsteiger have marshalled Bayern, such that without them their team looks like a talented but directionless bunch.

Lahm turned down offers from Barcelona and Manchester United back in 2008, and one assumes the retired captain will have no qualms in turning down future offers. Bayern Munich are currently going through one of the most successful phases in their history, and it is unthinkable that these two senior players will leave the club after having worked towards this for all their domestic careers.

Lahm

Years at club: 19Appearances (Senior Team): 404Goals: 11

Schweinsteiger

Years at Club: 16Appearances (Senior Team): 473Goals: 63

#3 Xavi Hernandez & Andres Iniesta

Following the retirement of long-time club captain Carlos Puyol, Barcelona have announced that the Messi-Xavi-Iniesta-Busquets quartet will rotate the captain’s armband among themselves. This decision, though a unique one, is eminently understandable because these are the players who have defined Barcelona over the last decade or so, a period for which they have reigned over all of Europe.

With Xavi the facilitator, Busquets the destroyer and Iniesta the creator; the Barcelona midfield has lorded over all other midfields for the longest time, and once they leave, Barcelona will need to find a new recipe for world-domination.

Busquests is the youngest in this midfield of three, and made his senior debut in 2008. Iniesta was enrolled in La Masia as a homesick 12-year-old in 1996, and Pep Guardiola is known to have famously told Xavi after watching the promising lad, “You're going to retire me. This lad [Iniesta] is going to retire us all.” Xavi is the most senior of these three, the Catalonia native was brought into the La Masia fold in 1991 at the age of 11.

Xavi was pushed into the senior Barcelona team in 1998, but was only to find his feet after Iniesta’s debut at the same age four years later in 2002. Their ruthless combination once frustrated Sir Alex Ferguson so much that he had said, “I don't think Xavi and Iniesta have ever given the ball away in their lives. They get you on that carousel and they can leave you dizzy.”

The two have been at several times linked with moves to big clubs like Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, but they have been equally vociferous in quashing all such possibilities as rumours.

Xavi

Years At Club: 23Appearances (Senior Team): 725Goals: 83

Iniesta

Years At Club: 18Appearances (Senior Team): 509Goals: 50

#2 Iker Casillas

Iker Casillas has been at La Fabrica from the age of nine, the place where he has been honing his goalkeeping skills ever since. He has never had the stature and reach of a conventional goalkeeper, but has always made up for it with his agility, his confidence and his prowess with the gloves.

The man with the baby face was given his maiden cap with the senior side in 1997 at the age of 16. In 2000, at the age of 19, he became the youngest goalkeeper ever to have featured in a Champions League final, and kept a clean sheet in a 3-0 defeat of Valencia.

Since then, the Santiago Bernabeu has witnessed the saving antics of just one key goalkeeper - Real’s captain and enduring soldier; Casillas. Not only does he hold all sorts of records possible to be held by goalkeepers, he has also significantly altered the course of important matches with his genius saving talent.

In 2013, when a ruthless Jose Mourinho benched him after an injury, a benching which lasted for 238 days and into Ancelotti’s managership, Madrid’s quiet leader waited with patience while fans clamoured for his extraordinary skills and captaincy. Now back in his favourite position with his back to the goal, Casillas stands for the imposing spirit of the club whose opponents’ dreams he routinely crushes - perhaps with lesser finesse than before, but with exactly the same amount of dedication.

Years at Club: 24Appearances (Senior Team): 685Goals: 0

#1 Francesco Totti

Totti is one of the greatest footballers of his generation in the attacking half of the pitch. He has won a hall full of awards and honours, among which shines brightest a World Cup winners’ medal.

He is one of the most popular footballers in all of Europe, but in his hometown of Rome of course special veneration is reserved for him – he is called the Il Re di Roma (The King of Rome). Totti’s behaviour on and off the field has been of a charismatic nature the ancient ancestors of Rome would have been proud of. He is the highest goalscorer and the most capped player in the history of AS Roma.

Totti began his playing days at local youth clubs before being signed on for Roma’s youth academy in 1989 at the age of 13. Three years later, he was given the first chance to shine in the Serie A, and by the age of 18 Totti was a regular feature of the club squad on any important matchday.

Season after season since then, Totti has captained his club and been their highest goalscorer – such that he is now the highest active goalscorer in the Serie A, and the second highest in the league’s history! Sensationally, all his goals have been scored in service of only the one club.

Years at Club: 25Appearances (Senior Team): 709Goals: 290