The Premier League’s Greatest 10 Players of All Time

From unstoppable goalscorers to era-defining playmakers, these 10 giants shaped the Premier League and left records that might never be broken. Here is the definitive countdown of the league’s greatest-ever players and the moments that made them immortal.

10. Patrick Vieira spent his Premier League career with Arsenal and later Manchester City, from 1996 into the early 2010s, and set the standard for a dominant two-way midfielder. He played 307 league matches, scored 31 goals and supplied 34 assists, winning three Premier League titles with Arsenal and captaining the Invincibles in 2003 to 2004. His defining league moment is often the goal and trophy lift on the final day of that unbeaten season, the image of a captain closing out perfection.

9. Kevin De Bruyne had a short early spell at Chelsea then returned to the league in 2015 to drive a decade of Manchester City dominance. Across 288 Premier League appearances he scored 72 goals and delivered 119 assists, the second-highest assist tally in league history, and collected six titles with City. His four-goal performance away to Wolves and the 20-assist season in 2019 to 2020 capture how he turned passing into a weapon as dangerous as any finisher.

8. Cristiano Ronaldo played in the Premier League for Manchester United across two spells, from 2003 to 2009 and again after returning in the 2020s. In the competition he amassed 236 appearances, 103 goals and 37 assists, winning three straight league titles between 2007 and 2009 and producing a Golden Boot season with 31 league goals. Many supporters still point to his 40-yard strike at Porto, which won the first FIFA Puskas Award, as the purest expression of that early Old Trafford superstar.

7. Frank Lampard played Premier League football from 1995 to 2015 for West Ham United, Chelsea, and Manchester City, but his legend sits mainly at Chelsea. He produced 609 league appearances, 177 goals, and 102 assists, and remains the highest scoring midfielder in Premier League history, with three league titles in blue. His late long-range winner at Bolton in 2005, the day Chelsea finally sealed the title under Jose Mourinho, is the moment that turned numbers into a banner for a club.

6. Steven Gerrard spent his entire Premier League career at Liverpool from 1998 to 2015, carrying the side through great years and lean ones. He played 504 league matches, scored 120 goals, and laid on 92 assists, ranking among the top assist-makers in the competition even without a single title medal. His hat trick in the Merseyside derby against Everton and the wave of long-range winners that defined that era show why he reached the Hall of Fame despite never winning the league.

5. Wayne Rooney came through at Everton, moved to Manchester United as a teenager and stayed in the Premier League into his late thirties, returning to Everton at the end. In league play he made 491 appearances, scored 208 goals, and provided 103 assists, with five Premier League titles and a place near the top of both the goal and assist charts. His overhead kick against Manchester City at Old Trafford remains one of the defining goals of the competition, an improvised volley that seemed to hang in the air before changing a derby and a title race.

4. Paul Scholes spent his entire Premier League career with Manchester United between 1994 and 2013, retiring and then returning for a final season. He played 499 league games, scored 107 goals, and recorded 55 official assists, winning 11 Premier League titles, the most for any English player. The volley against Bradford from a worked corner is the clip that always resurfaces, but just as important were the quiet games where his passing angles and tempo let United drain the life out of opponents without drama.

3. Thierry Henry is almost inseparable from Arsenal’s rise under Arsene Wenger. Between 1999, and his brief late return in 2012, he made 258 Premier League appearances, scored 175 goals, and provided 74 assists, winning two league titles and four Golden Boots, and leading the line for the Invincibles. The swivel and volley against Manchester United at Highbury, when he took the ball with his back to goal and sent it arcing over Fabian Barthez, still defines the idea of a world-class striker in this league.

2. Ryan Giggs played for Manchester United from the first Premier League season to 2014, effectively growing up alongside the competition. He holds the records with 632 Premier League appearances and 162 assists, added 109 league goals and collected 13 titles, more than any other player. The solo run against Arsenal in the 1999 FA Cup is his most replayed goal, but the deeper story is the way he shifted from flying winger to clever playmaker so that he could keep hurting teams for more than two decades.

1. Alan Shearer carried Southampton, Blackburn Rovers, and Newcastle United as the archetypal Premier League number nine. Across 441 league appearances he scored 260 goals and added 64 assists, numbers that still stand as the all-time goal record, and a benchmark for centre forwards, and he won the title with Blackburn in 1995. His hat tricks, his thunderous penalties, and the sight of defenders bouncing off him all blur together, but the enduring image is that raised-arm celebration and the sense of a striker who knew exactly what he was there to do.