In the nearly three-decade-long history of Premier League football, there have been some truly remarkable defenders who have lined out for teams across the country. From home-grown greats like John Terry to players from around the world like Nemanja Vidic, there have been some exhilarating performances and goals by some of the world’s best players.
Six of the 47 PFA Player’s Player of the Year winners have been defenders, with just three since 1992, when the old First Division was replaced with the Premier League.
Here at NetBet, we decided to pay tribute to a number of the most iconic defenders of the Premier League era, including some current players who you will see when you’re browsing our sports betting pages before making a few bets.
Paul McGrath – Manchester United, Aston Villa, Derby County
Dublin-born centre back Paul McGrath was the first player named Player of the Year by his fellow pros as part of the new Premier League. Then with Aston Villa, although he enjoyed stints with Manchester United and Derby County as well, McGrath was a serious handful for strikers all over the world, as he led the line for the Republic of Ireland international team at their first three major tournaments in Euro 88 and World Cups ‘90 & 94. McGrath is still remembered by many at Villa Park as one of the greats in the club’s history, and is also considered by fans of Manchester United as an Old Trafford ‘legend’ despite leaving right before Sir Alex Ferguson’s heyday.
Tony Adams – Arsenal
Tony Adams MBE was a true one club man, spending his entire legendary career playing for just two teams – Arsenal and England. For 22 years, Adams marshalled the backline at Highbury, and he is considered one of the greatest Arsenal players of all time by the club’s fans. He won four top flight division titles, and became the only player to captain a title-winning team in three different decades. He also picked up three FA Cups, two League Cups, a UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, and two FA Community Shields. In December 2011, alongside Thierry Henry and Herbert Chapman, the Romford centre half was honoured with a statue that stands to this day outside the Emirates Stadium. He has since moved into management, where he has been in charge of Wycombe Wanderers, Portsmouth, Azerbaijani side Gabala and Granada.
John Terry – Chelsea
Widely considered one of the greatest players in the world on his day, John Terry only played for one team in the Premier League, before finishing his career in the Championship with Aston Villa. Terry is Chelsea’s most successful captain. During his nearly two decades at Stamford Bridge, he led them to five Premier League titles, four FA Cups, three League Cups, one UEFA Europa League and one UEFA Champions League. He is the club’s all-time highest scoring defender. In 2007, he became the first captain to lift the FA Cup at the new Wembley Stadium in Chelsea’s 1–0 win over Manchester United and ten years later would make history as the first man to captain a team to five Premier League titles.
Sol Campbell – Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Portsmouth, Newcastle United
For twenty years, Sol Campbell plied his trade at some of the country’s top clubs, including Arsenal, Newcastle and Spurs. Campbell is perhaps most famous for his controversial move across North London in 2001 where he swapped Spurs for Arsenal, but this often overshadows a tremendous CV that saw him win trophies pretty much everywhere he went. He picked up two Premier League titles and a Champions League silver medal with Arsenal, as well as three FA Cups (two with Arsenal, one with Portsmouth) and a Football League Cup with Spurs. He was named in the PFA Team of the Year three times, and earned 73 caps in 11 years for England.
Rio Ferdinand – Manchester United, Leeds United, West Ham, QPR
England have had very few better players than the legendary Rio Ferdinand. The towering Camberwell-born defender has one of the longest lists of accolades of anyone in Premier League history with six Premier League wins, two League Cups, a Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup and four Community Shields at Manchester United joining his sole winners medal at West Ham for the 1999 Intertoto Cup. He was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2016 after finishing a glittering career at Queens Park Rangers in 2015. Ferdinand was capped 81 times by the England national team over a 14 year period.
Virgil Van Dijk – Liverpool, Southampton
Dutch centre-back Virgil van Dijk is still in his prime, but if he never kicked a ball again, his legacy on Merseyside would be secured. He is the only defender to win UEFA Men’s Player of the Year, and has been named PFA Player of the Year becoming only the sixth overall and third defender of the Premier League to be given the honour. He finished runner-up for the Ballon d’Or and Best FIFA Men’s Player, and has a number of medals to show for his career with Liverpool thus far. After signing for a club record fee from Southampton, he picked up a Champions League runners-up medal in his first season at Anfield and since has gone one better to win the tournament as well as ending their decades-long Premier League title drought last year.
Kolo Touré – Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool
Kolo Touré’s outlandish antics may have some scratching their heads at his inclusion in this list, but the Ivory Coast legend has quite the CV. He’s one of just eight players who have won the Premier League with two clubs after taking home the title in 2004 with Arsenal and 2011 as part of the famous Manchester City comeback mission against QPR in 2012. He remains the African player with the most Premier League appearances (353 in total).