Ranking Bradford City’s 8 worst players of modern times - Zesh Rehman in 3rd | OneFootball

The past two decades have been interesting for Bradford City.

By the time the 2003/4 season started, the Premier League years were over, and the Bantams were quickly starting to descend the divisions at lightning speed.

However, there were some great times too. Bradford reached the 2013 League Cup final but lost emphatically to Premier League club Swansea City 5-0.

The Bantams followed that up two years later with arguably the greatest FA Cup underdog story: beating a José Mourinho Chelsea side at Stamford Bridge.

Although the players during those cup memories have gone down in club history for the right reasons, many former Bradford City players over the past twenty years have gone down in history for the wrong reasons.

With that said, although subjective, here is our list of the worst Bradford City players in recent times.

8 Willy Topp

Fans of other Football League clubs might be scratching their heads, wondering who Willy Topp is. Still, every Bradford City fan will remember him, especially for the ‘Willy not Billy” campaign, if nothing else.

Signed for £35,000 in 2007, the much-hyped Chilean striker joined the club and dazzled his teammates in training with his silky skills. Unfortunately, Topp registered no goals in 13 games before terminating his contract early.

7 Kai Brünker

Built more like a bodybuilder than a footballer at the time of signing, German striker Kai Brünker joined the Bantams during the 2017/18 season.

However, Brünker was just not ready for League One football and looked out of place on the Valley Parade surface.

Across all competitions, Brünker registered 31 appearances, scoring 1 goal in the EFL Trophy.

These days, Brünker is probably best known for scoring the stoppage-time winner for FC Saarbrücken in the DFB-Pokal quarter-final victory against Borussia Mönchengladbach in early March 2024.

6 Rory Boulding

The younger Boulding brother was signed through nepotism as a package deal when big brother Michael Boulding signed for the Bantams after scoring 22 goals in the previous season for Mansfield Town.

Rory Boulding, the less talented of the two, made only four appearances for Bradford City and scored no goals.

Ironically, both brothers were released together in 2010.

5 Rouven Sattelmaier

German goalkeeper Rouven Sattelmaier joined the club in 2016 and is probably best remembered for the numerous blunders he made in his 22 appearances.

Sattelmaier was just one of several German players who joined the Bantams under the new German ownership and struggled to showcase their effectiveness in professional football.

Phil Parkinson didn’t get many signings wrong during his tenure at the Bantams, but unfortunately, Matthew Bates was one of them.

Bates joined the Bantams with some pedigree. During his time at Middlesbrough, he was watched by a handful of Premier League teams and even captained the side.

Unfortunately, the often injured centre-back showed nothing of the level required and left the club after making 22 appearances.

3 Zesh Rehman

Before signing for Bradford City, Zesh Rehman turned down multiple offers from higher-division clubs.

Unfortunately, the former Pakistan international might have thought that he was doing the club a favour, but his performances on the pitch were not good.

Although Rehman was made captain, he was eventually stripped of the armband and left the club to play in Thailand.

2 Aaron McLean

Aaron McLean was brought in to replace Nahki Wells's goalscoring boots after the prolific striker had left the club for Huddersfield Town. However, during McLean's spell at the club, he didn't live up to expectations.

Despite being regarded as a coup at the time, McLean looked way past his best and only scored seven goals in 37 appearances.

He may be the less famous Wright brother, but you could argue he is also a worse footballer than his reality-star sibling.

Despite captaining the club, Josh Wright is infamous among the Bantam faithful for his poor performances. It is a mystery how he made 22 appearances for the club.

Wright never seemed interested in playing for the club and often let the midfield opposition simply stroll past him without a care in the world. Equally, when he had the ball at his feet, he did nothing of note with it.