7 Best Players In Premier League History (Ranked) | OneFootball

Ever since the inaugural 1992/93 Premier League season, we have been blessed with a constant conveyor belt of truly fantastic players.

Eric Cantona was the first to take the league by storm, but many have followed in his path since. Thierry Henry, Ryan Giggs, Frank Lampard, Yaya Toure, John Terry, the list is endless in almost every single position on the football pitch.

This list could easily be extended to the top 100 Premier League players of all time and still be filled with exclusively world-class players. However, we are going to attempt to whittle that long list down to just five, and crown one the best player in Premier League history.

7 John Terry

These lists very rarely include defenders, but John Terry more than deserves his spot on this list.

Not only did he rack up an incredible 214 clean sheets in 492 Premier League appearances, forming part of Chelsea's successful spine in the latter half of the 2000s, but he was also proficient at the other end of the pitch too - scoring 41 Premier League goals.

As their captain, Terry led the Blues to five Premier League titles in total, cementing his place as one of the greatest defenders of his generation.

6 Kevin De Bruyne

The only player on this list that is still playing and that is a testament to the quality of Kevin De Bruyne. To be arguably the most important player in a squad as talented as Manchester City's takes some doing, but that is exactly what the Belgian has done.

Steven Gerrard, Paul Scholes or Frank Lampard? That has long been the debate among Premier League fans, but De Bruyne appears to be the perfect mixture of all three.

The midfielder has recorded over 100 assists during his time in England, and will most likely find himself even higher on this list once he retires.

5 Steven Gerrard

Most people's top five would likely include at least one of Scholes, Lampard and Gerrard, and it is Gerrard who gets the nod in this list.

He was perhaps the best all-rounder among the trio and was an ever-present driving force behind any success Liverpool achieved during his career, most notably his dazzling display against AC Milan in the 2005 Champions League final.

Gerrard was an excellent player, and his lack of a Premier League title is not enough to keep him off this list.

4 Wayne Rooney

By far and away one of the most under-appreciated footballers to grace the Premier League. At one point in time, Rooney was the top goalscorer for both Manchester United and the English national team - a status which cannot be reached unless you are incredibly talented.

Like Gerrard, Rooney was versatile and often sacrificed himself to allow others to flourish, none more so than Cristiano Ronaldo. Had he been a tad more selfish during his career, he could've scored even more goals, yet still netted an impressive 208 times during a lengthy Premier League career - putting him third in the all-time scoring charts, while also registering 103 assists.

3 Alan Shearer

One of the players ahead of Rooney on that list is Alan Shearer, who scored a mind-boggling 260 Premier League goals for Newcastle United and Blackburn Rovers.

Whether it be a header, a volley, a long-range strike or a so-called 'tap-in', Shearer could score them all. He is arguably the truest embodiment of a natural number nine the Premier League has ever seen and has to be included in this list.

His link-up play is also extremely underrated, and the ex-Newcastle United hitman registered an impressive 64 assists alongside his goals.

2 Cristiano Ronaldo

Despite comfortably being the best player on this list when looking at an entire career, Ronaldo only makes second when analyzing his time in the Premier League.

As a winger, he scored 102 goals and recorded 37 assists during 236 Premier League appearances for Manchester United, winning the Ballon d'Or in 2008 for a particularly impressive campaign.

Some may argue that he shouldn't be on this list as he enjoyed the best period of his career at Real Madrid, but his time in England was still astonishing.

1 Thierry Henry

Truthfully speaking, there was always only one candidate for this spot, and it's the undeniable king of the Premier League - Thierry Henry.

The Frenchman was a unique player, combining goals and assists in a manner that to this day has never been replicated.

Henry registered a total of 249 goal contributions in just 258 Premier League appearances for Arsenal - meaning he scored or assisted 0.96 times per game on average. For perspective, Alan Shearer's respective figure is just 0.73.

The 2002/03 season was perhaps his greatest, becoming the first and only player to score and assist 20+ goals in a single Premier League campaign, cementing his iconic status as one of the greatest players to grace the game.