Thirty Years of the Premier League: Arsenal legend Thierry Henry voted competition's best ever player

Alexander Boyes
05 August 2022
2:00 min read

Top 10 Best players in Premier League history

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Betfair have teamed up with YouGov to celebrate the Premier League's 30th anniversary, surveying over 1000 football fans, who reveal their top 10 greatest players in history...

#1 - Thierry Henry

Arsenal legend Thierry Henry has been voted ahead of any other as the greatest player in Premier League history. Henry topped a list that included the likes of Roy Keane, Paul Scholes, Kevin De Bruyne, Frank Lampard and Patrick Vieira, earning the largest share of the vote.

The Frenchman, who netted 175 goals in the Premier League, was (and still is thanks to the statue outside the Emirates stadium), the face of the Gunners during his time at the club.

His 175 goals is bettered by only Sergio Aguero (184) amongst all non-British players in Premier League history.

Thierry Henry arrived at the club in 1999, brought in by compatriot Arsene Wenger to help Arsenal fight season after season with Manchester United for the top-flight title, winning the competition in 2001-02 and 2003-04.

The latter success enhanced by going through the whole campaign unbeaten - read more on that and the other best teams in Premier League history here.

Arsenal's iconic #14 left England with six trophies to his name, four golden boots and as the greatest goalscorer in the club's history.

#2 - Cristiano Ronaldo

Manchester United legend Cristiano Ronaldo finished in second place, despite lifting more Premier League titles (3) in less time than Thierry Henry.

Ronaldo, who returned to Manchester in the summer of 2021, became the oldest player to reach the famous 100 goal club last season at the age of 37.

The Portuguese star, holder of five Ballon d'Or trophies, joined the Premier League in 2003 and stayed until 2009 before moving to Real Madrird for a then world record transfer fee. He would go on to become Madrid's highest goalscorer in the club's history before a moving back to England 12 years later following a stint with Juventus in Italy.

#3 - Alan Shearer

Alan Shearer has scored more goals than any other player in Premier League history (260) and has finished inside the top three greatest players in Betfair's poll conducted by YouGov.

Renowned for his long stint at boyhood Newcastle, and more so for turning down Sir Alex Ferguson's offer to join Manchester United, Shearer won three golden boots during his playing days, non-more important than in 1994-95, when he spearhead Blackburn Rovers to their first top-flight title in 81 years.

Much discussed around Shearer is the lack of more trophies during his career, but, staying loyal to the Geordie faithful allowed him to prosper on a personal note and has still scored at least 58 more times in the Premier League than his closest rival (Wayne Rooney, 202).

Alan Shearer is Newcastle's iconic #9 which could be argued as the most prestigious footballing shirt in English football.

Rounding off the top 10 -

4. Eric Cantona

= Steven Gerrard

6. Dennis Bergkamp

7. Mohamed Salah

= Kevin De Bruyne

= Ryan Giggs

10. Sergio Aguero

= Frank Lampard

*All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 1008 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 15th - 18th July 2022. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).*

Please enjoy reading our other survey results, in collobaration with YouGov, looking at:

Top 10 Greatest Premier League Teams.

Top 5 Unluckiest Premier League Teams.

Top 10 Greatest Premier League Moments.

Top 10 Greatest Premier League Goals.

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