da spicy bet： Despite the sheer volume of widely admired stars to have made their mark on the Beautiful Game as we know it today, defining football’s out-in-out ‘cult heroes’ remains a task somewhat easier said than done in the modern era.
da poker： The cult hero can seemingly stand out among his contemporaries on the basis of several different factors. Whilst many develop their promising reputation through a unique brand of flair and ability with the ball at their feet, others simply gain such a status for proving distinctly loyal to their club’s cause and hard working out on the pitch to boot.
Throughout the years, the cult hero has often been produced out of unlikely circumstances and against the status-quo. From the admittedly useless players that nonetheless manage to win over their fans through sheer determination alone, to the unpredictable mavericks whose very own inconsistency issues ultimately serve to heighten their overall mystique in the end – every club has made room for a few cult heroes along the way.
So then, in light of such discussion surrounding several of football’s more surprising poster-boys, here are 50 of the best cult heroes the Premier League has ever paid witness to…
50. Luis Garcia
49. George Boateng
48. Julian Speroni
47. Carlton Cole
46. Luis Boa Morte
45. Jonas Gutierrez
44. Juliano Belletti
43. Per Mertesacker
42. Attilio Lombardo
41. John Arne Riise
40. Dennis Wise
39. Paulo Wanchope
38. Adi Akinbiyi
37. Temuri Ketsbaia
36. Tim Cahill
35. Slaven Bilic
34. Massimo Maccarone
33. Carlo Cudicini
32. Eduardo
31. Niall Quinn
30. Mark Noble
29. Tony Hibbert
28. Ivan Campo
27. Fabrizio Ravanelli
26. Jens Lehmann
25. Peter Crouch
24. Sami Hyypia
23. Diego Forlan
22. Shola Ameobi
21. Park Ji-Sung
20. Tugay
19. Jerzy Dudek
18. The Neville Brothers
17. Nolberto Solano
16. Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink
15. Vinnie Jones
14. Nwankwo Kanu
13. Emile Heskey
12. Jay-Jay Okocha
11. Dirk Kuyt
10. Ray Parlour
9. Emmanuel Eboue
8. Duncan Ferguson
7. Jimmy Bullard
6. Olof Mellberg
5. Paolo Di Canio
4. Gianfranco Zola
3. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
2. Matt Le Tissier
1. Eric Cantona