Spot the only two Premier League players with ‘star quality’
Were you labouring under the idea that Bukayo Saka or the actual Ballon d’Or winner has ‘star quality’? As if it matters anyway…
‘Is the Premier League suffering from a superstar deficit?’ is an opening line from Sam Wallace in the Daily Telegraph that is entirely born of the ludicrous hospital pass of international fortnight being ended by an FA Cup weekend featuring none of the most popular clubs in England.
You know you are meandering into middle age when you start wondering where all the real superstars have gone; wasn’t it better when you could leave your door open, men were men, women were something or other, and the Premier League was awash with star quality? The problem? It never really was.
In the Forbes list of highest-paid players in 2024 (the latest available) – which loosely correlates to the most famous players in the world – the Premier League has three representatives in Erling Haaland, Mo Salah and Kevin De Bruyne.
In 2020 the Premier League had three representatives (Salah, Paul Pogba and David De Gea).
In 2015 the Premier League had two representatives (Wayne Rooney and Sergio Aguero).
In 2010 the Premier League had three representatives (Frank Lampard, John Terry and Steven Gerrard).
In 2005 the Premier League had one representative (Thierry Henry).
It’s almost like the Premier League has never been awash with superstars but some folk love to get all indulgently glassy-eyed about halcyon days that simply never happened.
If you want an even simpler measure, consider that no Premier League player had won the Ballon d’Or for 16 years before Rodri sparked an avalanche of Madrid-based p*** last year.
The Premier League can create superstars – Cristiano Ronaldo and Salah are the prime examples – but it does not habitually sign superstars at their peak. Paul Pogba is probably the exception in recent years and well, let that be a chastening lesson to all.
The point is that the Premier League has never needed to sign superstars; no English club has signed a Zidane, a Messi, a Neymar, an Mbappe or a Ronaldinho. This is not a new phenomenon. Henry was not signed as a superstar; Aguero was not signed as a superstar; De Bruyne was not signed as a superstar.
You could argue that Manchester United have signed superstars in Ronaldo (the second time around) and Zlatan, but let’s not pretend that’s anywhere close to signing peak Mbappe or Jude Bellingham.
But Wallace is absolute On One in the Telegraph – under the headline of ‘The Premier League lacks star quality beyond Mohamed Salah and Erling Haaland’ – writing: ‘Every show needs its headliners. As Kevin De Bruyne heads towards retirement, Harry Kane is outside the Premier League and with Jude Bellingham never having played a minute in it – who are the faces of the league beyond Haaland and Salah?’
Have you perhaps heard of Bukayo Saka? Or maybe Cole Palmer? Bruno Fernandes? Or actual Ballon d’Or winner Rodri?
Those players are all mentioned by Wallace and summarily dismissed; Rodri and Saka being injured apparently rules them out, because real superstars presumably never do.
The whole argument is utterly flawed because a) the Premier League does not usually sign superstars and b) the Premier League does not actually need to sign superstars. This has been a truly sh*t season but the Premier League is thriving in terms of revenue and also in terms of Europe, regardless of Wallace’s attempt to make a potential ‘second consecutive season without a Premier League team in the last four of the Champions League’ into A Thing.
‘Does the Premier League need the world’s most famous players?’ asks Wallace and he is so very close to working out that perhaps it does not, before he ends on pith: ‘But the movie, so to speak, still requires its stars.’
Not when the movie plays to sell-out theatres every week, Sam.
Thank f*** a Premier League chock-full of absolute nobodies returns (including Saka) on Tuesday night…
READ NEXT: Ranking the Premier League ‘Big Six’ by magnitude of their 2025 summer rebuild