Though, initially, the focus was primarily on English footballers, the Premiership gradually became more welcoming and content with foreign talents displaying their prominence in the league. Since then, there has been a plethora of great footballers who have enriched the league with their supreme skills and innate consistency.
As it is the case in modern football, the striker is the most pursued and followed player in the whole team and similarly, the EPL has been privileged to have witnessed some of the best forwards in Europe throughout the course of last few decades.
Whilst some of them played in slightly different positions at times too, but majority of them has the responsibility of leading the team’s attack and they managed to do with aplomb.
Here we list five of the best foreign strikers to have played in the Premier League:
5 Didier Drogba:
Didier Drogba is certainly the pioneer of Chelsea’s resurgence under the tutelage of Jose Mourinho in the mid-2000s. The Ivorian international might also be the greatest ever African player to have enhanced the quality of the Premier League with his insane talent.
Drogba played for Chelsea in two spells, but it was his first term over there that made him one of the greatest ever strikers to have played in the Premiership. He scored 104 goals in 254 Premier League appearances.
It should be noted that Drogba played the initial years of his career at Chelsea in the pragmatic setup of Mourinho, where he was the focal point of the attack and the team usually sneaked through with 1-0, 2-0 victory. Drogba also notched 54 assists in the Premier League, which is an impressive number for an out-and-out striker.
He scored 17 headed goals, which underlines his aerial dominance, something that was a vital aspect of his overall gameplay. Moreover, Drogba propelled his team to four Premier League titles.
He had a knack of scoring goals on the big occasion, which earned him a cult status amongst the Chelsea faithful. Drogba won the Golden Boot on two occasions; 2007/08 and 2009/10. He had an enigmatic, infectious influence over others, and that rubbed off on his teammates too.
4 Dennis Bergkamp:
Dennis Bergkamp is in a lot of sense, a revolutionary of sorts for English football. At a time when the Englishmen were adamant and rigid about following a particular, hard way of football, Bergkamp changed everyone’s mindset with his own different style and approach.
His first touch was as sumptuous as it can be, his vision was exemplary and in front of the goal, Bergkamp was definitely assuring. He was more of a playmaker, than a complete striker. Arsenal benefitted greatly with Bergkamp’s presence, as the Dutch international had the ability to change the course of the match within a matter of seconds.
Bergkamp scored 87 goals in 315 appearances was the Player of the Month on four occasions as well. He was the player who inspired Arsenal’s greatest ever period in Premier League’s history.
Bergkamp was a crucial member of the three Premier League titles that Arsene Wenger’s side won. More importantly than his goals, it were his 94 assists that has made Bergkamp one of the greatest ever footballers to have played in the Premier League.
Those who played with him often used to rave about the perfect weight and trajectory of his passes, and how he had the ability to break opposition’s defensive line with some beautiful through-balls. He was versatile and in good ways a mutineer who refused to follow the compact rules of English football too.
3 Eric Cantona:
Much of Manchester United’s incredible success in the Premier League is often credited to the influence that Eric Cantona had over the team during the early years.
Like how Bergkamp was probably the one who changed the tide at Arsenal, Cantona had a similar sort of enigmatic presence that propelled United to four Premier League titles during his stay there. Cantona was initially seen as a troublesome young footballer, who did not suit to the standards of many English clubs.
Sir Alex Ferguson played a gamble by luring Cantona from Leeds United for then British record transfer fee. There was a radical change in training sessions after Cantona arrived at United.
After the mandatory session, Cantona would practice free-kicks on his own, and this work-ethic inspired the likes of Neville brothers and Ryan Giggs who had just started their careers at that point in time. Cantona was different to the usual strikers of that period.
He was someone who used to play between the lines, rather than leading the forward line. His passing acumen was somewhat unmatched, and he played the dual role of playmaker-striker to excellence during that period.
Though he was banned for nine months for his kung fu kick incident, Cantona scored a goal on his return against arch rivals Liverpool. Even statistics do justice to the exceptional talent that he possessed, as the Frenchman scored 70 goals in 156 appearances.
In addition, he even assisted 56 goals. He was probably the most important figure of United’s team during the time when they won four Premiership titles in five seasons between 1992 and 1997.
2 Sergio Aguero:
Like others on this list, Sergio Aguero is also someone who has overturned the fortunes of the club completely ever since joining them.
This is also so interesting, because it shows that all these players aren’t just great individually, but they hold a strong aura and impact on the club from an overall perspective as well. Sergio Aguero joined Manchester City from Atletico Madrid and soon enhanced his reputation to arguably become the best South-American player to have played in the league.
Aguero is a lethal striker, a smart leader and someone who raises his game as the stakes rise too. The Argentine is a brilliant finisher, something that allows to him to score loads of goals irrespective of the conditions and the opposition.
He has gelled well with Pep Guardiola’s demands as well and managed to keep Gabriel Jesus out of the limelight with consistent performances; which actually did not look possible during Guardiola’s first season in-charge at City.
Despite the multiple changes in management and the team’s style of play, Aguero has somewhat managed to alter his gameplay and yet manage to keep a sensational level of goal-scoring consistency. He has scored 161 goals in 232 Premier League appearances.
His goal per match ratio of 0.69 is absolutely brilliant and he has even won the Golden Boot once in 2014/15. Aguero has won three Premier League titles and even assisted 41 goals, an aspect of his game that has improved gradually over the last few years.
Finally, he maybe scored the most important goal in Manchester City’s history; the injury time winner in the final minute of the final day of the 2011/12 season, which inspired them to their first title of the Premier League!
1 Thierry Henry:
Finally, the Frenchman who completely defied the role of a typical Premier League striker! Thierry Henry was an excellent forward, who could play either from the left flank or at the tip of the attack with equal measure of success.
His dribbling ability was splendid and so was his passing range and first touch.
Henry playing football was like witnessing art in motion, like a craftsman weaving his expertise on a field of football. He had that natural flair in his game, something that made the onlookers stop whatever they would be doing and watch him play.
To his credit, Henry managed to enrich his natural talent even better with his supreme goal-scoring knack. He was a leader in many senses for Arsenal, as his performances were directly connected to how the team fared on that particular day.
He won two Premier League titles; 2001/02 and 2003/04, the season when the Gunners went invisible throughout the course of the season. Henry won the Golden Boot on four occasions, beating his closest rival Ruud Van Nistelrooy each time. The former FC Barcelona forward was even named the Player of the Season on two occasions, something that brightens up his already illustrious career. He scored 175 goals in 258 Premier League appearances.
His goal per match ratio of 0.68 is almost equal to that of Sergio Aguero. However, he offered a lot from the overall team’s perspective too as Henry played an assist to 74 goals too.
Due to the impact that he carried over an already exceptional team and his incredible statistics too, Thierry Henry is arguably the greatest ever foreign striker to have played in the Premier League.
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