Sport
Worst players in the Premier League history
Who are the worst players in Premier League history? Although arguably the finest league in the world, the Premier League has had some shocking players over the years and we decided to name our five worst of all time.
Five worst players in Premier League history
5. Eric Djemba-Djemba
‘So good they named him twice’ was the extremely tongue in cheek chant that used to be aimed at Cameroonian international Eric Djemba-Djemba, who is the first of three Manchester United entries in our list of the worst players in Premier League history.
Djemba-Djemba was a midfielder who Sir Alex Ferguson signed in 2003 from Nantes and gave the unenvious task of dislodging Roy Keane and Paul Scholes from the heart of United’s midfield. Needless to say it didn’t go well.
He was hopelessly out of his depth and made just 39 appearances in two seasons before being shipped off to Villa who were equally unimpressed. After just nine outings for then, he moved on to the Championship with Burnley. Spells in Qatar, Denmark, Israel, Serbia, Scotland, India, Indonesia and France would follow before he finally hung up his boots in 2016. At least he got to see the world.
However, if Djemba-Djemba was bad at football that was nothing compared to what he was like at managing money!
4. Bebe
In at number four on our list of the worst players in Premier League history is Bebe. Famously Sir Alex Ferguson signed the unknown Portuguese winger in 2010 having never seen him play owing to the advice of assistant Carlos Quieroz. Presumably it was the last time he took his advice!
Bebe’s story was quite remarkable. Placed in an orphanage as a 12-year-old by his parents who were unable to look after him, Bebe learnt football on the streets and was as surprised as anybody when, just five weeks after joining Vitória de Guimarães, Manchester United agreed to pay his release clause and brought him to Old Trafford.
Unfortunately, United’s hopes that they had unearthed the next Cristiano Ronaldo soon proved unfounded and he left after a four-year stint at the club in which he made more loan spells (three) than appearances (two).
3. Junior Lewis
Football magazine 4-4-2 conducted a fan survey of the worst players in the history of each English club. Junior Lewis had the extremely unwanted honour of finishing top of not just one, but TWO different clubs in Leicester and Stevenage.
Lewis would end up at Leicester due to then-manager Peter Taylor’s near pathological desire to continually sign him. Having already played under Taylor at Dover and Gillingham, the pair were reunited at Leicester and would subsequently meet again at Brighton, Hull and Stevenage.
Without Taylor, Lewis would surely never have graced a Premier League pitch owing to the fact that he was distinctly average. Lewis would eventually go into coaching, joining the backroom staff at Wycombe and Bradford under, you guessed it, Peter Taylor.
2. Massimo Taibi
The greatest manager in Premier League history he might be but Sir Alex Ferguson’s record in the transfer window was patchy at best as his third entry in our list of the worst players in Premier League history proves.
Taibi, the only goalkeeper on the list, was recruited in a frightening post-Schmeichel era when Manchester United tried to replace the great Dane with two other flops, Mark Bosnich and Raymond van der Gouw. When that pair were injured, United parted with £4.5m to bring in Taibi from Piacenza.
Despite an error in his opening game, Taibi was given the man of the match award in what was a promising start. However, three shocking performances followed, including a 5-0 defeat at the hands of Chelsea, and Taibi was cruelly dubbed ‘The Blind Venetian’ and never played for United again.
1. Ali Dia
Sitting proudly atop our list of the worst players in Premier League history, there could be nobody else. Ali Dia is a Premier League cult hero but for all the wrong reasons.
In 1996, Southampton manager Graeme Souness received a phone call from a man purporting to be reigning Ballon d’Or winner George Weah, claiming that Ali Dia was his cousin and that Souness should sign him, which he promptly did days later.
Unfortunately for Souness, Weah was nothing to do with Dia and the phonecall had actually arrived from a university friend of Dia’s. Dia made one appearance for Southampton in which he came on as a substitute for Ken Monkou but was then substituted himself after an embarrassing hour which Matt Le Tissier described as ‘like watching Bambi on ice’.
Dia would play eight times for Gateshead before retiring after a nine year career that saw him hustle his way into 12 clubs making just 20 appearances. Truly brilliant yet undeniably utterly awful.
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