Introducing 90min's Premier League Hall of Fame
By Sean Walsh
Football's beauty compared to other sports comes from its orbit around emotion, around fans, moments that live with you forever, less corporate and more community.
That doesn't make it a sport without flaws and areas that can be improved upon, however.
One aspect is the absence of a hall of fame, a tangible place for legends to metaphorically reside.
The Premier League dropped a sponsor from their name in order to stand out as a brand more, like the NBA or NFL, and if they wish to continue this route, a first Hall of Fame in football would be another big step forward.
Think about it. You could have big ceremonies to celebrate the inductees, they could have big speeches, you could have fans or other legends handing out special awards and all sorts.
So, let's put this into practice - how would it work?
To set a precedent, we'll be using the basketball Hall of Fame's parameters to decide on inductees. Their criteria decrees that players must have retired for four seasons to be nominated for induction, while coaches must have been in management for 25 years or also be retired for four. For the sake of ease and eliminating pure nonsense, gimmicky stints after retirement will not count as coming out of it.
There's no limit on the amount of people inducted in a year as long as these criteria are met, so to make life easier here, we'll start inductions from 2005. Over the next couple of weeks, we'll be picking apart the inclusions in each class, looking back on their great careers and arguing the case of why they should be in a Hall of Fame.
2005
Eric Cantona - Leeds United, Manchester United
Ian Wright - Arsenal, West Ham United
Paul McGrath - Aston Villa
By Robbie Copeland:
90min's Premier League Hall of Fame: Class of 2005
2006
Lee Dixon - Arsenal
Gary McAllister - Leeds United, Coventry City, Liverpool
David Ginola - Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa, Everton
Chris Waddle - Sheffield Wednesday
Tony Adams - Arsenal
Mark Hughes - Manchester United, Chelsea, Southampton, Everton, Blackburn Rovers
By Jamie Spencer:
90min's Premier League Hall of Fame: Class of 2006
2007
Peter Schmeichel - Manchester United, Aston Villa, Manchester City
Nigel Winterburn - Arsenal, West Ham United
Jurgen Klinsmann - Tottenham Hotspur
Matt Le Tissier - Southampton
Tim Flowers - Southampton, Blackburn Rovers
By Wilf Dutton:
90min's Premier League Hall of Fame: Class of 2007
2008
David Seaman - Arsenal, Manchester City
Denis Irwin - Manchester United, Wolves
Gary Kelly - Leeds United
Emmanuel Petit - Arsenal, Chelsea
By Sean Walsh:
90min's Premier League Hall of Fame: Class of 2008
2009
Graeme Le Saux - Chelsea, Blackburn, Southampton
Martin Keown - Everton, Arsenal
Gianfranco Zola - Chelsea
Tim Sherwood - Blackburn, Tottenham, Portsmouth
By Jack Gallagher:
90min's Premier League Hall of Fame: Class of 2009
2010
Roy Keane - Manchester United
Dennis Bergkamp - Arsenal
Alan Shearer - Blackburn Rovers, Newcastle United
Gareth Southgate - Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Middlesbrough
Les Ferdinand - QPR, Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Leicester City, Bolton Wanderers
Nigel Martyn - Crystal Palace, Leeds United, Everton
Andrei Kanchelskis - Manchester United, Everton, Southampton
By Wilf Dutton
90min's Premier League Hall of Fame: Class of 2010
2011
Ray Parlour - Arsenal, Middlesbrough
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - Manchester United
Jaap Stam - Manchester United
Chris Sutton - Norwich City, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea, Birmingham City, Aston Villa
By Gary Stringer
90m's Premier League Hall of Fame: Class of 2011
2012
Teddy Shermingham - Nottingham Forest, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United, Portsmouth, West Ham United
Paul Ince - Manchester United, Liverpool, Wolves
Darren Anderton - Tottenham Hotspur, Birmingham City
Andy Cole - Newcastle United, Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers, Fulham, Manchester City, Portsmouth, Sunderland
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink - Leeds United, Chelsea, Middlesbrough, Charlton Athletic
Dion Dublin - Manchester United, Coventry City, Aston Villa, Leicester City
Gary Speed - Leeds United, Everton, Newcastle United, Bolton Wanderers
By Max Cooper:
90min's Premier League Hall of Fame: Class of 2012
2013
Dwight Yorke - Aston Villa, Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers, Birmingham City, Sunderland
Mark Viduka - Leeds United, Middlesbrough, Newcastle United
By Adam Aladay:
90min's Premier League Hall of Fame: Class of 2013
2014
Juninho - Middlesbrough
Lauren - Arsenal, Portsmouth
By Ben Carter:
90min's Premier League Hall of Fame: Class of 2014
2015
Gary Neville - Manchester United
Sol Campbell - Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Portsmouth, Newcastle United
Nicky Butt - Manchester United, Newcastle United, Birmingham City
Patrick Vieira - Arsenal, Manchester City
Edwin van der Sar - Fulham, Manchester United
By Ross Kennerley
90min's Premier League Hall of Fame: Class of 2015
2016
Ruud van Nistelrooy - Manchester United
Nwankwo Kanu - Arsenal, West Brom, Portsmouth
Sylvain Wiltord - Arsenal
By James Cormack
90min's Premier League Hall of Fame: Class of 2016
2017
Sir Alex Ferguson - Manchester United
Jamie Carragher - Liverpool
Phil Neville - Manchester United, Everton
Paul Scholes - Manchester United
Michael Owen - Liverpool, Newcastle United, Manchester United, Stoke City
Gilberto Silva - Arsenal
David Beckham - Manchester United
By Tolga Akdeniz
90min's Premier League Hall of Fame: Class of 2017
2018
Ryan Giggs - Manchester United
Thierry Henry - Arsenal
William Gallas - Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham
Freddie Ljungberg - Arsenal, West Ham United
David James - Liverpool, Aston Villa, West Ham United, Manchester City, Portsmouth
Craig Bellamy - Coventry City, Newcastle United, Blackburn Rovers, Liverpool, West Ham United, Manchester City, Cardiff City
By Ed Alexander
90min's Premier League Hall of Fame: Class of 2018
2019
Rio Ferdinand - West Ham United, Leeds United, Manchester United, QPR
Brad Friedel - Liverpool, Blackburn Rovers, Aston Villa, Tottenham
Nicolas Anelka - Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Bolton Wanderers, Chelsea
Damien Duff - Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea, Newcastle United, Fulham
By Tom Gott
90min's Premier League Hall of Fame: Class of 2019