The Premier League have announced that they plan on launching an official Hall of Fame, for the competition to celebrate and commemorate ‘the exceptional skill and talent of players who have graced the competition’.
Following its inception in 1992, the English top flight competition has been home to numerous players of elite and unparalleled talent, and the Premier League plan on honouring those players by awarding them what they deem to be the ‘highest individual honour’ that the competition can award.
March 19th will see the Premier League induct its first two members, and off the back of this information, we’ve taken a look at which former Everton stars could hope to make the prestigious list of names.
Having only won one trophy during the Premier League era, the 1995 FA Cup, Everton won’t have a plethora of winners vying for a spot.
However, Goodison Park has still seen plenty of extremely talented players over the years. Here are four former Blues that we think could potentially see themselves named in the Hall of Fame in the future.
Neville Southall
While the majority of Southall’s rich and storied Everton career was spent before the formation of the Premier League, the Welshman still remains Everton’s greatest goalkeeper of the Premier League era.
Fiercely passionate, terrifically acrobatic and genuinely talented, Southall was a force of nature between the sticks for the Toffees.
There have been a lot of quality goalkeepers in the Premier League over the years, but none had quite the impact for one club and the longevity at the top as Southall did for Everton.
Andrei Kanchelskis
Arguably one of the few, if the only, genuine world-class talent to play for Everton, Kanchelskis will perhaps be remembered better for his time at Manchester United than at Goodison Park.
However, the Russian was still a phenom for the Blues, regularly using his magical technical prowess to torment opposition defences. He didn’t remain in Merseyside for long, but he certainly made an enormous impact.
Gareth Barry
While not quite as flash as Kanchelskis, Barry could qualify for the Hall of Fame on longevity alone.
With a record 653 appearances, having played for Aston Villa, Manchester City, Everton and West Brom, how can you not include the man with the most appearances of anyone to ever grace the Premier League?
Wayne Rooney
Rooney undeniably built his long-lasting legacy away from Everton, but as far as ex-Blues go, there aren’t many, if any, as successful.
With just under 500 appearances, and behind only Alan Shearer in the goalscoring charts, Rooney is as clear-cut a Premier League icon as anyone could be.