Three Cardiff City players in the All time Top 25 Players

The most influential players outside the Premier League named

There are many familiar faces for Welsh football fans in this list



Four Four Two


By Ian Mitchelmore


Tuesday 25th May 2020



A raft of players have gone on to become Premier League stars after plying their trade for Cardiff City or Swansea City further down the football pyramid.

The English Football League was re-branded in 2004, and the 2000s were a period in which both Swansea and Cardiff thrived.

The Bluebirds gained promotion under Lennie Lawrence in 2003 as well as reaching an FA Cup final under Dave Jones while the Swans rose up through the divisions in addition to winning the Football League Trophy in 2006.

To celebrate those who have given so much to the game below the top flight, FourFourTwo have put together a list of the 25 most influential players from outside of the Premier League from between 2000 and 2009.

And there are some very familiar names on the list.

In 25th place is Swansea legend Lee Trundle - now a club ambassador - who lit up the Vetch and the Liberty Stadium for a number of years during the remarkable journey up to the big time.

As for the Cardiff faithful, there are three very familiar names that feature.

Rob Earnshaw was ranked in 20th place while Peter Whittingham - who tragically passed away in March - and Jason Koumas were listed 18th and 10th respectively.

One place ahead of Koumas was Wales and Real Madrid star Gareth Bale who played for Southampton in the Championship prior to joining Tottenham in 2007.





Peter Whittingham will go down as a Cardiff City legend



25 LEE TRUNDLE

24 DAVID NUGENT

23 DEAN WINDASS

22 SYLVAN EBANKS-BLAKE

21 ROBERT PROSINECKI

20 ROBERT EARNSHAW

19 DARREN BENT

18 PETER WHITTINGHAM

17 LEIGHTON BAINES

16 MARCUS STEWART

15 DAMIEN DUFF

14 ANDY JOHNSON

13 SHAUN GOATER

12 STEVE SIDWELL

11 MATT JANSEN

10 JASON KOUMAS

9 GARETH BALE

8 KEVIN NOLAN

7 PHIL JAGIELKA

6 TIM CAHILL

5 EIDUR GUDJOHNSEN

4 KEVIN PHILLIPS

3 PAUL MERSON

2 LOUIS SAHA

1 ALI BENARBIA

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Whittingham at number 18?? Really?

And Benarbia number 1? All time!

One good season. It's like they're holding him responsible for Man City's current success... Not the billions of pound cash injection.

I guess this must have been written bu a Man Citeh fan. Got to be honest i didn't know who Ali Benarbia was

I don't class 10 of those as championship players. They may have may have passed through but that's all it was.

LEIGHTON BAINES
DAMIEN DUFF
KEVIN NOLAN
PHIL JAGIELKA
TIM CAHILL
EIDUR GUDJOHNSEN
KEVIN PHILLIPS
PAUL MERSON
LOUIS SAHA
GARETH BALE

The rest are top championship players who just found the next level far more difficult apart from Lee Trundle who found the championship a step too far. This is not a Jack thing, that Bode ferra (spelling ? dutch kid) was too good for the championship, as was Joe Allen and Leon Britton should be in there

I guess this must have been written bu a Man Citeh fan. Got to be honest i didn't know who Ali Benarbia was

I don't class 10 of those as championship players. They may have may have passed through but that's all it was.

LEIGHTON BAINES
DAMIEN DUFF
KEVIN NOLAN
PHIL JAGIELKA
TIM CAHILL
EIDUR GUDJOHNSEN
KEVIN PHILLIPS
PAUL MERSON
LOUIS SAHA
GARETH BALE

The rest are top championship players who just found the next level far more difficult apart from Lee Trundle who found the championship a step too far. This is not a Jack thing, that Bode ferra (spelling ? dutch kid) was too good for the championship, as was Joe Allen and Leon Britton should be in there

i think Trundle should be on your list for reasons youve mentioned..
as good as he was for them in the lower leagues he made less than 30 championship starts