Best Tottenham Players of all Time

Tottenham is one of the biggest football clubs in the United Kingdom and with through its rich history, Tottenham had many ups and downs all these years. During all these years, this London club has produced some of the best English footballers and also had some great foreign footballers play for them. In this article of SportMob, we want to take a look at the club’s history and come up with the list of

best Tottenham players of all time,

before getting to that let’s first take a brief look at the club’s history.

In 1882, a community of grammar school students from All Hallows Church formed

. The team was initially called Hotspur at first, but the name was later modified to Tottenham Hotspur to prevent misunderstanding with an existing club titled Hotspur FC.

Tottenham Hotspur was often regarded as cup experts throughout their glamorous lifespan. By being the first British team to capture a European trophy, they created headlines and also they made history winning the first-ever organized UEFA Cup. Overall, they have eight FA Cups, 4 League Cups, one English Cup Winners' Cup and 2 UEFA Cups in their trophies room. The club also has two League titles won in 1951 and 1961.

In the 20th century, Tottenham was the first team to win the League and the FA Cup together, capturing all titles in the 1960-61 season. In every one of the six decades from the 1950s to 2000s, the club has won at least one big trophy - an accomplishment only done by Manchester United. In the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League, Tottenham were also the runners-up. Now that we know more about this great club’s history, it’s time to get to know the best Tottenham players of all time.

Greatest Players in the History of Tottenham

Now that we are going to talk about the best Tottenham players of all time, did you know that Diego Maradona once played for Tottenham Hotspurs? Yes, you’ve heard right. In Ossie Ardiles' testimonial match, in front of 30,000 people at White Hart Lane in 1986, Diego Maradona, the Argentinian legendary footballer has played for Spurs.

Pat Jennings

In our list of best Tottenham players of all time, Pat Jennings is the only goalkeeper. As one of the legendary Tottenham footballers, Pat Jennings played in 472 league matches for the club in a 13-year career with the Spurs spanning from 1964 to 1977. He has also played 119 games for Northern Ireland National Team, a figure that puts him on the second place of Northern Ireland most capped players.

Having started his professional career in Watford, Pat Jennings joined Tottenham Spurs in 1964 for a fee of 27,000 pounds. He spent thirteen years at the club, where he played for Spurs in 472 league matches, and 591 in all tournaments. With the club, he has managed to win the League Cup in 1971 and 1973, the FA cup in 1967, and the UEFA Cup in 1972. He has scored once in his career from his penalty area in the 1967 Charity Shield match. He kicked the ball from his hands and throwing a wide punt down the field bouncing over

keeper Alex Stepney and into the net.

In 1973, he was elected footballer of the year by the Football Writers' Association. Three years later he received the PFA edition of the prize – he was the first goalie to win this award, although now he shares that award with Peter Shilton. Being one of the

Best Tottenham Players ever

, he is still involved with Tottenham Hotspur and welcomes corporate hospitality supporters in the Pat Jennings Lounge, and he is also the club's goal-keeping advisor.

Robbie Kean

The next player in our list of best Tottenham players of all time is Robbie Kean, a legendary Irish forward which played around 250 league matches for the Spurs and scored more than 90 goals. Born in Dublin in July of 1980, Robbie Kean started his professional football career at Wolverhampton Wanderers. After playing for 4 different teams in England and Italy, he was signed by Tottenham Hotspurs in 2002 fee of £7 million.

Within just six years, Tottenham Hotspur will become Keane's fifth club - he was just 22 years old - and over the next six seasons, White Hart Lane would become a home for the wandering Irishman. At first, under Glenn Hoddle, his tenure at the club began well. Keane was the only constant on a side that was poorly listed, whom people might look at as the team failed to cope with demands when struggling with life in the middle reaches of the Premier League.

He proved to be one of the Tottenham Best Footballers of All Time and his great performances for the club in EPL brought him to the attention of English giants Liverpool and they managed to sign him for a fee of £20.3 million in 2008. After playing for a few months at Anfield, Tottenham Hotspur approached Robbie Keane at the winter transfer window, and Liverpool agreed to sell him, prompting the Irishman to move to his old club for a sum of £ 12 million, £ 7 million less than what he had cost Liverpool. This time he played for two seasons at White Hart Lane with two loan spells, before moving to LA Galaxy in 2011. He is one of the Legendary Tottenham Players ever.

Ledley King

The only one-man club at our list of Legendary Tottenham Players ever is Ledley King, a player who spent his entire professional football career playing for Spurs between 1999 and 2012. During his time with the club, he has played 268 league matches for the Tottenham, scoring 10 goals. He is widely regarded as one of the best EPL defenders of all time. After battling with knee injuries for several years, he decided to retire from professional football in 2012 while he was only 31 years old.

However, he witnessed some unforgettable moments, not least the lifting of the 2008 League Cup at Wembley and playing his role in the club's iconic 1-0 City victory in May of 2010 which clinched the Champions League draw for the club for the first time. One interesting fact about Ledley King is that during his whole career a defender, he has received just 8 yellow cards which is very unusual for defenders.

He is regarded as one of the Tottenham Legends of all time and he’s also very famous among the fans. In all games, at the 26th-minute fans call his name marking his shirt number. In his new position as Club Ambassador, Ledley King continued his life-long relationship with the club, and in August he was named as a member of Jose Mourinho's first-team coaching staff.

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Dave Mackay

Our next Spurs player in the list of

best Tottenham players of all time

is Dave Mackay. Having played 268 league matches for the club, scoring 42 goals between 1959 and 1968, he is one of the members of the double title-winning team of 1961. Playing for 9 years for the Spurs has made me worthy of getting mentioned in our list of best Tottenham players of all time.

He was recruited in March of 1959 by Tottenham Hotspur, at the age of 24, for £ 32,000. He played his first match for the club on 21 March in a 3-1 home victory versus Manchester City. In the 1960s, his ferocious dedication and ability led to the squad that captured the Double in 1960–61. His influence was instant, with boss Bill Nicholson taking Mackay along with captain Danny Blanchflower, attacker Bobby Smith, and winger Cliff jones.

During his career at

, Mackay has played 268 league matches. He has won a league title, 3 FA Cups, 1 European Cup Winners' Cup and 2 FA Charity Shields, and also the 1967 Charity Shield. In the two seasons influenced by Mackay's prolonged injury owing to his leg break, neither of these titles were won by the club. In 2003, Brian Clough said that Mackay was the best player ever for Tottenham Hotspur and surely he is among the

Greatest Players in the History of Tottenham

.

Gareth Bale

Gareth Bale, one of the

best Tottenham players of all time

is widely regarded as one of the best players in the world, is one of the few players of our list of Best Tottenham Players ever who currently plays for the team, although on loan from Real Madrid. Best known for his strong shots, speeding free kicks, and his tendency to get past a defender with speed, Bale earned applause from his colleagues, who introduced him as a player with "incredible pace, perfect crossing ability, a wonderful left foot and outstanding physical qualities"

Bale started his professional career at Southampton, he signed for Tottenham Hotspurs in May of 2007 for a fee of £5 million, which could go up to 15 million based on his appearances for the club. During his 6 years tenure at the club,

played over 146 matches in Premier League, scoring around 42 goals and thus establishing himself as one of the Tottenham Legends of all time.

At his last season at Spurs at EPL, Bale finished the season by receiving the Young Player of the Year award and the PFA Player of the Year award. He also received the FWA Footballer of the Year title, being the second player in one season to receive all three trophies. He shattered the transfer record when he moved for a fee of 100 million Euros to Real Madrid. He managed to win the Copa Del Rey and the Champions League in his first season with Madrid.

Bale has lately been embroiled in a conflict with the Los Blancos coach, Zinedine Zidane, which made him get back to his old club for the current season, a move that can help him raise his reputation as one of the

Tottenham Best Footballers of All Time

.

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Teddy Sheringham

The next player in our list of best Tottenham players of all time is the famous English striker Teddy Sheringham, who played for around 7 years at the Spurs in two spells, making almost 240 league matches and scoring almost 100 league goals. He was also a member of

, making 51 appearances and scoring 11 goals.

Teddy Sheringham started his professional football career in Millwall. He had a very limited loan duration at Aldershot before entering Nottingham Forest squad for a fee of £2 million in 1993. His career at Nottingham Forest did not last so long and he was eventually sold to Tottenham for a fee of £2.1 million. Sheringham had a promising start to his tenure at the club when he became the League-leading goal scorer in his debut season, scoring 22 times.

Jürgen Klinsmann, who had worked with Teddy Sheringham at the 1994–95 season, was later cited as stating that Sheringham was the smartest attacking partner he had ever had in his career. After moving to Manchester United, he returned to the club for his second spell there in 2001. In his second spell at the Spurs, Sheringham played 80 matches for Tottenham in all tournaments, scoring 26 goals. As one of the

Legendary Tottenham Players ever,

Sheringham entered the Tottenham Hall of fame on 2008.

Gary Lineker

One of the top goal scorers in the game and the third-best English national team goal scorer ever, Gary Lineker is widely known as one of the best Tottenham players of all time. He was a purely instinctual forward, deadly in and around the net. As a Spurs player, he had an incredible strike rate, scoring many goals for the club. Lineker enjoyed seven years on Filbert Street scoring over 100 goals and playing almost 200 matches for the Foxes, and it was the time when his name made headlines in English football.

After playing for Everton and Barcelona, he was signed by Tottenham in 1989 for a fee of £1.1 million. Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson wanted to buy Lineker to play in the attack with his former Barcelona colleague Mark Hughes, but Lineker joined Tottenham for a fee of £ 1.1 million in July 1989. He netted 67 goals in 105 league matches in three seasons and managed to win the FA Cup while playing for the side. In the 1989–90 season, he ended as top scorer in the English First Division, netting 24 goals as Tottenham finished 3rd.

After proving himself as one of the Best Tottenham Players ever, Gary Lineker retired in 1994 and started working in the media. As the host of Match of the Day, he is now very famous in the football world and millions of people watch his TV show each week.

Harry Kane

Alongside Gareth Bale, Harry Kane is a current Spurs player is the list of

best Tottenham players of all time

. Many define Harry Kane as one of the best strikes in Tottenham history and he has proved this with soring around 150 goals in over 217 league matches for the club. Harry Kane is best known for his amazing goalscoring skills and as one of the best strikers in the game at just 27 years old, we are going to hear a lot more about him.

Having started his professional career at Tottenham, Kane cemented his place in the club’s first team in the 2014-15 season after promising loan spells with Millwall, Norwich City and Leicester City. Kane had a great campaign, which saw him be included in the PFA Team and also being named the PFA player of the year. With 21 goals, he also was the EPL's highest scorer.

is on the route to becoming one of the Legendary Tottenham Players ever. He became the third-highest goalscorer in all official matches in the history of Tottenham in November of 2019.

Stay tuned to see more of the

Greatest Players in the History of Tottenham

.

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Paul Gascoigne

You just can’t write a list of best Tottenham players of all time and don’t include Paul Gascoigne in it. As one of the few players with not much league appearances for the club, Paul Gascoigne was without a doubt one of the best midfielders of the game at his time. He played 92 league matches for the club and scored 19 goals between 1988 and 1992. He has also played 57 matches for England, scoring 10 goals.

Paul Gascoigne started his professional career as an apprentice with his local team of the Newcastle United before playing his first match for the club under Jack Charlton, at the age of just 17. Only four years later, and after being elected the 1988 PFA Young Player of the Year, he went south to join Spurs in north London as Tottenham pipped several clubs to recruit one of the most brilliant prospects for British football.

What made 'Paul' one of the

Tottenham Legends of all time

was how his game attitude suited his life mindset. His free spirit brought him a lifelong love for the game and encouraged his imagination on the field. This passion could be shown whenever he had the ball.  Given the opportunity, he took control and slalomed past his opponents with a rush and a fast change of foot.

Jimmy Greaves

The second player with most league matches for Tottenham in our list of best Tottenham players of all time, Jimmy Greaves is surely one of the Tottenham Best Footballers of All Time to wear Spurs shirt. Having made 321 league appearances and scoring 220 league goals, between 1961 and 1970, he set numerous records in an impressive career, several of which are still standing today.

Born on February 20, 1940, in East Ham, Jimmy Greaves was a goal-scoring legend from his early career days. He obtained professional contracts at Chelsea at the age of 17 in 1957 and played his first match against Tottenham at White Hart Lane in August of 1957. Jimmy managed to score 132 goals in 169 Chelsea matches before being sold to Italy and AC Milan in 1960.

His tenure in Serie A was limited, and just after scoring 9 goals in 14 games, Bill Nicholson took him home to England, joining Tottenham's double-winning team for a popular £99,999 fee in December of 1961. He scored a hat trick in his first Spurs match versus Blackpool and went on to score 266 goals for Tottenham in 379 appearances in all competitions. He scored once in the FA Cup Final as Spurs defended the title in 1962, twice in the Cup Winners' Cup Final in 1963 versus Atletico Madrid as Spurs were the first English club to win that title in Europe and he won the FA Cup again in 1967.

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