Top 10 Worst Strikers in Premier League History

Worst Strikers in Premier League – All Time Top 10

Who are the Worst Strikers in Premier League History? Have you ever wondered which strikers make the list of the Worst Strikers in the Premier League? Well if you have, then worry not, because we have prepared a list of the Top 10 Worst Ever Striker To Play in The Premier League.

Well when you bring in a new striker in the Premier League we all expect a striker to be like the Thierry Henry of Arsenal or the Wayne Rooney of Manchester United, not when you bring in a striker then he plays like the Roberto Soldado of Tottenham Hotspur.

Apart from Thierry Henry we have seen a number of great strikers play in the Premier League; the likes of Eric Cantona, Alan Shearer, Didier Drogba, Wayne Rooney.. etc

Top 10 Worst Strikers in Premier League History

Previously we published the Top 10 Worst Premier League Players in History, Top 10 Worst Footballers Ever & Top 10 Worst Liverpool Players Of All Time if yo haven’t seen them make sure you check them out after this list of Top 10 Worst Strikers in Premier League History.

10. Tomas Brolin

Was brilliant. Put on weight. Stopped being brilliant. Started selling shoes.

Brolin appears on these lists, his career arc faithfully retold, and, while he certainly belongs, sometimes he’s placed slightly higher than he should be. He was brilliant. Anyone who caught Parma will know that; so too those old enough to remember Euro 1992 or the 1994 World Cup. An excellent finisher and good in the air despite his size, the transfer to Leeds made sense at the time.

In hindsight, manager Howard Wilkinson might have wanted to look deeper. An injury disrupted his Serie A career and, before being sold, he never regained his form, fitness or ultimately his place in the side. The player who arrived at Leeds – overweight, lazy, apathetic towards defensive responsibility – was already a pale imitation of what had come before. His twisty, jumping goal-celebration was seldom seen on these shores.

9 – Ricky van Wolfswinkel

Norwich displayed their growing financial muscle by spending £8.5m on Ricky van Wolfswinkel in 2013. He scored on his Premier League debut but failed to find the back of the net again. By April he had managed only eight shots on target, and ended the season with 25 appearances as Chris Hugton’s side slid back to the Championship.

His best moment came late in the season, away at Fuham, with a no-look pass to absolutely no-one. Ricky van Wolfswinkel scored on his debut but never again in his season at Norwich.

8 – Andreas Cornelius

Premier League new boys Cardiff smashed their transfer record to bring in Andreas Cornelius for £8m in 2013. At just 20 and with only a year of goalscoring behind him at Copenhagen, the transition to England was steep. Injury problems hampered him, but in 11 games he failed to score and was shipped off back to Denmark in January 2014.

This summer club owner Vincent Tan launched a fresh investigation into his signing, believing the club paid too much, and instructed lawyers to take a detailed look into the transfer. Cardiff smashed their transfer record for Andreas Cornelius but he made no impact at all.

7 – Konstantinos Mitroglou

Fulham were desperately battling relegation and in January 2014 they agreed a £12m fee with Olympiakos for the Greek striker. He may have been the record fee holder but he appeared only three times due to a variety of injury, fitness and form issues.

In August he returned to Olympiakos on loan and was promptly back to scoring in the Champions League, with a winner against Atletico Madrid no less. Fulham spent £12m on Mitroglou but were still relegated in 2014.

6 – Victor Anichebe

Victor Anichebe spent 12 seasons as a Premier League striker with Everton, West Brom and Sunderland. Between 2005 and 2017 the Nigerian scored 27 times in 197 appearances, which means he scored roughly once every seven or eight games. In 12 years.

The longevity is to be admired, for Anichebe became the great survivor. Somehow remaining a Premier League striker despite all his shortcomings, he made Bambi on ice look graceful.

5. Afonso Alves

Afonso Alves has become the warning from history, the irrefutable proof that you can not trust any football that happens in Holland. Middlesbrough smashed their transfer record by spending £12.5m on the Brazilian.

And though his goal return was not necessarily that bad, at 10 goals in 42 games, he has become a figure of fun in the intervening years and a symbol of that Boro side which got relegated in 2009.

4. Stephane Guivarc’h

France proved you didn’t need a striker to win the World Cup when Stephane Guivarc’h toiled on his own to no reward throughout their triumph in 1998. Kenny Dalglish must have seen something in the Auxerre striker, who had enjoyed success in his own country, when he paid £3.5m to bring him to Newcastle.

He made a bright start, scored on his debut against Liverpool, but then Dalglish was sacked soon after. Ruud Gullit arrived and promptly got rid of him in November.

3. Ade Akinbiyi

When Emile Heskey left for Liverpool for £11m in 2000, Ade Akinbiyi was lined up as a replacement at £5.5m. After a decent enough return of nine goals in his first season, he hit rock bottom in his second as Leicester hurtled towards Division One.

In a 4-1 defeat by Liverpool in 2001 he missed three sitters and was booed by his own fans. And he didn’t just missed them, he skied every single one. He broke his duck with the winner against Sunderland – after which he ripped off his shirt to shows his bulging biceps – declared it as a ‘turning point’ before scoring only more in the campaign.

2. Ali Dia

The man, the myth, the legend. The striking flop to end all striking flops. Allegedly the cousin of World Player of the Year, George Weah, Graeme Souness was hoodwinked into bringing him to Southampton. He joined in November 1996, made one solitary substitute appearance in place of Matt Le Tissier, before suffering the ignominy of being substituted himself.

Dia had no discernible skill and was utterly out of his depth. He was released two weeks into his contract. Mystery, conspiracy theories and anecdotal evidence have followed Dia around ever since his one appearance in the English top-flight. Who is he? How did he get to where he was? He briefly turned out for Gateshead before disappearing into the unknown.

1. Jozy Altidore 

Jozy Altidore played 70 Premier League games for Hull and Sunderland. He scored a grand total of two Premier League goals. After a fairly non-eventful loan spell with Hull in 2009-10, he returned to England in 2013 after a prolific few years in the Dutch league with AZ. Sunderland, managed by Paulo Di Canio, spent £6m on the US international and he repaid their faith with one strike in 42 league games.

Altidore looked big and strong, like anything could hit him and stick. He should have been a colossus, but he just wasn’t. Clumsy on the ball and wild in front of goal it was the worst of combinations to spearhead a struggling Sunderland side battling relegation. He left for Toronto in January 2015, with a strike rate of one goal every 35 games that few Premier League strikers can hope to rival.

SEE ALSO:

• Top 10 Football Clubs That Sold Their Best Players!
• Football Clubs That No Longer Exist – Top 10
• Top 10 Football Traitors/Judases of all time!
• Top 10 highest passers in Premier League 2019/20