The Six Players Who Have Signed For The Most Premier League Clubs

David Tully

3 years ago

Categories: Galleries, West Ham United News

Tags: Arsenal, aston villa, Chelsea, Everton, Leeds, Leeds United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Sheffield United, Southampton, Spurs, West Ham, Wolves

The Premier League is widely heralded as the most competitive league in world football, and players have to be at the top of their game to get regular starts for clubs playing at such a high level.

However, there are some footballers who have signed for a number of teams playing in the top flight over the course of the last three decades.

There are actually five players on this list who have played for seven clubs each so we have separated them based on who signed for their seventh club first.

Press the next page as we list the six players who have joined the most Premier League sides.

6) Peter Crouch

Crouch was a figure of fun early on in his career, due to his size but the 6ft 7 striker got his big chance after Graham Taylor signed him for Aston Villa in 2002.

Although it didn’t quite work out for him at Villa Park, his permanent move to Southampton saw him impress enough to get a move to Liverpool. After leaving the Reds, he had successful spells at Portsmouth, Tottenham and Stoke. He ended his career in 2019 with Burnley.

5) Tal Ben Haim

Picked from the obscurity of Israeli football by Bolton in 2004, he played for the Trotters for three years before a surprise switch to Chelsea. He only lasted a year at Stamford Bridge and he went on to spend brief periods at Manchester City and Sunderland (loan).

Ben Haim did get more opportunities at Portsmouth, where he stayed for three seasons. He then had a loan spell at West Ham and one final year at QPR. He is still playing at 39 years of age, with his last club being Beitar Jerusalem.

4) Craig Bellamy

The Wales international was a very talented footballer, although he did tend to have personality clashes with managers, which led to him moving teams pretty regularly.

Coventry signed Bellamy from Norwich for a club-record £6m in the year 2000. He spent one season at Highfield Road before moves to Newcastle, Blackburn, Manchester City, West Ham as well as two different spells with Liverpool. His last top-flight team was at hometown club Cardiff City.

3) Wayne Routledge

Despite spending the last decade at Swansea City, the winger was very much a journeyman in his fledgling years as a professional footballer.

Routledge played for six different Premier League teams before he joined the Swans, starting life at Crystal Palace prior to spells at Tottenham, Portsmouth (loan), Fulham (loan), Aston Villa and Newcastle.

2) Andy Cole

After making his name at Newcastle United, the striker was snapped up by Manchester United for £6m (and Keith Gillespie) in 1995. He went on to have seven successful years at Old Trafford, winning multiple trophies.

Cole spent another three seasons at Blackburn Rovers before brief periods in the top-flight at Fulham, Manchester City, Portsmouth and Sunderland.

1) Marcus Bent

The striker played for no less than eight teams in the Premier League during his career. He played for Crystal Palace, Blackburn Rovers and Ipswich before a loan spell at Leicester.

Bent then spent two years at Everton and another two with Charlton Athletic. During his time at the Valley, he was loaned out to Wigan Athletic. He also had a brief time on loan from Birmingham at Wolves in 2010/11.