Continuing with the list of all-time great single-club men from the modern era, here are a few more players sorely missed by their clubs. Not only will the players on this list be missed by their clubs, but they leave unfilled voids in their respective leagues as well.
Ryan Giggs for Manchester United
With thirteen league titles, four FA Cup wins, and two Champions League trophies to name only a few, here’s another from the Manchester United stable: Ryan Giggs. Giggs boasts one of the longest serving football careers in history – 24 years for a single club at the very highest level and laying claim to a very enviable list of accolades along the way.
Even in his penultimate season at Old Trafford, many felt that Giggs was United’s best player at the age of 38, and with 963 appearances at the time of retirement, he holds the club record for appearances.
And who could forget his late, late FA Cup winner against Arsenal in 1999? The word ‘legend’ seems something of an injustice.
Raul Gonzalez for Real Madrid
Real Madrid’s Raúl, began his youth playing career at archrivals Atletico Madrid. Following the then Atletico President’s decision to close the youth academy for cost reasons, Raúl made the switch to Real Madrid’s youth setup in 1994 at the age of 17.
In the same year, Raúl made his first team debut for Real after scoring 13 goals in only 7 appearances for the youth side.
In the 1999-00 season Raúl really hit his stride, averaging better than a goal every other game until the 2002-03 season. Never a forward with much pace to play with, Raúl relied on his innate sense of timing and goal-poacher’s instinct to score most of his many, many goals.
He was, for some time, the club’s leading Champions League goal scorer – that is until one Christiano Ronaldo leapfrogged the stalwart into top spot.
Alessandro Del Piero for Juventus
Alessandro Del Piero joined Juventus from Padova in 1993, aged just 19, but by which time his talents were already extraordinary. Throughout his 19 years spent spearheading the Juve attack, Del Piero averaged just about a goal every other game, but it’s the manner in which many of those goals were scored.
There are two types of centre forward in football – great goal scorers and scorers of great goals, and Del Piero has his roots set firmly in the latter. He may not have been the most prolific of strikers, but his list of honours for club and country is long and extensive.
It should also be noted that he elected to stay with the club even in the wake of the 2005-06 match-fixing scandal that rocked Italian football, and relegated the club to Serie B for a season. And in that season Del Piero would finish as the Serie B top scorer and win his team promotion back to Serie A.To view the remainder of this list, please click on the following link: http://ruffgrain.com/2015/01/15/the-list-of-greatest-european-one-club-men-continued/