#7 – Tor Hogne Aaroy
Country – Norway
Position – Striker
The fourth Norwegian on this list, Hogne Aaroy is 36 years old and is an active footballer.
Aaroy is not only tall, he is beastly and quick. Despite his sharp finishing and classy first touch, Aaroy is highly underrated.
After beginning his career with Spjelkavik IL and having a couple of fruitless seasons with Frigg, Tor Hogne Aaroy moved to the most successful Norwegian Team, Rosenborg BK in 1999. He stayed there only for 2 years and his stay was marred by a series of successive injuries.
Then he moved to Aalesunds FK in 2011. At Aalesunds, he established himself as a prime goal scorer. He stayed with the club for nearly a decade till 2011, making 242 appearances and scoring 90 times. He established himself as an Aalesund legend, leaving the club in 2011.
Aaroy then moved to a second division team in Japan, JEF United for a year but has now moved back to Aalesund FC during the start of this season.
It kind of makes you think what would happen if Norway played for corners with these three still active and towering players!
#6 – Yang Changpeng
Country – China
Position – Striker
Yang Changpeng’s name is well known because of the trial that he had with Bolton Wanderers in 2006. Upon his arrival at Bolton, he was dubbed as the “Chinese Peter Crouch” but failed to impress and moved back to China.
In 2008, Yang was playing for a club called Wuhan Guanggu in China. But due to an on-field scuffle, the Chinese FA decided to ban the players involved in the scuffle for 8 matches and the team was fined 1,170 USD. Wuhan decided that the fine was unfair and after the negotiations failed, Wuhan decided to quit the league. This ironically resulted in a 44,000 USD fine. All the players of Wuhan were either loaned or sold.
Yang was loaned off to a third tier team, Three Gorges Kangtian, and later moved to Chengdu Blades, a second division team in 2010. He stayed with them for 2 years before being sold off to the newly formed Shenzhen Fengpeng in 2012. He failed to impress there too and is now playing with another Chinese team, Meizhou Kejia.
#5 – Costel Pantilimon
Country – Romania
Position – Goalkeeper
A familiar name for EPL fans, Pantilimon is the second choice goalkeeper of Manchester City and is officially the tallest player in the Premier League.
Pantilimon began his career at his boyhood club Aerostar Bacau. He was also a part of the U19 team of Romania at that time. Later in 2005, FC Politehnica Timioara secured his signature.
He made his way from the reserve team to replace Marius Popa as the first choice goalkeeper of Timioara in 2006. He made 93 appearances for the senior team helping them finish runners up of the Liga 1 in 2009.
Pantilimon brings his huge frame into the play while keeping. One of the prime examples for that is his performance against France for Romania in the 2012 Euro Qualifiers where he managed a clean sheet and his team defeated France 2-0.
During 2011, he was purchased by Manchester City as a cover for Joe Hart after their second choice keeper, Shay Given, got injured. In 2012, the loan move was made permanent for a fee of 3 million euros.
