One-club XI: Footballers who have only played for a single club

Football has seen innumerable technically gifted footballers; from Pele to Diego Maradona, Zinedine Zidane to David Beckham, Thierry Henry to Ronaldinho, Cristiano Ronaldo to Lionel Messi et al. While some prefer to make the most of their success by swapping clubs to get more success, fame and the money that follows it, some prefer to stay back at the club and pay back the love and faith.With money grabbing football by its neck with each passing day, it’s becoming more and more difficult to find loyalty, commitment, and the ‘one-team-man’ spirit amongst the current crop of players.Yet, this era has provided with some of the most loyal, unassuming and majestic footballers to savour. Here’s a compilation of some of these men who against all odds, stayed/ continue to stay at their clubs as a token of appreciation towards the club that helped them in every possible way to rise up the ladder.Honourable mentionsRogerio Ceni (Sao Paulo), Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moscow), Gary Neville (Manchester United), Tony Hibbert (Everton), Jamie Carragher (Liverpool), John Terry (Chelsea), Daniele de Rossi (AS Roma), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich), Ledley King (Tottenham Hotspur).

#1 Goalkeeper - Iker Casillas

Real Madrid almost revolutionised the way football squads were assembled, with money begging to be spent on any top footballer available at that time. ‘The Galacticos’ as they were popularly known, boasted of some of the very top footballers from around the globe.

The onus was then on the youthful shoulders of those coming through the youth ranks and dreaming of breaking into the first team to convince the manager that they were good enough to sustain the pressure to perform at the highest level and challenge the ones who were the best in the business for a place in the side.

Many dreams were brutally crushed, but one man shone through all the money madness: Iker Casillas. Coming through the fabled Real Madrid youth academy ‘La Fábrica’ Casillas first broke onto the scene as a 16-year-old to face Rosenborg in the Champions League in 1997 and it was then that the record books realised that they were about to be going for a toss.

11 domestic honours including 5 La Liga titles, 7 European honours including 3 Champions Leagues and one FIFA Club World Cup, IFFHS World’s Best Goalkeeper award for 5 years in a row between 2008 and 2012, 2 European Championships in 2008 and 2012, the FIFA World Cup in 2010, and around 25 individual awards decorate his stellar playing career.

Now 33, the Spain and Real Madrid skipper has amassed 505 and 161 appearances for the Los Blancos and La Roja respectively, and will go down as a true goalkeeping legend.

#2 Right-back - Philipp Lahm

The 2014 World Cup winning captain is considered by many as the best right-back in the world, he was chosen to the FIFA Team of the Year 2008 as a left-back beating Patrice Evra.

Having joined the Bayern youth academy as a 11-year-old, he was already a notch above his peers, with one of his coaches, Hermann Hummels, even stating, "If Philipp Lahm will not make it in the Bundesliga, nobody will anymore.”

Bayern Munich head coach Pep Guardiola extolled the skipper by saying he’s the “cleverest player I have ever worked with” knowingly or unknowingly overshadowing all the efforts put in by Lionel Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and, in general, the highly successful Barcelona team he managed.

The German retired from international football after leading his team to World Cup glory last year. Having been a part of every German youth team from U-17s to U-21s, he went on to make 113 appearances for Die Mannschaft.

With six Bundesliga titles and six DFB-Pokal trophies, 1 UEFA Champions League and 1 Club World Cup among the 18 club titles he has won, and 20 individual honours that he has been bestowed with, he will leave a distinct legacy behind and a career that will be envied by many.

#3 Centre-back - Tony Adams

“And it’s Tony Adams, put through by Steve Bould… WOULD YOU BELIEVE ITTT? THAT... SUMS IT ALL UP.” Etched in the memories of each and every Arsenal fan and even on the Emirates’ walls, is the goal that sealed the league in 1998. Nicknamed ‘Mr. Arsenal’ by the fans, the Englishman joined the Gunners as a schoolboy in 1980 and made his debut in late 1983 as a 17-year-old.

Blessed with supreme technical ability, reading of the game, timing of tackles, resilience, desire, willingness to go into a tackle, and second-to-none leadership qualities, he was just the kind of defender that’d haunt an opposition striker a night before the match.

He became the club captain in 1988 at a tender age of 21 and only relinquished the armband in 2002 when he hung up his playing boots after 22 glorious years. He was voted 3^rd in the list of top 50 Gunners of all time by the fans.

He played 674 games for the club, second only to David O’Leary, and became the only player in English football to lead a title-winning side in three different decades. The centre-back also captained Arsenal to 4 League titles, 2 FA Cups, both of which were a part of the ‘double’ with the League. He also won his first European trophy in 1994.

“I will sign every contract Arsenal put in front of me without reading it,” he once famously remarked. A statue of Adams was erected outside the Emirates in celebration of the club’s 125th anniversary in December 2011, immortalising his celebration after he scored that goal.

#4 Centre-back - Carles Puyol

A defensive cornerstone for Barcelona throughout his career, Carles Puyol emerged from the club’s famed youth academy La Masia which he joined as a 17-year-old and made his first team debut in 1999. He was almost sold to Spanish side Malaga CF in 1998, but he blatantly refused to move after watching his best friend Xavi make the grade at the club.

Since then, there’s been no stopping him. He was named the club captain at the end of the 2003/04 season after the retirement of Luis Enrique. The Spaniard went on to make just under 600 appearances for the club and also a hundred for La Roja before deciding to hang up his boots due to repetitive knee injuries, and joined the senior management at the Catalan club.

A glorious 15 year career ended with 3 Champions League and 6 La Liga titles as captain while also getting his hands on the World Cup in 2010 with Spain after lifting the Euros just two years earlier. He won 21 titles for Barcelona in all.

#5 Left-back - Paulo Maldini

The Italy and AC Milan left-back took loyalty to a whole new level when he signed each and every contact produced before him for two and half decades while also playing for the youth side for 7 years. He stacked up over a thousand appearances for both club and country.

Captaining both the Azzurri and Milan for many years, he won a total 26 trophies with Milan – the Champions League five times, seven Serie A titles, one Coppa Italia, five Supercoppa Italiana, five European Super Cups, two Intercontinental Cups, and one FIFA Club World Cup.

Although the bitterness of not winning any international honours with Italy still exists, he never really gave anything less than what was expected of him.

Upon his retirement in 2009, the San Siro club decided to retire the No.3 jersey in honour of the great man, but revealed that it’d be bequeathed to one of his sons if any one of them would make the grade to the senior team at the club.

#6 Central midfield - Xavi Hernndez

If you’re looking for someone who can caress the ball at his feet, spray passes in any direction, any speed, with any level of difficulty involved, contact Xavi Hernández. The Spaniard is widely considered by many to be one of the most technically supreme midfielders football has ever seen.

Making the grade through La Masia, he was almost destined for a great career, as is the case with most of their academy products. And he didn’t disappoint. Debuting in 1998, he went on to make over 750 games for the Blaugrana, collecting a mammoth 25 titles including seven Spanish Leagues and 3 Champions Leagues. He also amassed over 150 caps for the Spanish National team, playing an instrumental role in both the Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010 triumphs.

As Barney Ronay exquisitely points out in his column for the Guardian, “No footballer has ever played such a decisive role in victory at three major international tournaments, or defined so clearly the dominant club team of the age. Xavi has won 25 major trophies, made more than 180 assists for more than 50 teammates at Barcelona, and has over the last six years passed the ball more than anybody else, run more than anybody else, and basically played more football than any other human being anywhere.“

While it was widely reported at the end of March that Xavi was visiting Qatar to pen a 3-year-deal with local club Al-Sadd, the Spaniard later himself clarified that it was not the case.

#7 Central midfield - Paul Scholes

One of the proud members of the Class of ‘92, former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes is arguably one of the finest talents English football has ever seen. His vision to spot a pass, make late runs into the box, an eye for goal, and high work-rate were second to none.

Xavi Hernandez, considered by many as the best midfielder of this generation, spoke highly of the Englishman in 2011. He was quoted as saying, "A role model. For me, and I really mean this, he's the best central midfielder I've seen in the last 15, 20 years. He's spectacular, he has it all, the last pass, goals, he's strong, he doesn't lose the ball, vision. If he'd been Spanish he might have been rated more highly. Players love him."

After initially retiring in 2011, the Ginger Prince came out of retirement in 2012 to help his team out of injury crisis and went on play another season before finally retiring in May, 2013 at the age of 38.

Over the two decades, he amassed 718 games for the Red Devils, scoring 155 goals, while winning 11 Premier Leagues, 3 FA Cups, and 2 UEFA Champions League titles, among other honours.

#8 Left-midfield - Ryan Giggs

Imagine Sir Alex Ferguson turning up on your 14th birthday at your house and having an offer letter to play for Manchester United in his hands. While it’s good enough for most of us to dream about it for a few minutes and get back to work, it’s exactly what happened with Ryan Giggs.

His first full game for the Red devils was just too good to be true, and an indication of what was in the offing. As Paul Wilson put it, “To play your first full game for Manchester United before a packed house against City is thrilling enough. To do so at the age of 17 is all the more romantic. But scoring the only goal of the game is almost too good to be true. And it was.”

The Welsh ace amassed a staggering 963 games for Manchester United, scoring 168 goals and assisting 280 more. A perpetual runner down the left flank for most of his career, Giggs, one of the members of the Class of ’92, was moved to a deeper playmaking role towards the end of his career.

Manchester United have won 13 English Premier League titles since the inception of the league in 1991, and Giggs was a part of all of them while winning in all 34 winners’ medals with the club. He retired only in 2014 after 24 trophy-laden years and is currently the assistant manager for the Red Devils, aiming to be an inspiration for many more Ryan Giggs’ to come.

#9 Right-midfield - Andrs Iniesta

The Spanish sensation attracted a lot of eyeballs throughout Spain while playing for local side Albacete Balompié as a young kid, eventually joining La Masia at the age of 12 after an FC Barcelona youth team coach recommended his parents to let their child join their famed academy to fulfil his immense potential.

Iniesta himself admitted that he “cried rivers” when he realised he had to stay away from his parents. But once he stopped crying and started playing, football took centre stage and since then there’s been no stopping him. Such was his potential that when he arrived at the club, then midfielder Pep Guardiola jokingly remarked to fellow midfielder Xavi, "You're going to retire me. This lad is going to retire us all."

He made his debut for the club in 2002, and since then he’s played over 350 La Liga games scoring 33 goals. And there’s certainly no doubting he’s a big-game player. He famously scored a last-gasp winner in the Champions League semi-final at Stamford Bridge in 2009 and that memorable 116th minute winner for Spain at the World Cup 2010 Final against Netherlands.

Still only 30, he’s already completed 19 years at the club and is still going strong.

#10 Forward - Lionel Messi

The man has arguably the whole world at his feet today. By the age of 21, he had both Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year nominations. The following year, he won them both. Another La Masia product, the Argentine is easily one of the most technically gifted footballers to ever grace the game.

You could almost bet your life on Messi scoring a goal in any match, against any opposition, under any weather conditions, and he would make sure you are still breathing fine at the end of the game.

Having scored 444 goals in 566 appearances for both club and country, he’s one of the most prolific strikers you’d ever come across, and yet, he isn’t a genuine centre-forward.

The Argentinian, who is often criticised for not replicating his club-level exploits at the international level, just missed out on shutting up each of his critics when he lost out when within touching distance of getting his hands on the elusive World Cup trophy in 2014, when his side lost to Germany in the final in Rio.

#11 Striker - Francesco Totti

Francesco Totti’s association with the Italian top-flight giants AS Roma began at the tender age of 13 when he joined the club’s youth team in 1989. Since making his debut in 1993, the Roma No.10 has racked up 297 goals for the club, while also setting up his team-mates on 186 occasions.

The 38-year-old versatile Italian can play in a variety of positions up the pitch. Wings, attacking midfield, or as a striker, he’s played them all, and to great effect. The World Cup winner was given the Roma armband in 1998 at 21, and is still in no mood to let go of it.

The skipper was instrumental in the Giallorossi’s historic Scudetto success in 2000/01 season, which was only the third in their history. Nicknamed Il Re di Roma (The King of Rome), Totti is the highest active goal scorer in Italy at present, the highest goal scorer for Roma as well as their most capped player.