Key Takeaways
Players can have all the talent and work as hard as possible, but their efforts will mean nothing without good luck.
Many players have suffered from bad luck in a variety of different ways over the years.
GIVEMESPORT have named the 10 unluckiest players in Premier League history.
There are three things you need to be an athlete in any sport at the highest level: natural ability, hard work, and plenty of luck. In some cases, you might not need to be the best player or have the greatest work ethic, but if the deck falls kindly for you, you may achieve everything you hoped for.
The opposite can also be true. Some of the very best in football have had the misfortune of missing out on the biggest prizes, not because of anything they did wrong, but because luck wasn't on their side.
It is hard to define what makes a player unlucky, but here at GIVEMESPORT, we have decided to attempt to rank the 10 unluckiest players in Premier League history by considering some key factors.
Key factors
Injury history
How close they came to winning trophies
Number of unfortunate errors
Capable of achieving more than they did
10 Unluckiest Players in Premier League History [Ranked]
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10 Reece James
Notable clubs: Chelsea
Reece James
There is still plenty of time for Reece James to have an incredibly successful career, and he has already achieved plenty. The English defender is a European champion and was made Chelsea captain at the start of the 2023/24 season. However, he has rarely been able to lead his side out.
Injuries have plagued the right-back for a number of years and have caused him to miss multiple international tournaments. Compatriot Kyle Walker once described him as the perfect full-back, yet his fitness issues have meant fans have not seen enough of this quality.
A custom image of Gareth Bale, Jack Wilshere and Reece James Related
12 Most Injury-Prone Players in Premier League History (Ranked)
Including Gareth Bale and Jack Wilshere, some players have been cursed with injury over the years.
9 Djibril Cisse
Notable clubs: Liverpool, Sunderland, QPR
Djibril Cisse
As a Champions League and FA Cup winner, on the surface, it would seem as though there would be nothing in his career that Djibril Cisse could complain about. The striker was a French international, who played for numerous clubs across different leagues and in a variety of countries. But this all could have been very different had it not been for one horrendous injury that occurred twice.
Having joined Liverpool in 2004, Cisse suffered a gruesome double leg fracture that saw him miss the majority of the 2004/05 season. While he was back in time for the miracle win in Istanbul, it set him back massively and prevented him from reaching greater heights. Worse yet, he suffered the same injury in 2006 just as he was preparing to reignite his career back in France with Marseille.
8 Eduardo
Notable clubs: Arsenal
Eduardo off injured
It was a bit of a stop-start run for Eduardo when he first made the move to Arsenal in 2007. He was in and out of the team, but by late December he started to get a run of games in the Premier League. The Gunners were closely challenging Manchester United, and the Brazilian-born Croatia international had managed seven goal contributions in as many games when Arsene Wenger's side made the trip to Birmingham City.
Just 10 minutes into the contest, a sickening challenge from defender Martin Taylor stopped Eduardo's momentum dead, and he was ruled out for the rest of the season with a broken leg. He would never hit the same rich vein of form again, and the game is remembered for William Gallas' reaction to the unfair incident and unfortunate result at the full-time whistle.
7 Richard Dunne
Notable clubs: Everton, Manchester City, Aston Villa, QPR
Richard Dunne
There's an element in Richard Dunne's own goal record that makes you question whether it was unlucky or he was just prone to putting the ball into the back of his own net. The Irishman holds the Premier League record with 10, which is almost as many as he tucked home down the other end of the pitch at club level.
In reality, Dunne was, of course, never intending to score these own goals and was just desperately attempting to protect the goal he was defending. The fact that he failed to get the rub of the green on double-digit occasions will partly be down to improvements he could have made but is also down to a whole host of bad luck.
6 Abou Diaby
Notable clubs: Arsenal
Abou Diaby in action for Arsenal
Much like others on this list, one injury completely derailed the entirety of Abou Diaby's career. The Frenchman was seen as the heir to the throne for Patrick Vieira, as a strong, combative midfielder who also possessed the technical ability that defied what his size would have led many to believe.
In 2006, Diaby was pitted against Sunderland when teenager Dan Smith took out the Gunners' number two with an unnecessary challenge in the 90th minute. The tackle was so bad that Arsene Wenger threatened to sue the youngster, claiming that his only intention was to hurt Diaby. This would lead to a series of spells on the sideline that the midfielder would never be able to overcome and prevent him from taking over from Vieira.
Abou Diaby Related
The Horror Tackle That Ruined Abou Diaby's Football Career
Diaby's career was ruined after a horrific tackle by Sunderland's Dan Smith. The challenge was so bad that Arsene Wenger threatened legal action.
5 Aaron Ramsey
Notable clubs: Arsenal
aaron ramsey
Another Arsenal player plagued with injuries. And he won't be the last one either. Seeing so many on this list does make you wonder whether Arsene Wenger could have ended his side's trophyless drought far sooner had so many things that went against him been avoided.
Like Eduardo, Aaron Ramsey had his early Arsenal career stopped in its tracks when he suffered a broken leg in 2010, which kept him out for the remainder of his debut season at the club. While he would still go on to be a pivotal part of the north London outfit for several years, injuries continued to sideline him at the worst times. Not to mention that there was also the infamous 'Ramsey curse,' which, while not impacting him, was still an unfortunate and undeserved tag to be labelled with.
4 Harry Kane
Notable clubs: Tottenham
Harry Kane after the North London Derby February 2015
There's no beating around the bush with this one. The reason Harry Kane is on this list is due to the fact he played for Tottenham. The striker became a legend in north London but was routinely one of, if not the best strikers on the planet while wearing the white of Spurs. He should have been playing for a team that could turn his goals into trophies, but Spurs never could. Kane lost a Champions League and a Carabao Cup final for Tottenham and has also lost two European Championship finals for England.
He finally left to join Bayern Munich in 2023 to pursue trophies. What happened? Their decade-long dominance in the Bundesliga came to an end, and they dropped to third with the Englishman up top. That certainly wasn't in the script.
3 Michael Ballack
Notable clubs: Chelsea
Ballack
We challenge you to find a player who has had such bad luck finishing second, like Michael Ballack. The German was one of the greatest midfielders of his generation, but his trophy cabinet could have been far more stocked up if he didn't have two of the most unfortunate seasons.
The 2001/02 campaign saw Ballack's Bayer Leverkusen having the chance to pull off a remarkable treble. How many trophies did they end with? Zero. They finished runners-up in the Bundesliga despite having a five-point lead in the latter stages of the season, lost the German Cup final to Schalke, and succumbed to a 2-1 defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League final. To make matters worse, he would then be part of a national team that lost in the final of the 2002 World Cup.
Fast-forward six years, and history incredibly repeated itself. Ballack would lose the League Cup final in 2008, miss out on the Premier League title on the final day, and lose on penalties to Manchester United in the Champions League final. That summer, he would also lose in the European Championship final against Spain. Talk about lightning striking twice.
2 Jack Wilshere
Notable clubs: Arsenal, West Ham, Bournemouth
Jack Wilshere of Arsenal looks on
One of the most naturally gifted English youngsters to have ever played the game. Jack Wilshere was somebody who could have been sitting at the very top table of football superstars had he not suffered an injury as a teenager that doctors warned would likely end his footballing career.
The story is the same as many others on this list. One bad injury creates a snowball effect that prevents the player from realising his true potential. While this is sad in all cases, what it took away in terms of Wilshere's ceiling is what sees him come so close to taking the top spot on this list.
EPL_Most Wasted Potential Related
10 Players with the Most Wasted Potential in Football History [Ranked]
Freddy Adu, Jack Wilshere and Mario Balotelli all feature among the 10 players with the most wasted potential in football history.
1 Steven Gerrard
Notable clubs: Liverpool
Steven Gerrard celebrates scoring for Liverpool against Everton.
The greatest player to never win the Premier League title. For how loyal Steven Gerrard was to Liverpool, he truly deserved his winner's medal when it finally looked to be falling into the palm of his hands in 2014. Having endured some of the worst teams in Anfield history, the midfielder's patience looked set to be rewarded when the Reds beat Manchester City 3-2 in the run-in.
We know what came next. "Gerrard's slipped, and Demba Ba's in here," proclaimed Martin Tyler as, in an instant, the captain's hopes of lifting the title fell out of his grasp after ironically telling his teammates: "This does not slip now." The man himself says he lives with that regret every day, and it is the most unlucky footnote to an otherwise incredible career.
All statistics courtesy of Transfermarkt - accurate as of 08/12/2024.