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10 Hardest Players in Premier League History Ranked by Shearer & Richards

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Summary

  • Alan Shearer and Micah Richards both agreed that Duncan Ferguson is the Premier League’s ultimate hard man, each ranking him first.
  • The pair disagree on Vinnie Jones, though, with Richards putting him up in second and Shearer ranking him eighth.
  • Richards and Shearer questioned Diego Costa’s toughness, with the former claiming the Brazilian’s hard-man act was a ‘facade’.

When the topic of football’s hardest-ever players comes up, the same protagonists are usually mentioned. Roy Keane, Vinnie Jones and Duncan Ferguson are the ones that immediately spring to mind, and all three of them feature in a list of the top 10 Premier League hard men of all time, compiled by Micah Richards and Alan Shearer.

Richards and Shearer were both given the same 10 players to choose from, but their final rankings are different. There are a couple of players in the 10 from the modern era of football, but the vast majority were playing in the 1990s, when football was perhaps a bit more physical than it is today.

Micah Richards’ Top 10 Premier League Hard Men

Richards and Diego Costa

Diego Costa is the only active player to feature in this list and Richards and Shearer both put him in 10th, admitting that they weren’t best pleased that Costa was included in the list of 10 players that they had been given to choose from by BBC staff.

Richards said: “He wasn’t a tough cookie. It’s a facade. He shouldn’t be in there. I played against him with Villa and he kept niggling all game. I pulled him in the tunnel at half-time and said ‘What are you doing? If you want to scrap…’ but he didn’t want it.”

Richards ranked Julian Dicks and David Batty ninth and eighth respectively, with Stuart Pearce, his former manager at Manchester City, in seventh. Speaking about Pearce, Richards said:

“He gave me my debut. I’d have had him further down the list but he was so good to me. You knew he had it in him.”

It’s easy to forget that Patrick Vieira was a teammate of Richards’ at City, with the Frenchman spending the final season of his career at the Etihad before retiring in 2011.

Vieira and Richards

Ranking the Premier League midfield great sixth in the list, Richards said: “He was the nicest horrible man. He was elegant, smiling but as soon as you get on the training ground he was disgusting. It was always down your shins. I was star struck when I met him. He came to Manchester City. I’m in awe, this is Vieira. I’ve told him ‘I’ve gone from loving you to hating you within a day of meeting you’. Off the field he was such a nice person but he turned [in training] – two-footed tackles.”

Roy Keane, Richards’ partner in crime on Sky Sports, ranked fifth, but Richards doubts whether he was hard as people say he was: “Some of these guys are before my time and the reason he slipped down to five is because I was watching Duncan Ferguson videos, and Jaap Stam and Roy Keane walked away from a confrontation. So I wondered how hard are you really? Roy let me down. Everyone talks about him being a hard man.”

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Richards had Nemanja Vidic in fourth, Jaap Stam in third and Vinnie Jones in second, with notorious Premier League hard man Duncan Ferguson in top spot. Richards said: “From the videos and how big he (Ferguson) is… Stam walked away, Keane walked away. He’s got to be number one. He’s got the eyes, you wouldn’t mess with him.”

Micah Richards’ All-Time Top 10 Premier League Hard Men

10th

Diego Costa

9th

Julian Dicks

8th

David Batty

7th

Stuart Pearce

6th

Patrick Vieira

5th

Roy Keane

4th

Nemanja Vidic

3rd

Jaap Stam

2nd

Vinnie Jones

1st

Duncan Ferguson

Alan Shearer’s Top 10 Premier League Hard Men

Vinnie Jones

Shearer had Costa in 10th with Stam in ninth, and Jones a somewhat surprisingly low entry at eighth. “He was definitely a character,” Shearer said. “At one time, he was a brickie or hod carrier. So to get where he did in football was remarkable and sums him up. But there were some really evil, disgusting challenges. Does it make you a hard man if you scythe someone down?”

Shearer played with David Batty and Stuart Pearce at both club and international level and ranked them seventh and sixth respectively. On Batty, Shearer said: “He had a scrap with Graeme le Saux in Moscow. It was -10 degrees, we lost 3-0, it was a terrible night. I always got the impression with Batts he didn’t really love football. You couldn’t accuse him of not giving his all but he was last into training, first away. He was a great lad, it was great to have him in the team. I was with him at Blackburn and Newcastle. And he won the title at Leeds.”

Arsenal legend Vieira entered Shearer’s list in fifth, with Vidic in fourth. Speaking about Vidic, Shearer said:

“He’d never walk away from a battle or a fight because of where he’s from, how he was brought up. He had that hard look about him. He wouldn’t have shirked anything.”

Shearer had some infamous clashes with Keane, who he ranked third, most notably in 2001 when Keane was sent off for throwing a ball at Shearer before swinging for the Newcastle striker during a game at St James’ Park. The Irishman admitted he considered retirement after the incident.

“When the final whistle went, Roy was standing at the top of the stairs waiting for me,” Shearer recalled to The Athletic. “I’m pretty sure a few more choice words were exchanged, there was some bustling and scrambling, but there were way too many people between us for anything physical to actually happen. That’s usually how it pans out in football.”

While Dicks placed ninth in Richards’ list, Shearer had him all the way up in second, saying the former West Ham defender’s tackles were “designed to hurt”. He said: “They were there with intent. Some of his tackles were horrible.”

In top spot, again, was ‘Big Dunc’. “You know when someone has an aura about them,” Shearer said. “He had a presence when he walked in, the size of him. He had this reputation and he didn’t disappoint. If looks could kill, he could kill you with a look. I don’t know anyone in the game who doesn’t think that about him. You could see the fear in defenders’ eyes in the tunnel.”

Alan Shearer’s All-Time Top 10 Premier League Hard Men

10th

Diego Costa

9th

Jaap Stam

8th

Vinnie Jones

7th

David Batty

6th

Stuart Pearce

5th

Patrick Vieira

4th

Nemanja Vidic

3rd

Roy Keane

2nd

Julian Dicks

1st

Duncan Ferguson

shearer richards


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Sergio Perez Savages Cadillac After ‘Unacceptable’ Austrian GP Performance

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A Formula One driver has savaged his team over their nightmare performance at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.

It was another fine weekend for Mercedes, as George Russell picked up his second victory of the season to reinvigorate his pursuit of teammate Kimi Antonelli at the top of the Drivers’ Championship.

The Brit was chased hard by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who finished second, with championship pacesetter Antonelli back in third. All three crossed the finishing line within seconds of each other at the Red Bull Ring as the race saw a tense conclusion.

However, while the race for victory went right the way until the end of the Grand Prix, one F1 team endured a dismal time in Austria, with one of their drivers publicly calling them out over the situation when speaking to the media on Sunday evening.

Struggling F1 Team Sees Both Drivers Exit Austrian Grand Prix Early

The Cadillac pairing of Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas were both out of the race within four laps, with both cars suffering brake overheating problems.

It’s not the first team that the grid’s newest team has struggled for reliability in their debut season, either. Bottas was forced out of the Monaco Grand Prix three weeks ago, while Perez endured a suspension failure in Montreal.

The American constructor is the only team not to have picked up a point so far this season and Perez’s frustrations with his employers boiled over while speaking to Crash.net after the race.


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Perez, who finished as the world championship runner-up just three seasons ago at Red Bull, held nothing back as he discussed the current state of his car.

“We’ve been having issues all weekend. I think it’s been the worst weekend ever. It feels like we took four or five steps backwards. So there needs to be a massive process, thinking on how we’re doing things, especially when it comes to upgrades, because today what happened was totally unacceptable and very unfortunate as well for the team.”

Perez admitted that his anger was born out of a lack of general progress by his new side since the start of the season, but he expressed hope that the issues could be rectified before next weekend’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

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Start of the race during the Race of Formula 1 Rolex Austrian Grand Prix 2026 Crdit: Alessio De Marco/Sipa USA

“The most frustrating thing is not to see progress. I think we always expected these things to occur to a new team, obviously, but I think the frustration comes from the lack of progress.

“So I’m sure that this upgrade will help us to understand a lot of those efficiencies, and I do expect a massive step forward in reliability going to Silverstone.”

Perez reportedly signed a multi-year agreement with Cadillac when he joined the team, but a report surfaced last month claimed that he was already considering tearing up his deal over performance concerns.

Cadillac were always realistic about their chances of success in their debut season being low, but few expected them to be without a point after eight rounds of the season. Team Principal Graeme Lowdon will be hoping that they turn the corner with their form as soon as possible, starting with a far stronger performance at the British Grand Prix this weekend.

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Why Germany wears green away kits in football

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Germany stands as one of the most historic international football institutions, boasting both iconic players and teams across the ages.

Whether it’s the dominant force that prevailed in the 1970s that cleaned up at both European and world level, the famed sides in the 1980s and 90s, or the triumphant winning squad of 2014, they have always been a contender.

As a result, the famous white-and-black strip is an unmistakable feature of Die Mannschaft, and is a design known all over the world and associated with football royalty.

However, when a kit clash occurs at international level, they are forced to switch to a far-less witnessed green strip. This is the unexpected trivia behind the colour that isn’t found anywhere on their national flag.

The Reason Why Germany’s Away Kit is Green

Andreas Brehme West Germany 1990 World Cup Action Images via REUTERS

Interestingly, the truth behind the inception of the green kit is shrouded in an urban myth. One story claims that, following the aftermath of World War Two, Germany was isolated from international sports and Ireland became the first country to agree to a friendly match, resulting in them adopting the country’s green look.

However, the timelines simply don’t match up. Their first match actually came a year earlier in 1950 against Switzerland. Instead, the true origin lies with the German Football Association.


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The Fascinating Reason Why Brazil Wear Yellow Kits

Brazil’s famous yellow kits are remembered throughout the world, being deeply associated with the country’s footballing prowess.

Green and White are the official colours of the DFB, matching the governing body’s crest and logo. It is also matched to the colours of the pitch, ensuring it is more a neutral sports identity rather than a political one. Despite it being the lesser worn kit, it was worn during iconic moments such as their winning 1972 European Championship campaign and later 1990 penalty shootout victory over England.

Ballon d’Or winner Lothar Matthäus later remarked that:

“When you think of classic German football, you think of those fighting performances in the green shirts. It wasn’t our flag, but it felt entirely like our history.”

Why Germany Wear White

Germany home kit World Cup Credit: Football Tweet

The famed home jersey is indeed rooted heavily in the history of Germany. Dating back to the 19th century, the white and black refer to the colours of the Prussian Flag — the state that led the unification of the German Empire.

Even though the political landscape changed dramatically over decades, it remains loyal to the traditional sporting identity. The colours were also favoured for their simplicity of early athletic wear. Countless icons have helped to elevate it to cultural significance; Franz Beckenbauer leading the country to glory in the 1970s stands out.

Plus, the introduction of Adidas as the designer from 1980 onwards gave us the iconic 1990 kits, with the simple home design possessing the three colours of the flag running across steeped in football culture. And the aforementioned green away strip is also a stunning creation.

Not many countries can boast football attire that is as beloved in the football vintage kit community as Germany’s — combining style with the rich history of being one of football’s elite nations.


Arsenal 'bruised banana' Adidas - 1991 to 1993, Brazil Yellow, 1970 World Cup (Maybe with Pele holding World Cup if possible), Cameroon sleeveless Puma from 2002 African Cup of Nations and World Cup


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US Police Issue Statement After Shooting at Fan Zone

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US police have issued a statement after a shooting at a World Cup fan zone left one dead and another ‘seriously injured’ in San Jose, California, on Sunday night.

There were no World Cup games being screened at the time of the shooting, with the only match of the day in the ​tournament finishing around 2pm local time. But the spot, on San Pedro Square, is one of the most popular entertainment zones in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Bay ​Area has hosted five World Cup matches so far, with the last game a ‌knockout ⁠match on Wednesday between Bosnia and co-hosts the United States.

Shooting at World Cup Fan Zone Leaves One Dead & Another in Critical Condition

World Cup Amber Searls/ Imagn Images via Reuters

Police in California have since released a statement about the incident, with several roads now closed while the investigation continues. They wrote on X (see the full post below):

“One victim was ​pronounced deceased on scene. The second victim was transported to a ⁠local hospital with life-threatening injuries. This incident is being investigated as a homicide. ​Several surrounding streets are closed in the area.”

A Reuters journalist at the scene saw a heavy police presence, multiple police vehicles and a person on a stretcher partially covered by a white sheet being rushed ​away from the ​area by people ⁠in uniforms, as per the Daily Mail. The scene was cordoned off and most bars in the area were closed after the incident.

Condition of Other Victim Emerges

World Cup ball Paul Childs via Reuters

A security guard, ​who declined to be named because she was not ​authorized to ⁠speak to media, said she saw the injured person in distress. “The person was still moaning and groaning. There was blood around his neck and upper ⁠back,” ​she said. “Police were talking to security and a ​couple of witnesses.”

Unfortunately, shootings and crime have not been rare at the 2026 World Cup, with five reported shootings taking place in Kansas City between the week before England were due to fly to their group-stage training base and now. The dangers of allowing gun licenses has cropped up in several flashpoints this summer so far.

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