So who are the best Premier League wingers ever?
You probably have a few ideas in your head. Over time, these players have become the stars of the division.
They began as humble wide midfielders in 4-4-2s, supplying for the ever-more exciting forwards. But wingers have evolved in the Premier League to become goalscorers and headline-grabbers in their own right.
So we thought we'd work out who was the best ever. Note: we're looking at players who primarily played out wide over the course of their Premier League career, whether in a 4-4-2, 4-3-3 or any other formation. For us, a winger is simply a player who plays on the wing – whether you consider them an inside forward or a more traditional up-and-down touchline crosser.
At FourFourTwo, we poured over 32 years of this magnificent leagues to come up with lists of the best goalkeepers in the history of the Premier League, the best defenders, the best midfielders and the best strikers. For each, we assessed the overall impact, of course, as well as the legacy – but also how damn brilliant they were to play against.
And this is what we came up with…
VIDEO Why Savio Means Man City WON'T Miss Julian Alvarez
The 20 best Premier League wingers ever: 20. Leroy Sane (Manchester City)
While the likes of Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne could write epics of their time on Eastlands, Leroy Sane's time at Manchester City was a mere chapter – but one in which he was an undisputed superstar.
A key figure in the Centurions side of 2017/18, Sane was one of Pep Guardiola's first signings in the Premier League. He repopularised the idea of a left-footed left-winger thriving in English football and for the 90 appearances he made in the Premier League, no one got close to him from a standing start.
19. Harry Kewell (Leeds United, Liverpool)
Leeds United fans' affection for Harry Kewell may have waned following later career decisions but the Aussie was one of the league's posterboys during their early-2000s pomp. Then he went to Liverpool and won the Champions League for good measure.
Kewell was a superb talent, able to drift, create and finish with aplomb. He remains one of the league's lasting ‘what if?’ players, however, in a box with Ledley King: injuries prevented him from truly delivering what he promised in those early seasons at Elland Road.
18. Phil Foden (Manchester City)
Debate will likely rage as to what his best position truly is – but should the Stockport Iniesta retire tomorrow, he'd already go down in Premier League history.
If only for his Premier League Player of the Season campaign last year, where he did start out wide before moving inside, thanks to an overlapping full-back. Phil Foden has been one of Manchester City's most fascinating superstars under Guardiola, however, with the Catalan deploying him in varying roles to gel the side. City's greatest-ever academy product?
17. Marc Overmars (Arsenal)
A man who really changed the game for wingers in the 90s. Marc Overmars was two-footed, able to cross and cut in equally, and was pacy to boot.
In that burgeoning turf war between Ferguson and Wenger, Overmars was on the frontline for the Frenchman, forming a frightening attack with the likes of Dennis Bergkamp and Nicolas Anelka. It was no real surprise when Barcelona came calling.
16. Steve McManaman (Liverpool, Manchester City)
TNT Sports' resident playing-out-from-the-back sceptic in the commentary booth could move on the pitch. Long before signing up for the Galactico programme, Steve McManaman dazzled for Liverpool as one of a number of the club's homegrown heroes.
That Macca was always criticised for never replicating such brilliance for England shows just how much he was admired for the Reds. Intelligent and intense in equal part, he was one of the first real high-profile free transfers of his era, too.
15. Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal, Manchester United)
Half of arguably the worst swap deal that football has ever seen (so bad, in fact, that both sides felt short-changed) – but boy was Alexis Sanchez good before he swapped Arsenal for Manchester United.
The childlike Chilean was endlessly likeable, putting in the hard graft off the ball and providing box office moments on the biggest of stages. Sanchez had poise and power, linking up with Mesut Ozil in a duo that would rival any on Earth on their day: if Arsene Wenger had just two more players of Sanchez's calibre at this time, there's no question the Gunners would have won so much more.
14. John Barnes (Liverpool, Newcastle United, Charlton Athletic)
His starring role in World In Motion suggests a peak passed by before the Premier League rebrand. Yet John Barnes was one of the lead characters of the league in the early 90s, with his unmistakable style still strong.
Barnes played all over in the Premier League, featuring as a holding midfielder for Liverpool and Alan Shearer's backup for Newcastle. Such was his technical ability on the ball that even when he lost his pace to injuries, he could still provide the difference in his trademark left-wing role – and he's still regarded as one of England's greatest-ever in that position.
13. Freddie Ljungberg (Arsenal, West Ham United)
Arsenal fans of a certain age will remember Freddie Ljungberg for seemingly always getting a goal in the biggest matches. Arsenal fans' parents of a certain age will remember having to buy red hair spray for their kids to copy Ljungberg's trademark mohican.
The Swede typified what made Arsenal so competitive around this time. He was sharper than anyone else off the ball but played with an aggression and a will to track back and help his team-mates. Left or right, he often stole the spotlight.
12. David Ginola (Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa, Everton)
A raft of continental geniuses flooded to the Premier League in the 1990s, with Eric Cantona paving the way for Bergkamp, Juninho and even Paulo Futre (once he'd been given the No.10 shirt and not a minute before). David Ginola was one of the most beloved of the lot.
The effortlessly suave Frenchman was able to dribble through defenders like traffic cones, often directing games as if he knew all eyes were on him. He even won the Player of the Year Award – while at Tottenham – during Manchester United's Treble-winning season. Because he was worth it.
11. Raheem Sterling (Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea)
Raheem Sterling rose to prominence as the cultured attacking midfielder between Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez, in Brendan Rodgers' glistening diamond setup. It was under Pep Guardiola that he truly found his best.
Sterling is a testament to the art of always being in the right place at the right time. His timing of knowing when to swoop in and finish a move has always been majestic, as he refined his game to do exactly what Pep needed at any given moment.
10. David Beckham (Manchester United)
Those who don't remember David Beckham will wonder if he ever really was any good – or whether he was just a very famous footballer married to a very famous singer. It's the former. That Manchester United didn't win a title for three years after Beckham left tells you a little of his influence.
Becks was unplayable for much of his Premier League career, announcing himself with that Wimbledon worldie before becoming one of the best players on Earth. There was no passer like him in world football – there haven't been many since, actually – and had Ferguson not had issues with his off-field persona, he may well have spent another decade in England, racking up an assist tally that not even Kevin De Bruyne could reach.
9. Riyad Mahrez (Leicester City, Manchester City)
Claudio Ranieri's Leicester City miracle-workers were nothing but workmanlike, grinding out a title with rugged runners, blood, sweat and tears. But that's not to say they were bereft of sheer genius – and Riyad Mahrez really did exemplify that.
Easily the superstar of that side in terms of technical ability, the Algerian was the very prototypical winger of the 2010s: predictable that he would cut inside, yet unstoppable in any way. City snatched him and he simply soared to greater heights.
In his whole management career, Mahrez is one of a select few of Guardiola's wingers that the Catalan simply unleashed to go off and ball, regardless of what he asked of his other widemen. He was perfect as he was and too good to turn into anything else.
8. Ryan Giggs (Manchester United)
The Premier League's all-time appearance holder until Gareth Barry came along, one suspects that Ryan Giggs was always Ferguson's favourite.
The Welshman started life as a speedster able to spellbind on the left but over time, his ability to perform whatever his manager required was invaluable. A whole generation rued his birth beyond the border at a time when England simply couldn't produce left-footers.
7. Robert Pires (Arsenal, Aston Villa)
Robert Pires used to do this thing where he could sit a defender down simply with a shoulder feint. The Frenchman was slight in frame, not exactly the quickest – but his incredible body manipulation was proof of just how intelligent and creative a footballer he really was.
A real trailblazer as a right-footed left-winger, Pires was predominantly a playmaker alongside Ashley Cole and Thierry Henry. He just couldn't be held down, though: he loved to burst into space to finish chances off and he'd interchange with his team-mates to pop up where he was needed.
Pires racked up 15 assists in 2001/02 by March, before being sidelined through injury. When he returned to lift a league title he'd helped deliver, his team-mates all took to their knees to praise him: it said it all of how revered he was.
6. Gareth Bale (Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur)
Simply put, perhaps no one has used what they had better than Gareth Bale. A man who began life as a left-back, seemingly couldn't win a game in a Tottenham shirt, seemed to transfigure into a force of nature higher up the pitch – basically, just because he wanted to.
Bale had pace and power that made him look like a teenager playing with the year below him at school. The Welsh wizard was devastating any time he got one-on-one with his full-back and his goal catalogue is simply breathtaking. He rightfully became the most expensive player on Earth.
5. Sadio Mane (Southampton, Liverpool)
One of Sadio Mane's more niche abilities was that he used every inch of his body so well. Often, he would look incredibly unorthodox in the way he took down a pass or struck the ball – but such was his technical supremacy, the ball was almost under his spell.
As a right-winger at Liverpool, he was majestic – and then he moved to the left to ascend to new levels. If Mohamed Salah was icy cold and clinical, while Roberto Firmino was Copacabana-like warmth with his flare, Mane could be both – he could create and he could score; he was superb in tight spaces or when interpreting space.
And for a unique system in which the press was the primary playmaker, Mane helped to open eyes to just how good forwards could be off the ball. Some argue that he's still missed by Liverpool.
4. Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
Eden Hazard never scored or assisted the most – but he may be the Premier League's greatest-ever player in terms of pure enjoyment. He was simply beautiful on the ball: if you love football, you loved watching Hazard.
The brilliant Belgian could decide games on a whim. His dribbling skills are now legendary and his creativity was sublime. In two Chelsea sides, he was utterly sensational, though 2014/15's vintage truly orbited around his talents. And for such an aesthetic player, he was ruthless: unafraid to bully or batter when need be. Forever a Leicester hero, too, for scoring the equaliser against Spurs to take the title to the Midlands.
3. Son Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur)
Harry Kane is one of three Premier League players to have netted 200+ goals and will forever receive his flowers for doing so. Son Heung-min deserves, in many respects, to be spoken about with the same affection. He matched his Tottenham partner stride for stride.
For one of the Premier League's enduringly amiable characters, Sonny is an assassin of a winger, as if on a mission to slice through every defence he faces. He is one of the best strikers of a football that English football has ever seen – and from his humble beginnings as a Spurs squad player to a superstar of the European game, he has enraptured audiences. He is Asia's finest export to the Premier League, for sure.
2. Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Funnily enough, we're talking about the first United spell. He played as a striker in the second one, anyway.
Cristiano Ronaldo was always a fun footballer with a box of tricks, long before something clicked inside him and he activated his own ‘God mode’. But when he flicked a switch to become the best he possibly could, he literally changed the game. He rewrote the template of what a winger could become, simply with his sheer output. He was unstoppable.
From 2006 onwards, he reached a level that few players ever will (some still say none). 2007 saw him become the first player to win four major end-of-season individual honours before he scored 31 times in the league in 2008 from the left wing, leading United to league and European glory. The rest, as they say, is history.
1. Mohamed Salah (Chelsea, Liverpool)
A strike on Matchday 1 of 2024/25 for Mohamed Salah saw the Egyptian king hit 300 goals and assists for Liverpool in just 350 appearances. Not even Ronaldo had time to rack up those kinds of numbers in English football.
Salah has been the consistent through it all: as the Reds attack as evolved around him, he's simply kept scoring. 32 goals in 36 Premier League games in his first Liverpool season saw him hit the ground running – and he's netted 18 or more every year since.
And it's all come from the right wing. Often numbers that good see a promotion to centre-forward, and yet Salah's game is simple: stay wide, until you don't. No one has beaten it in all this time.
More Premier League stories
Manchester City staff ‘unsure’ Pep Guardiola will continue as manager
Premier League: Who is the referee and VAR for Manchester United vs Fulham?
Cristiano Ronaldo offered himself to Manchester City, but Pep Guardiola brutally rejected him: report
