Top 5 Players with most premier league appearances

The Premier League is the most competitive and physically demanding league in world football. Longevity is a very rare and difficult thing in the English 1st division, not a lot of players achieve that. Even great players find it harder to survive in the league after they are past their prime. According to a statistic collected in 2019 the average age in the premier league is 27.1 which is exactly in the middle of the prime of the majority of footballers.

There are players who have defied the odds to play in the premier league for a very long time. 

Here is the list of the 5 players with the most Premier League appearances - 

5. James Milner- 553

The 35- year old midfielder has been on the block for quite a while now, the Englishman made his premier league debut back in 2002 with leeds united now at Liverpool the koppite has 553 appearances to his name in almost 19 years. Milner has also had long stays at Newcastle, Aston Villa and Manchester City winning two league titles with Manchester City and another one with Liverpool. Milner also has 9 other trophies to his name. Safe to say the Leeds born midfielder has had an illustrious career in which he has played in several positions all over the field and with a year still left on his Liverpool contract James Milner would be keen to move up the appearances ranking.

Appearance Breakdown:

4. David James-572

The 6 ft 4 british man is surprisingly the only goalkeeper on this list. James has played a total of 18 seasons in the top flight for 5 clubs i.e. Liverpool, West ham, Aston Villa, Portsmouth and Manchester city. Although he has never won the premier league he has 2 titles in his career and he held the record for most Premier league clean sheets before being overtaken by petr cech. David James last played in premier league in 2010 at the age of 39 marking his 572nd appearance and has since had brief stints in the championship and the ISL before hanging his boots in 2014.

Appearance Breakdown:

Also Read | Best Goalkeepers in the Premier League history

3. Frank Lampard-607

One of the greatest midfielders to ever grace the premier league, Frank Lampard in his mammoth career has 607 Premier League appearances. The Midfield stalwart played in the premier league for 20 whole seasons with the majority of them for Chelsea. Lampard started his career at West Ham and played a season for Manchester City as well. The Englishman is the 5th highest premier league goalscorer and that too from midfield. Lampard has 3 titles to his name along with 8 other domestic cups and 2 memorable European triumphs.

Appearance Breakdown: 

2. Ryan Giggs- 632

The only non-english player in the list, Ryan Giggs is widely considered one of the  best players in Premier league history. The Welsh Wizard is one of the few one club men in football. The winger made 632 league appearances for his boyhood club Manchester united. Giggs still holds the record for most assists in the top flight with 162. He won 13 titles in Manchester along with several other individual and collective honours.

Appearance Breakdown:

1.Gareth Barry- 653

Widely known as the grandfather of the Premier league, Barry made 653 appearances in 22 seasons for 4 clubs. The English Defensive midfielder started his career in 1997 with Aston villa and then went on to play for Manchester City, Everton and West Bromwich Albion. Barry has won a sole Premier League Title with Manchester City.

Appearance Breakdown:

Also Read | Most goals in a Premier League season by a Player