It doesn’t take much to spot a ‘football maverick’ among his colleagues, even if such widely admired characters of the sport remain a somewhat dying breed in the modern game today.
Be it through sheer talent and unquestionable skill with the ball at their feet, a level of vision that us mere mortals will never be able to possess, an increasingly flamboyant approach to life on and off the pitch, or simply just by having a crazy hair-style that isn’t likely to catch on any time soon – quite frankly, the real football maverick doesn’t even care about how he’s portrayed in the media.
Whilst most mavericks of the Beautiful Game largely have to go down as some of football’s best ever players, success is not always a necessary requirement for falling into such a seemingly vague category in the first place.
On the contrary, most mavericks have picked up their memorable status through a combination of different factors, with actual technical ability arriving as just one of many. Expressing the uniqueness of your character arguably remains a more important trait…
So then, in light of the joy and excitement such players have brought to the English game throughout the years, here are 50 of the Premier League’s favourite football mavericks…