Five Players To Never Win A Trophy
It feels mean to keep bringing it up, but Bayern Munich’s struggles on the pitch this season have left a certain Harry Kane open to plenty of stick.
There can be no doubt about the fact that Kane is one of England’s greatest ever talents, sitting well clear as his country’s highest ever goalscorer with 62. However, he is one of a select group of players to never win a trophy and is becoming something of a ‘nearly man’.
Harry Kane
Aside from a multitude of loan spells in his formative years, Kane has spent the majority of his senior career at Tottenham, finishing as runner-up in the Champions League in 2019 and twice in the League Cup in 2015 and 2021.
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On top of this, He captained his country to the final of Euro 2020, while he also has a medal for finishing third in the inaugural edition of the UEFA Nations League. Things were supposed to be different for Kane this season as he sealed an £82 million transfer to Bayern Munich, whose last trophyless campaign was back in 2012.
However, Bayern have endured a dismal campaign so far, sitting 10 points behind Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga at the time of writing and exiting the DFB Pokal at the hands of third tier Saarbrucken. Bayern Munich are still in the Champions League of course, with Kane firing his side to the quarter finals in midweek, but there’s a very real possibility that Harry Kane will go another year without any major silverware.
To help drown his sorrows, we’ve picked out five top footballers who retired having never won a major trophy.
Sir Tom Finney
Considering that he’s widely regarded to be one of the greatest England players of all-time, the late Sir Tom Finney is a fitting way to start this feature. He was very much a player from a different era, spending the entirety of his club career at his hometown team Preston North End, scoring over 200 goals.
Finney earned plenty of personal accolades, being named Footballer of the Year on two occasions in 1954 and 1957. He had several nearly moments, too, twice finishing second in the First Division (now Premier League) with Preston, as well as collecting a runners-up medal in the 1954 FA Cup Final.
It was at international level where Finney left his biggest legacy, scoring 30 goals in 76 appearances for the Three Lions. His goals helped England win the British Home Championship on 10 occasions, while he was part of the Preston side that won the Second Division title in 1951.
Finney retired from competitive football in 1960 as an England legend, though he ultimately bowed out without any major silverware. He sadly passed away in 2014 aged 91.
Scott Parker
It seems surreal for a player from the original Jose Mourinho era at Chelsea to be anywhere near a list like this, but unless you’re willing to count a couple of minor honours, Scott Parker is a surprise inclusion on this list. Parker first came onto the radar at his boyhood club Charlton Athletic, playing a peripheral role in the side that won the First Division title (now the Championship) in the 1999-2000 campaign.
He would go on to become a mainstay of a side that would establish themselves in the Premier League, putting in a man-of-the-match performance in a 4-2 victory over Chelsea in December 2003 that would convince the Blues to purchase him for £10 million just 35 days later. From there it would be a tale of rotten luck, as Parker didn’t record enough minutes to collect medals for Chelsea’s triumphs in the 2005-06 renewals of the League Cup and the Premier League due to a metatarsal injury.
Parker would go on to enjoy a two-year spell at Newcastle – where he was part of a side that ‘won’ the farcical Intertoto Cup in 2006 – before moving on to West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham. He did however scoop plenty of personal honours during his playing career, which included four player of the year awards, while he represented England on 18 occasions.
Now retired, Parker has since guided both Fulham and Bournemouth to the Premier League as a manager and his most recent stint in the dugout came with Belgian side Club Brugge.
Leighton Baines
There can be no doubt that Leighton Baines enjoyed a hugely successful career, clocking up no less than 420 appearances in the Premier League for Wigan Athletic and Everton, but he bowed out in 2020 without a major club trophy. Baines began his career at Wigan where he enjoyed plenty of success, being part of the side which won the Second Division title (now League One) in 2002-2003, before gaining promotion to the Premier League in 2005.
Wigan would defy all expectations in their first season in the top flight, finishing as runners-up to Manchester United in the 2006 League Cup, before Baines joined Everton for £5 million in 2007. Baines would establish himself as a fan favourite at Goodison Park, making more than 400 appearances for the club across a 13-year spell, winning the club’s player of the season award twice.
His consistency would catch the attention of the national side and he earned 30 caps for England between 2010 and 2015, scoring once. Baines was part of the Everton side which finished as runners-up to Chelsea in the 2009 FA Cup Final, but a major club honour would ultimately elude him.
Mark Noble
Another player with a breathtaking amount of Premier League experience to make this list is West Ham United stalwart Mark Noble, who bowed out in 2022 without a major honour. Aside from a couple of brief loan spells at Hull City and Ipswich Town respectively in 2006, Noble spent his entire career with The Hammers, clocking up exactly 550 appearances in all competitions for his boyhood club.
There would be plenty of highs during that time, playing a role in the Championship play-off winning campaigns in 2005 and 2012 and winning the club’s player of the year award on two occasions. It looked as though he would get the chance for a fairytale farewell when playing a part of the side which made it to the semi-finals of the Europa League in his final season in 2021-2022, but they would just fall short against eventual winners Eintracht Frankfurt.
Noble’s career certainly has a feeling of the ‘what might have been’ about it, as he also has a strong case for the unwanted title of being the best player to never win an England cap. His retirement proved to be agonisingly ill-timed as well, as West Ham would go on to win the Europa Conference League in 2023, with Noble watching on as Sporting Director.
Matt Le Tissier
Fans of nineties football will happily tell you all about Matt Le Tissier, a ridiculously gifted footballer who perhaps never quite lived up to his talent. Having grown up on Guernsey, Le Tissier spent pretty much the entirety of his professional career at Southampton, racking up some hugely impressive numbers in the Premier League for the Saints.
He scored a whopping 163 goals in 443 appearances for his side and regularly caught the eye of bigger clubs, hammering in 25 league goals in the 1993-94 campaign. Le Tissier only dealt in worldies, too, and it isn’t an understatement to say that he could quite comfortably fill out a greatest ever goals compilation on his own.
Each of Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool came calling throughout his career but Le Tissier stayed loyal to Southampton, winning their player of the season accolade on three occasions before leaving the club in 2002 and retiring the following year. He is probably best known for his off the wall Twitter outbursts these days, but a tally of eight England caps combined with a trophy-less cabinet means that Le Tissier’s legacy on the pitch was one of unfulfilled potential.
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By Nick Seddon
