7 Premier League Foreigners Who Hit The Ground Running

Jurgen Klinsmann

The first man on our list was a bonafide superstar when he came to the Premier League. He was signed by Spurs in July 1994 from AS Monaco for £2 million. A World Cup winner and off the back of USA ’94, this was quite a coup. It proved well worth it. On his debut against Sheffield Wednesday he scored a header and immediately won over fans with his diving celebration in a 4-3 win. He scored twice more the following week when Tottenham beat Everton 2-1 and in the opening six games of the season, Klinsmann scored seven goals. Across the season he scored 21 Premier League goals and 30 in all competitions. He went on to win the 1995 Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year and was even honoured with a waxwork at Madame Tussauds.

Sadly for Tottenham fans he joined Bayern Munich in 1995, but his Premier League career wasn’t quite over. In December 1997, with Tottenham 18th in the table, Klinsmann returned to help his side survive relegation – scoring nine goals in 15 Premier League games to help them finish 14th. Tottenham was Klinsmann’s last club, as he retired aged 33 in May 1998.

Patrik Berger

Liverpool liked signing players who had done well at a tournament but they didn’t do much wrong with Berger. In August 1996 he signed for £3.25million from Borussia Dortmund after starring for Czech Republic at Euro ’96. Without having started a match by September, he replaced Stan Collymore as a half time substitute against Leicester to make his second appearance for the club. With the scores 0-0, he scored two goals in a 3–0 win and in the following game scored twice more in a 5-1 win over Chelsea at Anfield. He followed that up with a fifth goal in four games in a Cup Winners’ Cup match against MYPA and his displays earned him the Player of the Month award for September 1996.

Berger scored nine goals in all competitions in his first season as Liverpool finished fourth, missing out on second and third only on goal difference. Injuries meant he was often unavailable or used as a substitute during his Liverpool career, but he did play his part in the 2001 UEFA Cup final where Liverpool claimed their third cup of a unique treble that season. He played 194 Liverpool games, scoring 35 goals.
He finished his illustrious career aged 40 at Sparta Prague in 2010, having won the Bundesliga, FA Cup, two League Cups, UEFA Cup and 1996 Czech footballer of the year.

Ole Gunnar Solksjaer

Unlike today’s media coverage or potential for internet research, only Norwegian’s knew anything about the forward Manchester United signed in July 1996. After missing out on Alan Shearer, Alex Ferguson instead spent a tenth of that, £1.5million, to bring Solskjaer from Molde. He scored six minutes into his debut as a substitute against Blackburn Rovers as his side drew 2-2. On his first start for the club he scored after 22 minutes against Nottingham Forest and two games later he was rewarded with another start, scoring a brace in a 2-0 win over Tottenham. He was the club’s top scorer in his first season, scoring 18 Premier League goals in 33 games as Manchester United won the Premier League.

Alex Ferguson would remark that Solskjaer had a knack of sitting on the bench and studying the game without taking his eye off the action. After a few years of being the super-sub, Solskjaer ousted Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole from the first team in 2001/02 season, scoring 25 goals in 47 appearances across all competitions. Injuries plagued him for three years but before retiring in 2007, aged 34, he scored 11 goals in 2006/07 to help his side to their first Premier League title in four years. In all, he won six league titles, two FA Cups, the Champions League and Intercontinental Cup.

Ruud van Nistelrooy

After a delayed transfer due to a cruciate knee injury, the Dutchman signed for Manchester United in 2001 for £19million. He made his debut in the Charity Shield against Liverpool, scoring in a 2–1 loss. A week later van Nistelrooy made his Premier League debut against Fulham at Old Trafford, where he scored twice to help United to a 3–2 win.

In total during his first season, Van Nistelrooy scored 23 goals in 32 league games and won PFA Players’ Player of the Year. He equalled a Premier League record of scoring in eight consecutive games, a record he later broke in 2003 when he scored in ten consecutive matches.
He helped United to the Premier League title in 2002/03 and in all, he scored 150 goals in 219 appearances. He remains the club’s all-time top scorer in European competition thanks to his 38 Champions League goals in 47 appearances.

Petr Cech

Aged 22, Chelsea signed Czech Cech for £7million from Rennes in 2004. Jose Mourinho also arrived that summer and Chelsea went to new heights and Cech played a huge role in doing so. His concentration levels for such a young goalkeeper were remarkable, particularly in a team that didn’t give away many chances. He kept three clean sheets in his opening three games and seven in the opening eight matches of the season. New goalkeepers, particularly young ones, are often scrutinised and targeted, but Cech settled like snow.

On 5 March 2005, Cech set a new Premier League record of 1,025 minutes without letting in a goal. He’d kept ten consecutive Premier League clean sheets dating back to December.

As well as winning the league title, he was also awarded the Golden Glove award at the end of the 2004/05 season for keeping a record 24 clean sheets in the Premier League – no goalkeeper has managed more since. Cech conceded just 22 times from 34 league games in 2005/06 as Chelsea again won the Premier League title.

In all, Cech played 333 Premier League games for Chelsea, keeping a record 162 clean sheets. He’s won the Golden Glove award four times, including one for Arsenal.

Fernando Torres

Before injuries and before it all went a bit wrong at Chelsea, Torres ripped up the Premier League at Liverpool. He joined the club from Atletico Madrid in 2007 for £20million. His first Premier League goal came on his Anfield debut in August 2007, scoring in a 1–1 draw against Chelsea. By September he’d recorded his first hat-trick in a 4–2 victory over Reading in the League Cup.

Torres was named the Premier League Player of the Month for February 2008, during which he scored four goals in four appearances. He was the first Liverpool player to score 20+ league goals since Robbie Fowler in 1996, as he ended the campaign on 24 strikes and 33 in all competitions. At Anfield he was unstoppable, he equalled Roger Hunt’s club record of scoring in eight consecutive home games and in March 2008 became the first Liverpool player since Jack Balmer in 1946 to score a hat-trick in successive home matches.

Torres left Liverpool in 2011, having scored 81 goals in 142 appearances.

Sergio Aguero

The Argentine joined Manchester City for £38 million in July 2011 and made his Premier League debut a month later, coming on as a substitute against Swansea in the 59′ minute – he’d scored his first goal for the club within nine minutes. He assisted David Silva moments later and rounded off his debut by scoring again in injury time with a 30-yard strike. Aguero scored in his second game and on his third start for the club he scored his first Premier League hat-trick, against Wigan. In all, he scored 23 Premier League goals in his debut season, including the dramatic winner to secure City the title in May 2012.

“In my career so far it’s the most important goal. You score the goal in the last minute to win the title. You’re not sure if that’s ever going to happen in your career again. I wish I could tell you how I did it but I can’t. I thought for all the world that Mario [Balotelli] was going to have a go himself but he just moved it on one more and it fell at my feet and I just thought: ‘Hit the target, hit it as hard as you can and hit the target.’ And it went in.”

Aguero scored a remarkable 260 goals in 390 Manchester City appearances over ten seasons, winning five Premier League titles, six League Cups and an FA Cup.

Go on, who did I miss?

Richard Clark