As per the Premier League's official site, a spot in the Hall of Fame is designated for just the finest, and it is a commemoration of its athletes who have helped build and characterize England's top division. The Premier League was founded in the early 1990s and has since grown to become the most viewed domestic league in the world, with a slew of stars shining over its nearly three-decade history.
Here we take a look at 5 such stars, who have or should make the Hall of Fame, over the years.
1) Roy Keane
The former Manchester United midfielder- one of the defining players of his era, has already joined the Hall of Fame this last month. Keane joined Manchester United in a world-record move from Nottingham Forest before the Premier League's second season, quickly establishing himself as being one of the best players of his age and probably the best captain the league has ever seen.
Among his 12 major awards, he won seven league titles, four of which occurred in the 1990s, captained the team to a record treble-winning season in 1998/99, and was named to the PFA Team of the Season five times.
2) Gary Speed
Throughout the first ten years of the Premier League, no player had more games than Gary Speed, who had a phenomenal level of competence throughout his career. The Wales international was tough and had a good left foot, going from Leeds to Everton in 1996 and then to Newcastle two years later, where he played in two FA Cup finals.
Speed was a darling of his teammates and a terrific professional, with a career lasting past his 40th birthday and 535 Premier League games, the sixth most in league history.
3) Paul Ince
Given the plethora of outstanding centre midfielders who followed him, Paul Ince's legacy is often overlooked. Ince was a player who could have an impact on the game from any position on the field, be it smashing into 50/50 challenges or sprinting forward into the opposition box to score goals.
He was an outstanding footballer for Manchester United, winning two league titles and being named in the PFA Team of the Season three times in a row.
4) Matt Le Tissier
Le Tissier was flamboyant and daring, capable of impromptu genius in dramatic times. In the perspective of almost every impartial Premier League fan, he is a cult figure, a footballer who treated England's top flight like a playground and amassed probably the best highlight reel the league has ever seen.
Despite offers from richer teams, he spent his whole career at the maximum standards with Southampton, virtually single-handedly maintaining the club in the Premier League on occasion as he dipped into his top hat for his newest piece of skill.
5) Patrick Vieira
Vieira arrived as a complete unknown in the mid-1990s before rising through the ranks at Arsenal, where he was a key member of the team that won the domestic double in 1997/98 and went on to win the World Cup with France the following summer.
Vieira was physically imposing, but he also possessed the tactical skills to match his natural abilities, with images of his long legs leaping across Premier League pitches serving as one of the era's definitive images.
He became an unmistakable character in the best Arsenal teams of the modern age around the turn of the century.
