The longest serving players at one Premier League club or When captains lead by example

Nowadays it is not very common for footballers to play for the same club for a long time. The days when players stayed at one club for their whole career are long gone. Of course, it’s not just about footballers, but also about clubs and owners who treat the sport more like a business. Even so, some stick with one club for a decent amount of time. Who are they?

Joel Ward

The English defender will celebrate his 34th birthday in a few days. It will be his 12th birthday at Crystal Palace, where he has been playing for 11 years and 4 months. He has been in the starting line-up this season as well, and as a bonus he wears the captain’s armband for the third season in a row.

He has played an incredible 342 games for the London club, scoring 6 goals and 10 assists. The Eagles brought him in for just 650,000 euros. For a player who is currently in his 12th season at the club, that’s an incredible sum.

Paul Dummett

The Welsh defender playing for Newcastle United has survived a rebuild at the club after being bought from the new owners and has been with the Magpies for 12 years and 3 months. Of course, he was sent out on loan a few times during that time, but he was still under contract just at Newcastle.

Dummet is a Magpies offspring. However, the last time he featured regularly was in the 2020/21 season, in which he was plagued by injuries. Since then, he has featured sporadically. Despite all this, he is still active at the club.

He has played 206 games for his current employer. Thus, we can see that he hasn’t featured as regularly as the aforementioned Joel Ward. His contract runs until the end of this season. Let’s see if he adds more at Newcastle.

Lewis Dunk

He made his 14th consecutive season for Brighton. Dunk holds the role of captain and is the cornerstone of the entire defence. It must be added that the English defender is a journeyman, so the same applies as with Dummett. Anyway, their current roles cannot be compared at all.

He’s played 425 games for the Seagulls. He’s managed to score 28 goals despite playing as a stopper. He’s added another 14 assists, and he’s been tormenting opponents mainly after standard situations. He has been rewarded with starts in the national team’s EURO qualifying jersey, which he added in the last qualifying matches. He has been with Brighton for 14 years and 3 months.

Seamus Coleman

Irish footballer, Everton’s captain has been playing for his club for 14 years and 8 months and is the longest serving footballer at one Premier League club of all current players. He joined the club in January 2009 for a modest €60k from Irish club Sligo Rovers. During his time at Everton he only experienced a six-month loan spell at Blackpool, otherwise he has only played the entire time in a Toffees jersey.

He has played 409 games for the club and has been captain since the 2018/19 season. We’ll see if he ends his career or decides to add one or more more seasons. The key will be where Everton finish in the table. They narrowly avoided relegation last season.

Source: Premier League