Marco Reus always staying at Dortmund is probably the biggest loyalty example in modern football

The way Hector stayed at FC Köln during their 2 relegations and lead them back into Bundesliga and two european football campaigns makes ihm a faaaar bigger legend than even Lukas Podolski

Jaime Vardy of Leicester City. He jointed Championship team Leicester City from a non-league team in 2012 and played there since. Gone through promotion to Premier League, winning the Premier League, and will probably relegated back to Championship with the team next season.

Hector actually surprisingly announced his retirement about a week or so ago

Akinfeev deserved at least an honourable mention in my opinion, in fact he could have even been the first spot imo

The most loyal player: Francesco Totti, started in the youth system at Roma and played his entire career for them as well. Was wanted by many clubs throughout Europe and never left his hometown club.

Jonas Hector is somewhat of a legend, not just in Cologne, but in Germany as a whole. He is ending his career this season. When asked whether or not he considers himself a thoroughly happy professional, his answer is: "When I think back to everything, I must say: No." But he further elaborates that proportionally, the positives outweigh the negatives. His explanation for his departure from professional football is: "I don't want to feel as though I am constantly struggling for my life. On Saturdays, I want to devote myself to gardening and afterwards I want to stroll to the stadium and observe things from a neutral standpoint." His last match will be against Bayern, where Cologne have a chance to help Dortmund, with whom they have a fan friendship, win the Bundesliga title for the first time in 10 years.

On the topic of loyal left backs I think Christian Günter also deserves a shoutout. He is playing for SC Freiburg since 2012 is also playing in the German national team and until 2 weeks ago didn't miss a single minute of Bundesliga football in 4 years. He is not as versatile as Hector, but im sure there was interest of bigger clubs that wanted a defesively reliable left back, since Freiburg is doing well with top 6 finishes the last years.

Ik he's retired and not even a footballer but Arsene Wenger embodies loyalty in football for me. He had some of the most coveted managerial positions offered to him and he turned them down to stay at Arsenal because he felt he had to make the stadium move work out ❤

Seamus coleman comes to mind when I think of loyalty, been at Everton for 14 years now, rejected moves from Bayern Munich and Manchester united

As a Dortmund fan, I am not sure If Marco would have stayed so long where it not for the catastrophical injuries he faced. He was a key player for the WC 14 and missed it, misses EU16, missed. Yet he could have choosen another, easier way, like PSG or join a Oil Club for the end of his carrier. In 2015 we had extreme struggles and he signed a new contract with us. He was just so unfortunate to join us after our 2 glory years but I’d sacrifice everything just to see him win a championship with us but it doesn’t matter how the story ends, he will always be the idol of my youth, a Dortmund fan living in Bavaria.

Francesco Totti and Ledley King, both at Roma and spurs respectively, popped in my mind when it comes to club loyalty, and Seamus Coleman at Everton as well.

I will say about Horta, last summer the main transfer saga in Portugal was Horta to Benfica, and he was pressuring for a move, it mostly didn't happen because Braga doesn't want to pay Málaga their share of the transfer, they just want the full amount, so it was quite messy and went down to the wire. And I will add to that, the second that transfer didn't happen, Horta dropped his grievances and focussed on the football.

Day 6: 7 Best Loan moves ever. The loan moves that have greatly benefited the team receiving the player for a limited amount of time. While not exactly the best, I always think of Morientes to Monaco as an example. I think loyalty should only be warranted if the team is loyal to you. If the team isn't going to sell you at the first opportunity

BTW, Horta is also Braga's top scorer. It shows that if you stay loyal, no club record is too far away for the best players

I think Thomas Muller is a great example of loyalty

Rejecting Bayern Munich to play in the 2nd tear of the Bundesliga is certainly true dedication i mean even Dortmund often end up selling their best players to Bayern and they are usually the 2nd best team in Germany so for someone to turn their nose up at Bayern Munich like that is very highly unusual

Hector has to rank higher, imagine playing 2nd division instead of starting for champions leaugue clubs which was absolutely realistic for years. All while being the first choice left back of the current world cups winners at the time. What he gave up to stay loyal to cologne is undefeated

Not even a mention about Koke? It's not like no one wanted to sign him from Atletico, and he stayed with the club for his entire career... And no, Atleti is not like Barcelona or Bayern Munich, lots of players left Atleti to win more trophies. EDIT: I am very sad that GOAT Hector is retiring from football, it's literally the last moment ot include him in this video.

Alfie mentioned Igor Akinfeev in the Honourable mentions of the Top 7 Goalkeepers of 21st century, so he could make the first spots of this list (this intro was written because I thought that Alfie could ban Russian players from making it to the lists). He's been loyal to CSKA ever since he had joined their academy in 1991, which is more than 30 years ago. He's been capped 540 times by the club, and the important thing is that he was in demand after great performance on Euro 2008. For example, he was in Alex Ferguson's shortlist for a Van Der Sar substitution in MU. He's probably been not as close to joining European grands as some other footballers, but it's an omission not to include him in the list.

Del Piero and Buffon in 2006 just after winning the world cup, they stayed with Juventus that was relegated to second division. That's loyalty.

Jonas Hector is retiring at the end of the season. He's the greatest one club man in recent Bundesliga history except for maybe Thomas Müller. I'd easily have him ahead of Marco Reus in this list.

jamie vardy honourable mention

One of my favourite ever footballers is Joseba Etxeberria - not only technically brilliant, but his loyalty to Athletic Club (Bilbao) was incredible.

Surely Lewis Dunk had to make this list. He bleeds blue and white. 🔵⚪

Berardi has to be here, he's levels above his club but he's never left.

Igor Akinfeev - playing for CSKA Moscow since 2003, most capped CSKA Moscow player, the second most capped player of Russia national team.

Timo Horn should have got a mention alongside Hector. At the time he was a decent keeper and could easily have left Köln when relegated but stayed along with Hector

Koke should have had atleast a honorable mention

I Think you missed Igor akinfeev from CSKA Moscow. A worldclass keeper who always sticked with his boyhoodclub, and never left for one of europes giants.

Domenico Berardi? He's already a Sassuolo legend and he never played for any other team although being one of the best wingers in italy

Respect for all of them, especially for Reus, and the forgotten captain of beloved Everton, Seamus Coleman. Seamus came from Sligo Rovers to Everton and has played there since January 2009.

a documentary of Borussia Dortmund and how they were extremely close to bankruptcy in 2002 time and how Bayern had to save them. The extreme difficulties the club has had to manage within to get back to where they are #thepeopleschannel

Not playing anymore but Matt Le Tissear stayed at Southampton even though he could have gone to a bigger club

Declan Rice and Jack Grealish talked shit about their proud irish roots before then deciding that they where actually English all along

The biggest example of loyalty i ever felt in play ( but he is retired since a few years ) , was Franscesco Totti. A real football genius who played for AS Roma. He could have gone to ANY top club at any given moment and have become part of the row, Messi, Ronaldo, Zidane, Ronaldinho, etc..., but he stayed loyal till the very end, when he retired in his forties.

Here to spam you with the fact that Indonesia had one Loyal footballer that unfortunately passed away mid game : Choirul Huda Despite various offers from other teams, Choirul always chose Persela Lamongan and never looked elsewhere. Rest in Peace.

No mention of Berardi at Sassuolo is a crime

Seamus Coleman - at Everton for 14 years, rejected offers from United and Bayern Leighton Baines - at Everton for 13 years, rejected multiple offers from United

Harry Kane at Spurs can you imagine his trophy cabinet now if he had decided to leave one of the many times that he had the opportunity to do so but he's always stuck by Spurs even though its cost him success now thats pure dedication

Jose Gaya is really the best example of this. He might actually be the one to break the Valencia captain which holds that every player that captains Valencia for one season ends up being sold. It's a curse that claimed even Carlos Soler whom I was pretty sure would never leave Mestalla.

Gaya is impressive But Dani Parejo even more Real Madrid and especially Barcelona went for him every year,with him refusing wanting to be a club legend At one of his highest moments Lim basically kicked him out. The photo of him winning the Copa del Rey Vs Barcelona was removed, which lead to an uproar by the fans

Marcell Jansen from Hamburg was a pretty loyal footballer retired rather than finding another club and still works there.

No Thomas Muller? He is literally Mr. Bayern...

Possibly not the biggest name in world football, but, a man of my club, Callum McGregor I feel is worth a shout here, there’s been reports through the years of deals being offered but he’s never seemed to have entertained even one. Our manager Ange even recently commented on his unwavering dedication in an interview, the man lives and breathes Celtic

Cristhian Stuani. Had the chance to leave for Barcelona, but decided to stay at Girona in the second tier. Now he is the all-time-topscorer by a lot with more than 100 goals. Back in the first tier now as a pinchhitter while Girona are in the race for European football. Legend.

Finally someone who rates gaya, he is truly world class, the fact that people wanted balde to play over him at the world cup shows how underrated he is

What about Lucas Pérez my friend. Dude paid half million from his own pocket and got relegated 2 divisions to play for his hometown club at Deportivo La Coruña!

Mark Noble deserves an honourable mention, I know he retired last year but he played for us for his entire career and is now sporting director at West Ham. 😄

Not a modern player, but perhaps one of the most loyal player to his club worthy of mention is the late Uwe Seeler. He's had offers to go to other clubs in his time, but he always stayed faithful to his HSV. Anyone going to the Volksparkstadion will also get to a statue of Uwe Seeler's foot in front of the arena. He did interrupt his retirement once to play a single match for Cork United in Ireland, but that was more of a commercial thing organised by Adidas. Apparently, back in the day, you could have guest players play one-off official matches in the Irish football league.

as a Celta fan, thank you for explaining the story of our Hero 🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵

Gianpaolo Bellini? Started in the Atalanta Youth ranks, got his first team start in 1998 and went on to play 396 games before retiring as team captain, moving in to backroom becomign a Youth Coach in the organization where he started his career.

As someone already mentioned Hector announced his retirement a few weeks ago. There is a video of him telling the team after a game in a speech followed by the whole team blasting out a song about „Someday coming back where we all grew up, so our kids can be born in Cologne“

Maldini from AC Mailan is the most loyal player in football for me,started there as a kid ,won everything and retired with grace,Totti is 2nd at AS Rom

Reus was more loyal to his haircuts than anything else he’s always looked the same

Marco Reus is an absolute legend

I wanted to mention Paul McStay, a fantastic midfielder for Celtic Football Club. at a time when it wasn't going well with Celtic this man was Captain and Fan favourite. Many clubs enquired of his services....but it always ended in disappointment for them. It's fair to say that more gifted players have played for the club.....but none more loved and respected than Paul. I grew up watching this team in the late eighties, and early nineties.......hard going indeed. Paul was always the best player on the pitch with an incredible brain and technique. If it's true, Celtic fielded many enquireries about his availability for transfer.

Lewis Dunk should have at least gotten an honorouble mention imo. He's from Brighton and has played his whole professional career for Brighton & Hove Albion (apart from a brief loan spell to Bristol City) from when they were all the way back in League One to now, where they might qualify for Europe. He even spent most of his youth career at the club, joining it when he was only 12 years old.

I want to spend a word about Inter legend Javier Zanetti. He came to Inter from Argentina very young (22yo) and was one of the best fullbacks of the world for a decade at least and he stayed with Inter through really harsh times. He played with the club 858 official matches in 19 seasons, thanks to his dedication and hard work he was able to keep himself fit and still be in the first team as Inter won the treble in 2010 at the age of 37. It was reported that on his marriage day he left after the ceremony to go training in the afternoon. And now he is the vice president the club. Zanetti earned the respect of every football fan in Italy, even Inter's harshest rivals supporters.

Great video, but you forgot to add Igor Akinfeev. He's totally one of the most loyal players in the world, to be honest. He decided to stay in his favorite team, CSKA Moscow till he stops playing. Yes, he's a goalkeeper, but he plays his entire career (20 years) for this team and he's still good at the age of 37 and he won a lot of trophies with the team including UEFA Cup in 2005 when he was 19

Zaha at palace for sure. When he went to Utd he demanded a loan back, and when he didn’t get a second loan back to us and was sent to Cardiff, he left utd . He signed a 5 year deal when he could’ve easily left to a big club. One of the most loyal players out there, probably too loyal

Alfie, you forgot Christian Günter at Freiburg and Hugo Mallo at Celta Viga

This channel has been producing banger after banger recently.

Happy you mentioned Maldini even he is not active. Not only did Maldine show loyalty but he performed at the higest level through out his long carreer

Great video as always, but I must say Koke should've at least gotten an honourable mention alongside Oblak. He came up through Atleti's ranks as a youth player, earned a spot in the first team, rejected clubs as big as Juventus or Barcelona when he was in his prime, and went on to captain his childhood team and become Atleti's player with most appearances in history. As a one club Man who would probably have a Champions League medal if he had left for Barcelona but decided to stay at the club he loved instead, becoming a legend in the meantime, I think he should've been included. Good video regardless, keep up the good work.

What has Coventry City done to be ignored by you in every video? Robbie Keane said he was a lifelong fan when he joined them as well. You should also do a video on what happened to the Sky Blues and why they don’t own their own stadium after selling Highfield Road to developers.

I appreciate your videos & knowledge matey. You will no doubt not see my message for all the others but God Bless you 🙏🏼. Thank you for the time you take to brighten my day

what a well researched and excellently made video! Greetings from Bundesliga-country.

Rhyan Grant has played with Sydney FC since 2008, which is his only professional club. Winning numerous titles along the way. Leigh Broxham made his debut with Melbourne Victory in 2006 and, amazingly, he is still at the club - winning 4 league titles along the way.

My respect for these players has just gone through the roof

honorable mention: James Ward Prowse (Southampton midfielder) (arguably one of the best Free Kick takers in the Premier league)

Karim Benzema deserves a spot on this list. You never hear about him or his agent talking about his transfer, salary etc. He has kept his head down since he joined Real Madrid and never complained about anything, ever!

Potential Documentary on the clubs who were rumoured to be bought by a particular person/entity and the ramifications of them not being purchased (both negative and positive) please xoxo

For me, Müller is the most loyal player and always stands behind his club

well there is an loyal player that used to be like and hatred at some point in 2015 until 2018 in Portugal,Luisao was playing at Benfica and been loyal from 2003 until 2018,he rejected to signed with Real Madrid in 2004 and PSG in 2011 just to stay at Benfica

I think people underestimate how much being happy and settled somewhere is important for some players - especially if their family live, work and go to achool in the area as well. For some I think it the most important thing in the world.

Interesting that all 7 are either Italian, Spanish, German or Portuguese as those four countries have a very strong emphasis on family and loyalty.

Last year Horta actually said goodbye to Braga's supporters but it seems that the deal didn't go thru. I wouldn't call him loyal, he just has a really weird contract.

There was always an air of class every time he touched the ball at Liverpool. I always liked him even tho he couldn't live up to his expectations. Aspas could have proved otherwise if the coaches at Liverpool played him right. He could have for sure got us 1 or 2 league titles. I'm happy you're a legend now.

Alfie, you should do a series of videos that looks at the best football player born on each day of the year broken up into 12 videos one for each month. You could release the videos over an entire year with videos releasing on the first of their respective months to spread the videos out as well.

Christan Günter from SC Freiburg is the first name that jumps me to mind, beeing a SCF fan hardly surprising😅 Günter is also a german left back and a one club man. I'd love to see a video from about the SC Freiburg, please please please!

Hot take: People only label footballers as "loyal" when they have a capability to choose the better team but choose to stay in a team that's not as good as them. For example, Marco Reus at Dortmund, Steven Gerrard at Liverpool, Totti at Roma, De Gea at United or Kane at Spurs. If said player was great and the team was as great, then nobody would consider them to be loyal. For example, Messi at Barcelona or Thomas Mueller at Bayern Munich.

These are the respective footballers whom I have been and must be extremely so respectful daily and ever in this world and other planets,good friends!!!I am surely confident that mainly Jose Gaya would finish his career at his boyhood Valencia(one of my favourites ever) and be idolised as the icon of the footballing team,just like the other respective inclusions,good friends!!!LONG LIVES RESPECTIVELY TO ALL OF THEM AND FOOTBALL IS MAINLY ABOUT PASSION,LOYALTY AND RESPECT,GOOD FRIENDS!!!:-D

Great video!

If I'm not mistaken Lewis Dunk is with Brighton since League One

thomas muller?

A love seeing loyalty in football now it's so rare

I feel like Lorenzo insigne would be a good shout for this. Signed at napolu for his whole career, only going out on loan a few times in his earlier years, then when the club basically left him out to dry he refused to join another European side stating that he never wanted to play for a club that might compete against Napoli and instead went to the MLS

Reus' one isn't that unusual just because he didn't start his professional career at Dortmund. You say he was born in the city, so as a kid he more than likely supported Dortmund and will have family that support them too. So it's not that unusual he is loyal to Dortmund if they're the team he grew up supporting.

Inaki Williams deserves a mention too

U have to accept rues has been injured more than he's played at Dortmund. It's the other way around, the loyalty is from the club to the player.

On point early about loyalty. Fans moan about players lack of loyalty to clubs, but the clubs themselves are extremely cutthroat and business-like these days. It goes both ways.'

Kane to Man City was only ever a thing in the pages of the Sun. To my knowledge, the "gentlemen's agreement" that supposedly existed between Kane and Levy was that if an offer _acceptable to Daniel Levy_ came in then he would allow Kane to leave. Rumour was that Levy was looking for £150 million but probably would have allowed himself to be beaten down to £120 million. As far as I am aware, Man City came in with a bid of £70 million and after Levy turned it down, they never came back. Instead they went and splashed £100 million on Jack Grealish. Given that nobody considered Grealish worth more than half that sum and that you could hear jaws hitting the floor from Lands End to John O'Groats when the transfer fee was made known, it follows that any interest in Harry Kane was lukewarm at best. Pep Guardiola certainly didn't seem all that bothered in press conferences at the time answering the question with something along the lines of, "Well, if they'll sell him to us, we'll take him but it's up to them."

This guy made a list of most loyal players that are currently playing this game and did not mention mr. Loyality himself in Thomas Müller...

In February 2015 Reus even prematurely renewed his contract for two more years until 2019 when Dortmund were sitting in a relegation spot by the winterbreak during Klopp's last year.

i'll add Mitrović, sure its not so difficult being loyal to a team in London but after 2 relegation where he had many offers by higher teams in Premier league or Italy,but he stayed in Fulham and will probably will be there as long as can

Seamus Coleman once again snubbed - what do you have against the man

Wilf “the chief” Zaha

Watching Reus play back in 2012 made me a Dortmund fan, i too will stick with them through thick and thin

Yes he is n will he missed although i havent seen him play much since his return but hope things work out for him