The Great Debate: Who is the greatest import in PL history? | OneFootball

And just like that, Sergio Agüero is the highest scoring non-English player in the history of the Premier League.

A hat-trick on Sunday took the Argentine beyond Thierry Henry and onto 177 Premier League goals.

But which manager or player from overseas is the greatest to ever grace the Premier League?

Lewis Ambrose

I was going to say it’s Thierry Henry, but it isn’t. It’s the man who brought him to the Premier League.

The Frenchman changed the face of the English game, including the level of professionalism in the country, and paved the way for foreign coaches and the free-flowing football we see from the likes of Manchester City today.

And he won three Premier League titles, one with an unbeaten season along the way.

Dan Burke

If Lewis isn’t gonna go for Henry then I will.

As a Manchester City fan I’ve been blessed to watch the likes of David Silva, Yaya Touré and Sergio Agüero over the years, but none of them even come close to Henry’s brilliance in my opinion.

At his peak, the Frenchman was a joy to watch even when he was tearing your team apart and in football terms, he was a style icon the like of which we may never see again.

And though Agüero broke his goals record last weekend, the fact Henry also racked up 74 assists (compared to Agüero’s 46) during his time in the Premier League suggests he was the more complete of the two players.

I love you Sergio, but Henry just edges this one.

Matt Frohlich

I going to forget the normal statistics of goals, assists, clean sheets and so on, as I’m pitching for the lesser quantifiable ‘entertainment’ value. For me, this is where David Ginola has to take the award.

Scooping up the PFA Premier League Player of the Year award in 1999 may have been his crowning achievement during his 7 years in the division, but he did it with flair, skill, audacity and best of all, with a fantastic head full of hair flowing behind him.

Le Magnifique.

Alex Mott

Quite evidently not the ‘greatest’ in terms of goals, assists or impact on the Premier League.

But if we’re measuring ‘greatest’ by newspaper inches, single moments and affection held by fans, then the answer is Mario Balotelli.

He was only in England for four years, over two spells, but it was never boring when Super Mario was around.

It really was always him.

Padraig Whelan

How can it be anyone else other than Cristiano Ronaldo?

The undisputed icon arrived at Manchester United as a fresh-faced, flashy and raw winger in 2003 for £12.2 million (what a bargain!).

He left six years, over 100 goals and nine trophies later, already well on the road to becoming one of the greatest ever to play the game.