The top 10 hardest footballers of the 1990s were once ranked by FourFourTwo – but neither Vinnie Jones nor Roy Keane took top spot.
Back in the 1990s, English football was far more physical than it is today, even with coaches such as Arsene Wenger beginning to revolutionise the game on and off the pitch towards the end of the decade.
The Premier League is even more physical demanding for players, though in a much different way to how the likes of Jones and Keane would regularly bulldoze through opponents with aggression and tough-tackling.
Instead, high pressing and overall work rate are the aims of the game for most top-flight clubs, with many central midfielders playing a much more refined role.
As a way of looking back on those old times, FourFourTwo ranked the 32 hardest footballers from the 1990s back in 2023.
There were some well-known names outside of the top 10, including Patrick Vieira, Jaap Stam, Eric Cantona and Stuart Pearce.
Meanwhile, ex-Millwall, Crystal Palace and Wolves hardman Kevin Muscat might be slightly unfortunate to be all the way down in 31st – though that may be due to the fact that he only played nine Premier League matches.
Here is the top 10:
10) John Fashanu
A 6ft 1in striker, John Fashanu was a key part of the Wimbledon ‘Crazy Gang’ that terrified opponents in the 1980s and 1990s.
Fashanu scored 107 goals in an eight-year spell at Plough Lane and earned his place as one of the hardest English footballers of all time.
9) Neil Ruddock
Neil Ruddock tackles Dean Austin during a match between Liverpool and Tottenham in 1994 (Image: Getty)
A fearsome centre-back, Neil Ruddock was renowned for his brutality as the hard-tackling enforcer for a range of different clubs, including West Ham, Liverpool and Southampton.
He also accidentally broke Peter Beardsley’s jaw during a testimonial match for Liverpool legend Ronnie Whelan in 1993.
8) Roy Keane
Keane’s reputation as a Premier League hardman is well-known, though if this list had included the well-publicised incidents with Manchester City’s Alf Inge Haaland, you suspect the Irishman might have been higher up.
7) Julian Dicks
A West Ham icon, Julian Dicks once elbowed another player in the face off the ball, and his testimonial fittingly included a 17-man brawl.
He even made a cameo appearance in the 2014 film ‘The Hooligan Factory’, a spoof film based upon hooliganism in English football.
6) Vinnie Jones
Perhaps the definition of ‘no-nonsense’ in English football.
The viral image of Wimbledon icon Jones’ career is when he grabbed Paul Gascoigne by his nether regions in 1988, while he would later be given a huge suspended six-month ban for presenting a video titled ‘Soccer’s Hard Men’ – which gave advice to young players who wanted to be a ‘football hardman’.
And in the same year, he was booked after just five seconds of a match against Sheffield United.
5) Gerry Taggart
Now well-known as a successful pundit and media personality covering his former club Leicester, Taggart was one of football’s most fearsome defenders.
He once grabbed his own Leicester team-mate, Dennis Wise, by the throat and slapped another team-mate, Robbie Savage, in the face.
4) Duncan Ferguson
The explanation for this entry can simply read; a three-month prison sentence for assaulting a fellow player on the pitch, hospitalising two separate burglars who had tried to rob his home, and a joint-record eight Premier League red cards. As it happens, he’s one of the nicest people you could ever wish to meet.
3) Jimmy Case
Described by FourFourTwo as the ‘hardest player of the 1970s, 80s and 90s’ to many, Jimmy Case rose to prominence as a key member of First Division side Southampton’s midfield in the 80s.
By the time of the Premier League’s beginnings, Case’s powers were on the wane and his last season as a top-flight footballer was in the 1990/91 campaign.
2) Mick Harford
Mick Harford was one of the First Division’s toughest players (Image: Twitter)
Former striker Mick Harford is, according to The Telegraph, said to be the hardest player some had ever faced during their football careers.
He had various spells at different First Division and Premier League clubs – usually providing a consistent goal threat – and was never afraid to get stuck in.
In recent years, he’s been heavily involved at Luton – where he played for seven seasons – as manager, interim manager, coach and head of recruitment and scouting. It might have been easier to name the jobs he hasn’t done at Kenilworth Road.
1) Terry Hurlock
Another player who played most of his top-flight football before the creation of the regularly-televised Premier League, Terry Hurlock played in the Third Division with Brentford and Reading until promotion with the latter in 1987, when he was 27 years old.
He subsequently signed for Millwall as their enforcer, with David Beckham once claiming that he stayed away from the 5ft 9in midfielder ‘as much as possible’ when he played against the Lions for Preston North End.
Hurlock once told the Daily Mail that he wanted to ‘strangle‘ Dennis Wise when the future Chelsea star played for Wimbledon.
