Premier League players with over 500 appearances

Centre-backs often have longer careers, and when you are a great centre-back, your career can be even longer. Campbell played 73 times for England and spent 20 seasons in the Premier League. He bounced around and, heretically, moved to Arsenal after appearing 255 times in the league for Tottenham Hotspur. Thanks to seven games with Newcastle at the end of his career, Campbell got over the hump and up to 503 appearances.

There are three players on this list that only played for a single Premier League club. Gerrard is one of those. Even if you aren’t a Liverpool fan, you know the club in question. For years, Gerrard patrolled the midfield for the Reds, serving as captain for many of those seasons. While the club didn’t win a Premier League title in his time there, Gerrard won many individual awards for his play and is one of the foremost Liverpool legends. He made 504 league appearances.

Ferdinand is considered one of the best centre-backs of his generation, and he first made his name with West Ham United. Of course, he’s best known for his time with Manchester United, where he played 312 Premier League games during the glory days of the club, when he was part of six title-winning sides. Ferdinand played in 504 Premier League games, and it would have been even more if not for his suspension for missing a drug test.

Primarily playing left-back while occasionally popping in at midfield, Neville had a pretty even split in his career. He made 263 appearances for Manchester United and then 242 appearances with Everton. Neville played well for both clubs, but his time with United went a bit better. He was part of six league winners, including the iconic 1998-99 treble-winning club.

A one-club man! Not only that, but another one-club player for Liverpool. Carragher made a couple appearances during the 1996-97 season and stuck around until the 2012-13 season. He wasn’t an all-time defender, but Carragher was still an excellent player for Liverpool. If he hadn’t been, he wouldn’t have been able to play in 508 Premier League games for the club. Carragher also appeared 38 times for England.

Goalkeepers tend to have longer careers, and it is not uncommon for a keeper to appear in almost every game, or even every game, in a season. As such, you might think there would be a handful of goalkeepers with 500 Premier League appearances. However, there are actually only two. One of those is Schwarzer. Notably, Schwarzer is also the only non-British player on this list. He’s from Australia, a country for whom he made over 100 appearances. Schwarzer was the starting keeper for Fulham for a while, but he’s a throwback to a different era of English football. He made 332 of his 514 Premier League appearances for Middlesbrough, which has made only one appearance in the Premier League since the 2008-09 season.

Heskey is the only forward on this list. He was a really good player, but not an elite striker. Thus, he bounced around a bunch, as he was never a focal point but always desired to have on the roster. Heskey played for five Premier League teams, ranking from 68 appearances with Birmingham to 150 with Liverpool. He is one of the couple dozen players with over 100 Premier League goals.

I said Schwarzer was the only non-British player on this list, but the Welsh legend Speed is one of the non-English players on this list. He’s also notable for having begun his career before the debut of the Premier League, so some of his early games with Leeds United don’t count. Speed made 535 Premier League appearances and was crucial in turning Welsh football around as a player and a manager. Sadly, Speed died in 2011 at the age of 42 under murky circumstances that people have speculated on in ways that are, frankly, gross.

The second, and final, keeper on this list, James was a staple around England for years. That includes 53 appearances for the English national team. He made his debut with Liverpool, for who he made 214 appearances. James also made over 100 appearances with Portsmouth, and fell just seven short of 100 with Manchester City. In total, he played in 572 Premier League games.

Arguably the best English midfielder of all time, and certainly the best of his generation, Lampard is largely associated with Chelsea. That makes sense, given the success the club had when he was there, as well as the fact that in 2005 he was feted with essentially every player of the year award while wearing Chelsea blue. You may recall he came through the West Ham system, but he also made 32 appearances with Manchester City near the end of his career. That got him above 600 Premier League appearances, getting him to 609 in all.

Playing 632 Premier League games? That’s impressive. Playing them all for one club? That makes you an icon. Giggs spent his entire career with Manchester United. He ran up and down the wing as one of the best players in the world with one of the most storied clubs in all of football. To be in the running for the best player in Man United history is to be a true all-time great of the game.

Milner is the one active player on this list. If not for a hamstring injury early in the 2024-25 season, he’d be atop this list by now. While he’s never been considered one of the very best in the world, Milner has been a very good midfielder for a very long time. He began his career all the way back in 2002 with Leeds United and has since then played for the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City. Clubs have loved to have Milner playing in a key role, if not to have him as a focal point. Assuming he returns for next season, he’ll be topping this list soon enough. With 637 appearances, he’s under 20 appearances away from passing…

It is Barry who has made more Premier League appearances than anybody. The defensive midfielder debuted in 1998 with Aston Villa, and he would, in time, become the club captain. While he made a whopping 365 of his 643 appearances with Villa, he also played in over 100 games with both Manchester City and Everton. Clearly Barry enjoyed playing. After all, he ended his career playing with West Bromwich Albion in the Championship.