Former Warriors captain Peter Ndlovu has been honoured by top football magazine FourFourTwo, who named him among the top 100 foreign players in the English Premier League.
BY Kevin Mapasure
The former Coventry City forward was placed on number 97, which is a big a cheivement considering that the rankings include past and present foreign players in the English Premier League.
FourFourTwo started to publish the list yesterday and by late afternoon they had named number 61 to 100.
Ndluvo, who also played for Sheffield United and Birmingham City, among other clubs in England, was named ahead of former Manchester United forward Park Ji-Sung, who is placed 100th, Frenchman Sylvain Wiltord, who played for Arsenal, as well as Andrei Kanchelskis (Manchester United).
Former Chelsea midfielder, Ruud Gullit is placed one place above Ndlovu, while Christopher Samba, Sylvain Distin, former Senegal forward El-Hadji Diouf and Belgian striker, Romelu Lukaku, who is at Everton, are also part of the bottom 10.
The magazine lavished Ndlovu with praise, who they said brought class to the English Premier League.
“While the name might mean little to today’s generation, Ndlovu brought class when foreign players were a Premier League rarity. He’d go on to win 100 caps for Zimbabwe, but even as a teenager, he was key for Coventry City (another name which will resonate with few Premier League fans today). In a struggling side, Ndlovu was a constant nuisance, if not a prolific one, to opposition defences. The striker was largely responsible for maintaining Cov’s 34-year residence in the top flight, before dropping a division in 1997 to improve Birmingham, then Sheffield United. He’s still remembered fondly in the Midlands.”
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While Ndlovu played for several clubs in England, it was at Coventry City where he made the most impact.
“Nuddy”, as he was nicknamed by Coventry City fans, made 176 appearances for the club with a tally of 39 goals between 1991 and 1997 after he was signed by Terry Butcher from Highlanders.
He made an instant impact for Coventry and is fondly remembered for some of his memorable goals against top sides Arsenal and Liverpool.
The now 43-year-old dropped to the second-tier league with Birmingham City, where he played 106 matches in a four-year spell at the club scoring 23 goals in the process.
He had a short spell at Huddersfield Town before he moved to Sheffield United, where he banged 25 goals in 135 matches.
That Ndlovu made it in the top 100 of FourFourTwo’s rankings is a big achievement considering that the list includes all foreign players to have graced the English Premier League.
