Top 10 debuts in Football

The urge of a footballer to prove himself in a new club, especially if he carries a hefty price tag, can do funny things. The sooner they get the monkey of their back, the better it is.

The pressure would just not be on the player but on the manager and for that matter, on the fans too. What if one had overpaid, what if the player turns out to be a flop or what if he is not the hero that the fans think he is.

Millions of questions arise. Here is a list of footballers who quickly put those doubts to rest. Amazingly, almost all of them have gone on to have illustrious careers.

Alan Shearer

Alan Shearer

In 1988, Alan Shearer, a 17-year-old, took the world by storm when he scored a hat-trick in Southampton’s 4-2 victory against an Arsenal side, that went on to become league champions twelve months later, on his full debut.

He was also on the scoring sheet in his first international match for the Three Lions in their 2-0 win over France in 1992.

As if these achievements were not enough, in the same year he also bagged a double on his debut for Blackburn Rovers and later played a crucial part, by scoring a season high of 34 goals, and helping his team win the Premier League title in 1994-95.

Subsequently, he joined Newcastle United and retired in 2006 after having scored 260 goals in EPL, a feat that still remains unscaled.