Four former West Ham United players have been shortlisted for a place in the newly launched Premier League Hall of Fame.
Academy of Football graduates Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard and strikers Les Ferdinand and Ian Wright are among the 23 greats who could join inaugural inductees Alan Shearer and Thierry Henry.
Supporters around the world will now have the opportunity to vote for six of the 23 shortlisted players between now and 6pm on Sunday 2 May. The six players who receive the most votes will join Shearer and Henry as inductees.
Rio Ferdinand
Rio Ferdinand is one of the most decorated players in Premier League history. The ball-playing defender joined West Ham as a schoolboy and made his debut in a Premier League draw with Sheffield Wednesday at the Boleyn Ground on 5 May 1996, aged 17.
Ferdinand established himself during the 1996/97 season, scoring his first Premier League goal at Blackburn Rovers on 1 February 1997. He then enjoyed an outstanding 1997/98 campaign, starting 35 Premier League matches as the Irons finished eighth and winning the Hammer of the Year award, aged just 19.
The youngster went on to make 127 Premier League appearances in Claret and Blue, scoring two goals, before joining Leeds United for a record £18m fee in November 2000. From there, in 2002 he moved to Manchester United, where he won six Premier League titles.
When he finished his career at Queens Park Rangers in 2015, Ferdinand had made 504 Premier League appearances, won 291 games, kept 189 clean sheets and scored eleven goals.
Frank Lampard
Just two players have made more Premier League appearances in history than Academy of Football graduate Frank Lampard.
A 1996 FA Youth Cup final teammate of fellow shortlist member Rio Ferdinand, midfielder Lampard followed his namesake, father and two-time FA Cup winner Frank Senior by joining West Ham United as a schoolboy.
The Romford-born youngster made his Premier League debut against Coventry City on 31 January 1996, before scoring his maiden top-flight goal at Barnsley on 7 August 1997.
Lampard played an important role as the Hammers finished fifth under Harry Redknapp, assisted by his father, and had scored 23 goals in 148 Premier League appearances by the time he transferred to Chelsea for £11m in June 2001. There, he won the title three times.
He went on to make a total of 609 Premier League appearances, winning 349, scored 177 goals and assisted 102 more – the fifth and fourth most in the competition’s history, respectively.
Les Ferdinand
It says everything you need to know about Les Ferdinand’s Premier League achievements that he was already 25 when the competition was introduced in 1992, yet stands eleventh on the list of all-time goalscorers with 149 goals.
A non-league star with Southall and Hayes, centre-forward Ferdinand joined Queens Park Rangers in 1987 and scored 20 goals as the Super Hoops finished the inaugural Premier League season, 1992/93, in fifth place.
After two more top-half finishes and 40 more goals, Ferdinand joined Newcastle United, where he scored 41 goals in two seasons and forged a sensational partnership with Alan Shearer as the Magpies twice went close to winning the Premier League title.
Ferdinand returned to London with Tottenham Hotspur in 1997 and spent six seasons there, scoring 33 goals, including the 10,000th in Premier League history. He joined West Ham United in 2002, scoring two goals in 14 appearances before rounding out his Premier League career with Leicester City and Bolton Wanderers.
Ian Wright
Another former non-league star, Ian Wright joined Crystal Palace from Greenwich at the age of 21 in 1985 and went on to score 118 goals for the Eagles before moving across the River Thames to Arsenal in 1991.
Wright spent seven seasons with the Gunners – six in the Premier League – and scored ten goals as they won the title in 1997/98. In all, he netted 104 Premier League goals for Arsenal.
The Woolwich-born striker joined West Ham United in July 1998 and scored the winner on his debut in a 1-0 victory at Sheffield Wednesday the following month.
Wright scored nine goals as the Irons finished in a record-high fifth place in 1998/99, taking his overall tally to 113, and making the last of his 213 Premier League appearances at Everton on 8 May 1999.
