Ranking the Top 16 1-Season Premier League Wonders
It is better to shine briefly and brightly than not to shine at all, and for the players on this list, that certainly proved to be the case.
As the likes of Alexis Sanchez and Harry Kane stand on the verge of entering their second full Premier League seasons, having been so terrific in their first, memories of players we grew to love quickly but who then faded away are pretty easy to recall.
All of these names were on the tips of tongues for a brief period, only to suddenly become somewhat forgotten men.
16. Jon Stead
1 of 16
The one season: 2003/04
In February 2004, all the talk was just why Premier League clubs didn't take chances on younger players from lower divisions, and the poster boy for the discussion was Blackburn Rovers' Jon Stead.
A £1 million signing from Third Division Huddersfield Town by manager Graeme Souness, the 20-year-old Stead breezed into top-flight life and scored six crucial goals in 13 games as Rovers avoided relegation.
However, Stead would score just twice for Rovers the following campaign and then only once in the 2005/06 season following a move to Sunderland. He would later carve out a decent Football League career, but those initial discussions about him would never be repeated.
15. Titi Camara
2 of 16
The one season: 1999/2000
Something of a cult figure at Liverpool, it is easy to forget that Titi Camara fared pretty well during his one and only campaign in the Reds first team—scoring 10 goals across the 1999/2000 season.
The Guinean enjoyed several notable moments, including bagging the winner at Highbury and also scoring the only goal in a home win over West Ham United after insisting to play on the day his father died.
He moved to West Ham in December 2000 but achieved little of note there.
14. Benjani
3 of 16
The one season: 2007/08
The very happiest one-season wonders earn lucrative moves off the back of their exploits, and that's exactly what Benjani Mwaruwari did in February 2008 after hitting 12 goals in the first half of the campaign at Portsmouth.
After being something of a bit-part player in his first two campaigns at Fratton Park, Benjani's strikes earned an £8 million switch to Manchester City, where despite scoring on his debut in a Manchester derby, he did little else.
13. Mikael Forssell
4 of 16
The one season: 2003/04
Plucked from Finnish football by Chelsea in 1998, the forward Mikael Forssell would never really make much of an impact at the Blues during his time there, but it was with another team nicknamed the Blues where he'd make his mark.
Forssell scored a hugely impressive 17 goals in 32 games for Birmingham City in the 2003/04 campaign, guiding his side to a 10th-place finish and ending the season as the fifth-highest scorer in the Premier League behind Thierry Henry, Alan Shearer, Louis Saha and Ruud van Nistelrooy.
He would later move back to Birmingham for 2007/08, but his nine goals couldn't save the Blues from relegation.
12. DJ Campbell
5 of 16
The one season: 2010/11
Having risen up from non-league football to play in the Premier League for Birmingham in 2005/06, DJ Campbell dipped back into the Football League to help Blackpool gain promotion back to the big time for the 2010/11 campaign.
Once there, he scored 13 goals, including against the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, but he was unable to inspire his side to safety, with Blackpool heading straight back down.
11. Andy Johnson
6 of 16
The one season: 2004/05
A somewhat harsh inclusion given that he would later score goals at Everton, it would still never get as good as it was in the 2004/05 season for Andy Johnson in front of goal.
Leading the Crystal Palace attack, Johnson scored 21 goals—admittedly including 11 penalties—to finish second only to Thierry Henry as the top scorer in the Premier League. However, his strikes were unable to save Crystal Palace from relegation on the final day.
10. Nikica Jelavic
7 of 16
The one season: 2011/12
Everton supporters thought their club had unearthed a real find when David Moyes signed the Croatian Nikica Jelavic in early 2012 after a year-and-a-half of prolific form in Scotland with Rangers.
Jelavic's ability to finish with his first touch thrilled the Goodison fans, and he scored nine goals in his first 13 games in the Premier League, as well as a couple of strikes in the FA Cup.
However, next came a campaign of just seven league goals in 37 games, the departure of Moyes, a move to Hull City and relegation. How Jelavic must long for that latter half of 2011/12.
9. Asamoah Gyan
8 of 16
The one season: 2010/11
A club-record £13 million signing from Rennes in 2010, Asamoah Gyan and Sunderland instantly seemed made for each other, with the Ghana World Cup forward immediately catching the eye on Wearside thanks to his explosive style.
He scored 10 goals in what would prove to be his only full season at the Stadium of Light, with a lucrative move to the Middle East proving too tempting to turn down in September 2011.
8. Robinho
9 of 16
The one season: 2008/09
As supremely gifted as he has clearly been over a career that has seen him don the shirts of Real Madrid, Milan and Brazil, Robinho would never quite hit the heights at Manchester City—although it is easy to forget how good he was in his first season.
As the first real superstar of the Sheikh Mansour era, Robinho went on to score 14 Premier League goals in 31 appearances in his first season in England, many of them spectacular, only for things to quickly go sour in his second campaign, during which he failed to net in the division.
He would soon move back to previous club Santos on loan.
7. Fabrizio Ravanelli
10 of 16
The one season: 1996/97
A headline-grabbing signing for Middlesbrough from Juventus in the summer of 1996, then-Italy international Fabrizio Ravanelli exploded into English football with a hat-trick against Liverpool on his debut at the Riverside Stadium, but although he'd go on to net 16 times in the league in 1996/97, he couldn't save Boro from relegation.
A less memorable two-year stint at Derby County would follow years later, but the Italian once again suffered the pain of relegation, with the Rams dropping through the trap door in 2002—Ravanelli's first year with the club.
6. Michael Bridges
11 of 16
The one season: 1999/2000
A £5 million signing from Sunderland in the summer of 1999, Michael Bridges would instantly prove to be value for money for Leeds United, as he scored 19 goals in his first season at Elland Road—with the Whites finishing third in the table and reaching the Champions League.
However, a horror run of injuries would cut the player down in his prime. He would go on to have spells with Newcastle United, Bolton Wanderers, Sunderland and down the divisions but would never again reach those prolific heights.
5. Amr Zaki
12 of 16
The one season: 2008/09
The best one-season wonders seem to come from nowhere, and that certainly seemed the case with Wigan Athletic's Amr Zaki in the 2008/09 season.
Steve Bruce's side would be inspired by the performances of their Egyptian front man, who bagged 10 goals in the first half of the season—most notably a stunning volley in front of the Kop at Anfield—to become the most talked-about forward in the division.
However, things would soon turn sour, and his failure to return from international duty sparked a row from which the forward would never return.
4. Michael Ricketts
13 of 16
The one season: 2001/02
An even better consequence of being a one-season wonder is that you occasionally pick up an international call-up, and that's what happened to Michael Ricketts after he grabbed 12 goals for Bolton Wanderers following their promotion to the Premier League for the 2001/02 season.
These strikes attracted the attention of Sven-Goran Eriksson, but after Ricketts played his first and only 45 minutes for England in a friendly against the Netherlands in February 2002, he failed to net for Bolton again for the remainder of the season.
He still earned a big move to Middlesbrough the following year but spectacularly flopped.
3. Marcus Stewart
14 of 16
The one season: 2000/01
Ipswich Town's 2000/01 season is still fondly remembered by their supporters, and the symbol of it was undoubtedly forward Marcus Stewart.
With the club having been promoted from the First Division the previous season, Stewart struck 19 goals to finish as the Premier League's second top scorer behind Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, and Ipswich finished fifth in the table.
However, it wasn't just Stewart who was a one-season wonder: Ipswich were relegated the following season.
2. Michu
15 of 16
The one season: 2012/13
Fantasy football aficionados everywhere claimed they all knew about Michu's quality as he exploded into Premier League life in the 2012/13 season, playing as either an attacking midfielder or a forward and plundering a stunning 18 league goals—behind only Robin van Persie, Luis Suarez, Gareth Bale and Christian Benteke.
Injuries crippled his following campaign, though, and after an underwhelming season, he moved to Napoli, from where his next move is unclear.
1. Roque Santa Cruz
16 of 16
The one season: 2007/08
In eight years with Bayern Munich, Paraguayan forward Roque Santa Cruz never managed to score more than five goals in a Bundesliga season, which made the 19 strikes in 37 Premier League games for Blackburn Rovers in 2007/08 all the more remarkable.
Santa Cruz was prolific, with Cristiano Ronaldo, Fernando Torres and Emmanuel Adebayor the only players to score more than him, but he followed that season up with an injury-plagued 2008/09, during which he scored only four in the league.
That didn't prevent Manchester City paying a huge fee for him ahead of the 2009/10 season, but Mark Hughes was unable to coax that 2007/08 form out of him, and Santa Cruz subsequently faded from view, even returning to Blackburn on loan in 2011 and failing to score a goal.
.jpg?w=600 "Brissett Wants Starter Money")
.jpg?w=600 "Report: Falcons, Jags Make DT Trade")
