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Football's most loyal players

Paul Scholes is a rare breed of footballer to stay at the same club throughout his career © PA Photos

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In a belated nod to Paul Scholes, this week's First XI picks out a selection of the finest one-club players to have graced the game. No active player has been considered for selection.

Pichichi (Athletic Bilbao, 1910-1921)
Considered one of the finest strikers Spain has seen, Rafael Moreno Aranzadi, better known as Pichichi, was prolific during a brief life cut short by a sudden typhus attack at the age of 29. Having made his senior debut for Athletic Bilbao in 1912, he won the Copa del Rey on four occasions during his time there, contributing ten goals in 17 games, while he scored 68 in 72 games in the regional championships. However, he retired in 1921 at the age of 28, apparently planning to become a referee, and was dead the following year. In 1926, the club erected a statue in his honour at San Mames, but his most significant legacy has been the Pichichi award, which Marca has bestowed upon the top goalscorer in La Liga since the 1952-53 season.

Santiago Bernabeu (Madrid CF, 1912-1927)
Credited with transforming Real Madrid into the world's most successful club during a presidency that lasted from 1943 to 1978, Santiago Bernabeu was very much a one-club man. Though he grew up in Almansa, Bernabeu's family moved to the Spanish capital when he was five years old and he would join up with Madrid as a youth less than a decade later in 1909. His playing career could have been derailed when he qualified as a lawyer at the age of 20, but he decided his future lay in football and, as an attacker, netted 69 goals in 78 games as well as taking the club captaincy. Upon his retirement in 1927, he took on a coaching role before, in 1929, taking his place on the board of directors. He would later become president, and set about building a new stadium and then establishing the squad that would dominate the early years of the European Cup.

Only World War II could separate Fritz Walter and Kaiserslautern © Getty Images

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Fritz Walter (Kaiserslautern, 1937-1959)
Walter is best known as the captain of the West Germany side that came back to stun the legendary Hungarians in the 1954 World Cup final. He did not score that day, but his name would be forever etched in German football legend. It is true to say that he was deprived of his greatest years as a player by his participation in World War II - during which he was captured and only spared a spell in a labour camp on account of his status as a footballer - but he was, nonetheless, the perfect embodiment of the one-club player. Born in the city in 1920, there was little question his destiny lay with FC Kaiserslautern. His father ran a bar at the club, and he would soon sign on as a youth, making his debut as a 17-year-old in 1938. It was to be a true family affair: his two brothers, Ottmar and Ludwig, would also spend their careers there, though the latter's was severely curtailed by an injury he sustained while serving in the war. Still, Fritz and Ottmar would star for club and country, and they were inspirational as Kaiserslautern won the league in both 1951 and 1953. Fritz would finish his career having scored 306 goals in 379 games for the club, after rejecting several lucrative offers from Spain with the support of his Italian wife. Walter said: "She looked at me and said: 'You don't want to leave. You can only be happy with your FC Kaiserslautern. There are some things money can't buy'." In 1985, on his 65th birthday, Kaiserslautern renamed their ground in Walter's honour.

Bill Nicholson (1938-1955)
His 38 years at Tottenham are best remembered for his incredible achievements as the club's manager - notably in the Double-winning season of 1960-61 - but, despite being born in Scarborough, Nicholson did not represent any other club at senior level during his playing career. After a trial in 1936 at the age of 16, Nicholson was given a job as ground-staff boy at Spurs and played for their nursery club, Northfleet, before signing professional terms at 18. The defender was sufficiently impressive to make his debut that year, but the war interrupted his career and he would serve the coming years as a sergeant-instructor. After the hostilities were over, he returned and played for the club for a further eight seasons, the highlight arriving in 1951 when, at the age of 32, he earned his only England cap and was part of the Spurs side that won the league for the first time in their history. He joined Spurs' coaching staff upon his retirement in 1955 and, after assisting England boss Walter Winterbottom at the 1958 World Cup, became Tottenham manager.

Bob Paisley (Liverpool, 1939-1954)
The most successful manager in Liverpool's history, Paisley also spent the entirety of his professional playing career with the club. He had dreamed of playing for local club Sunderland as a boy, but they had felt he was too small and instead he joined amateur side Bishop Auckland. He enjoyed two hugely successful years there before attracting the attention of Liverpool but, joining at the end of the 1938-39 season, the outbreak of war was to stall his professional career. He would eventually establish himself as a left-half of some repute, noted for his long throws, and he won the league title there in 1947, although his love affair with the Reds came under threat in 1950 when he was omitted from the side that lost the FA Cup final to Arsenal. "I was offered what was big money in those days to pour out my heart to a newspaper. Thankfully I thought the better of it," he later said. "That was the only occasion in my lifetime when I was disenchanted with Liverpool. I have lived to bless the day when I bit my tongue and said nothing. I didn't want to move really." He stayed on until 1954, when Liverpool announced he would not be retained as a player. Having toyed with the idea of resuming his trade as a brick-layer, he was offered a role as physio before working his way up the ranks to become Bill Shankly's assistant and eventually taking over from him. "It will be a tough task following him," Paisley said upon Shankly's retirement in 1974, "but I can claim to be just as devoted to Liverpool, dedicated and keen to succeed."

Nat Lofthouse was a Bolton man through and through © PA Photos

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Nat Lofthouse (Bolton Wanderers, 1946-1960)
An old-fashioned centre forward even in his own time, Lofthouse was a gentleman but still one of the toughest players of the day. Upon his retirement in 1960, the Observer was suitably complimentary but wrote of his "undue zest for the physical battle" and added: "Lofthouse, perhaps more than any other footballer, personified the 'foreign' interpretation of the British footballer." It is no coincidence that his finest hour with Bolton was marked by controversy. He scored both goals in the 2-0 FA Cup final victory over Manchester United of 1958, which came just three months after the Munich Air Disaster, but his second had come as he barged United goalkeeper Harry Gregg over the goal-line. However, though even he described himself as a "very limited" player during his early days, he had a remarkably powerful shot and scored a prolific 30 goals in 33 games for England. Born in Bolton and an early fan of the club, he would, as journalist Brian Glanville wrote in his obituary, "shin up one of the drainpipes at Burnden Park, and get in for nothing". He had struggled to win over the fans in his early days at the club, but he was to become a hugely effective weapon for the Trotters and netted 255 league goals in 452 matches. Following his retirement, he worked as a coach and chief scout for the club before being named manager after a spell as caretaker in 1968, but he was to be fired - "for purely economic reasons", the club explained - at the end of the 1971-72 season. He would later be named club president.

Lev Yashin (Dynamo Moscow, 1950-1970)
Lev Yashin in December 1963, after having been named European Footballer of the Year The only goalkeeper ever to have won the European Footballer of the Year award, Yashin is rated by many as the finest in the sport's history. Capable of producing saves of startling agility, he became an international star after his performances for Soviet Union during the 1958 World Cup and was part of the side that won the inaugural European Championships in 1960. It may all have been very different. Yashin began life as a goaltender for the newly-formed Dynamo Moscow ice hockey team in the late 1940s, having developed a taste for the sport during his time in the army. He remained hopeful of breaking into the football team, but his path was blocked by the club's senior goalkeeper, Alexei Khomich, who was nine years older and had a similarly eye-catching style. Yashin considered focusing solely on ice hockey, but Khomich suffered an injury in 1953 and - having benefited from his predecessor's tutelage - he seized his chance. In 1954, he won the first of five league titles with Dynamo, with Khomich having been allowed to depart. Even had Yashin considered leaving during his career, it would have been problematic: Dynamo were under the charge of the Interior Ministry, having been taken over by the first director of the secret police, and there were reasons to be fearful. The secret police chief Lavrenty Beria, made honorary chairman in 1936, is said to have been behind Spartak founder Alexander Kosarev's assassination and the imprisonment of Spartak's star player, Nikolai Starostin. However, the Yashin era, in the aftermath of World War II, saw the club establish a more positive identity and Dynamo began to attract fans excited by their dominance on the field. Upon his retirement in 1970, Yashin took on a coaching role with Dynamo but soon after settled into an administrative position, and a statue in his honour now stands outside the stadium.

Billy McNeill (Celtic, 1957-1975)
While it is certainly the case that Jock Stein deserves the plaudits for Celtic's European Cup success and the near decade of domestic dominance that complemented it, it would be remiss not to pay tribute to the efforts of his on-field general. Signed from a local team, Blantyre Victoria, in 1957 at 17 years old, McNeill would go on to captain the side from defence, and he headed the winning goal in the 1965 Scottish Cup final to end a seven-year trophy drought. With the arrival of Stein that year, McNeill would go on to greater heights, captaining the side as they became European champions with victory over Inter Milan in 1967. His final game for the club was the 3-1 victory over Airdrie in the 1975 Scottish Cup final and, having been lifted up by his team-mates before a roaring crowd after the game, he announced he would be leaving football to concentrate on his business interests. However, he returned to manage Clyde two years later and then spent two separate spells in charge at Parkhead.

The No. 6 shirt was retired in honour of Franco Baresi © Getty Images

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Franco Baresi (AC Milan, 1977-1997)
Such is his standing at AC Milan, owner Silvio Berlusconi once said: "Selling Franco Baresi would be like selling the flag of Milan itself." Had he impressed on trial at arch-rivals Inter in 1976, things may have turned out very differently. Inter, despite signing his brother Giuseppe, felt the 15-year-old Baresi was not up to the task physically; two years later, he would make his first-team debut for the Rossoneri. He quickly established himself as a player of real quality, and remained loyal to the club despite twice being relegated to Serie B in the early 1980s, but he may have left upon the arrival of Arrigo Sacchi in 1987: his friend, and later biographer, Alberto Costa wrote in the Corriere della Sera in October that year that he wanted to leave as he had problems with the coach. Their differences eventually settled, he became a fundamental part of Sacchi's legendary side. Upon his retirement in 1997, Milan announced that the No. 6 shirt would be retired in his honour.

Paolo Maldini (AC Milan, 1984-2009)
Among the longest-serving one-club players in football history, Il Capitano was a five-time Champions League winner and spent a quarter of a century serving the club with distinction. Though he was born in Milan, Maldini was a Juventus fan during his early years - "I liked the '78 national team, which was full of Juventus players," he explained - but at the age of ten, he made the decision to join the Rossoneri. That he is one of the finest defenders to have played the game is not in dispute, and in the eyes of most Milan fans he remains a legendary figure, but his final league game at the San Siro in 2009 was tainted by the criticism of a small minority of Ultras. "For your 25 years of glorious service you have the thanks of those who you called mercenaries and misers," one banner read, while another added: "There is only one captain, Baresi". This reaction was down to Maldini's refusal to bite his tongue when he felt fans had crossed the line in the past, and in response to the protests, he said: "I am proud to be nothing like them." Milan retired the No. 3 shirt in his honour.

Gary Neville (Manchester United, 1992-2011)
By some distance the most fervent of Fergie's Fledglings, rarely has a player shown such unfettered passion for his club. Born in Bury, Greater Manchester, he described as "horrible" the experience of growing up a United supporter in Liverpool's shadow and once said: "I can't stand Liverpool. I can't stand Liverpool people. I can't stand anything to do with them." His refusal to observe protocol on such matters led to death threats and a group of Liverpool fans attempting to overturn his car after spotting him behind the wheel.

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