7 players from the Barclays era Premier League we can’t believe are still playing in 2024

Chances are if you grew up watching football in the late 2000s and early 2010s – specifically the period that the Premier League was sponsored by Barclays – you’ll always remember that period as a golden period for English football.

But time catches up with us all and there’s a distinctly different flavour to the English top flight these days, although a select few soldiers from the Barclays era are soldiering on and playing professionally well into their twilight years.

Here are seven Barclays-era Premier League stalwarts we can’t believe are still playing in 2024.

Roque Santa Cruz

The eternal answer to this category, if there ever was one. We won’t know what to do with ourselves when Santa Cruz finally hangs up his boots and we can’t keep telling people that the iconic Blackburn Barclaysman is still going in his native Paraguay.

Fortunately, that day has not yet arrived. Over a decade on from his departure from Manchester City, Santa Cruz is still turning out for Libertad at the age of 43.

Nowadays he tends to fulfil the role of experienced squad player, coming off the bench and rotated in. He even made four appearances in the Copa Libertadores in 2024, and intermittently struck up a strike partnership with fellow blast-from-the-past 41-year-old Oscar Cardozo.

We think we might’ve located the mythical fountain of youth: Asuncion, Paraguay. Has to be.

Pepe Reina

Not only is Reina still turning out between the sticks at the age of 42, but he’s doing so in a major European league – for Cesc Fabregas’ newly-promoted glamour club FC Como.

He’s actually five years older than his coach, a fellow member of Spain’s 2010 World Cup-winning squad who similarly transcends the Barclays tag.

The veteran has enjoyed a brilliant career at a number of Europe’s top clubs over the course of over two decades, but his peak was surely as one of the best ‘keepers in the Premier League in the prime Barclays era. He represented the Reds between 2005 and 2013.

Think of any classic Barclaysmen and chances are they pitted their wits against the shiny-headed Spaniard on a number of occasions.

Jose Fonte

The Portuguese defender was arguably more of a lower-league man during the real peak Barclays years, turning out in the Championship and League One for Crystal Palace and Southampton after first arriving in England back in 2007.

But he very much established himself as a capable top-tier defender as Saints rose up from the third tier and established themselves as a top-flight force under Nigel Adkins and Mauricio Pochettino.

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Sandro

Like Vedran Corluka, Sandro is one of those names you can’t not hear in Harry Redknapp’s accent.

That immediately makes the Brazilian proper Barclays, as well as going from Tottenham to play under Redknapp at that outrageous hodge-podge QPR squad in 2014-15.

He earned 17 caps for Brazil, has turned out at a Copa America alongside Neymar and came out of retirement earlier this year to turn out for seventh-tier non-league outfit Harborough Town. Lovely stuff.

Andy Carroll

You know this one, but we couldn’t help but show some love for Big Andy as he turns out for fallen giants Bordeaux as they aim to phoenix from the flames in the lower reaches of the French football pyramid.

Arguably the most head-scratching transfer of the Barclays era when he moved from Newcastle United to Liverpool for £35million, that fee almost seems quaint nowadays.

After tumbling down the tiers in England, Carroll signed for Ligue 2 Amiens in 2023 before going on to sign for Bordeaux.

“A lot of players, recently retired or nearing the end of their careers, have asked why I’m playing here in France, away from my family,” Carroll told BBC Sport.

“I’m just enjoying it here.”

Fair play.

READ: The official ‘Barclays era’ Premier League table: No Leeds, Man City 5th…

Javier Hernandez

While Chelsea and Manchester United were slugging it out for the title at the turn of the 2010s, the spirit of Barclays was more about yer midtable cult heroes like Mortem Gamst Pedersen, Yakubu and Tugay.

But plucky little Mexican ‘Chicharito’ had some of that about him while turning out for Sir Alex Ferguson’s all-conquering Red Devils.

Since leaving Old Trafford in 2015, Hernandez has turned out for Bayer Leverkusen, West Ham and Sevilla before three inevitable years in MLS with LA Galaxy.

Now 36, he’s back in Mexico with his boyhood, hometown club Guadalajara.

Adrian Mariappa

From Watford to Reading to Crystal Palace and back to Watford, Mariappa was arguably as much of a Coca-Cola Championship man as a Barclays Premier League man.

A relatively unglamorous defender, Mariappa is unlikely to light up any dewey-eyed, three-pints-in nostalgia sessions but he was a serviceable enough option and featured for Palace in Crystanbul. That’s Barclays enough for us.

Since then, he’s spent short stints in the Championship, League One, League Two, and the Australian A League—of course—with Bristol City, Burton Albion, Salford City, and Macarthur FC, respectively.

The former Jamaica international is still turning out in non-league for Wealdstone FC at the age of 38.