Every Father & Son Duo to Have Played in the Premier League – Ranked
Rory Delap could soon become the latest former Premier League player to have a son also make his debut in the division, with 17-year-old son Liam on the fringes of the Manchester City first-team.
Rory played for Derby, Southampton, Sunderland and Stoke during his own career and amassed an impressive 359 Premier League appearances. Liam is highly rated at City and is tipped to make a major impact of his own over the coming years.
Plenty of father and son duos have come before in the Premier League, yet it is rare that both the father and son have made a success of themselves.
Here's all 14 father-son Premier League star duos ranked...
14. Alvin & David Martin
Former West Ham defender Alvin Martin played most of his football in the 1980s and was a veteran by the time of the Premier League era, but did feature in 1993/94, 1994/95 and 1995/96.
His son David was in the youth ranks at West Ham, yet his senior break came at Wimbledon, who then became MK Dons. A transfer to Liverpool followed without any first-team games.
David might have been forgiven for thinking his chance to play Premier League football had gone when he spent seven years at MK Dons. But West Ham took him back to London in 2019, where he was afforded a surprise run in the team.
13. Steve & Dan Potts
Steve Potts played over 500 total games for West Ham during a 17-year spell with the club. He became a regular in the late 1980s and was a virtual ever-present into the mid-1990s.
Fellow defender Dan joined the Hammers’ youth ranks around the time his father left, going on to make his senior debut for the club in 2011 aged just 17.
Dan’s Premier League involvement was limited to just two games in the 2012/13 season and he has instead built a career helping Luton rise back up the EFL ladder.
12. Paul & Darnell Furlong
Despite Chelsea spending a club record £2.3m on Paul Furlong in 1994, the forward was only briefly a Premier League player during his career and enjoyed most of his success in the second tier.
Almost 20 years after his father’s last game for Chelsea, Darnell emerged from the youth ranks at QPR and played three Premier League games in the 2014/15 season.
Furlong Jr. continued his development with QPR after relegation, but has now made his return to the Premier League after helping West Brom secure promotion in 2019/20.
11. Gordon & Gavin Strachan
Part of Alex Ferguson’s successful Aberdeen side and a league title winner with Leeds in 1991/92, Gordon Strachan’s best years were behind him by the time of the Premier League era.
He was still a regular for Leeds to begin with, before joining Coventry to become a player-coach and eventually take over as player-manager in 1996.
Son Gavin played for his father at Coventry, yet his chances were largely limited and he left the club soon after Gordon did, embarking on a journeyman career in the lower leagues.
10. David & George Hirst
Sheffield Wednesday legend David Hirst was famously a major transfer target for Manchester United in the early 1990s before attention eventually turned to Eric Cantona.
He is considered to have been a top quality all-round striker, whose peak saw the Owls enjoy relative success in the early Premier League years.
George Hirst is a 21-year-old forward on the books at Leicester. Although currently on loan to Rotherham, he made his debut for the Foxes at the end of the 2019/20 season.
9. Gustavo & Diego Poyet
Gus Poyet enjoyed seven successful years in the Premier League with Chelsea and then Tottenham, part of the first real explosion of foreign talent to move into English football.
The Uruguayan’s son, Diego, is Spanish-born from his father’s time at Real Zaragoza, but grew up in England and represented the Three Lions at junior international level.
Diego started his career at Charlton and got a Premier League move to West Ham in 2014, playing only a handful of games. He last played in Cyprus in 2018 and is thought to have retired.
8. Rob & Elliot Lee
Rob Lee made his name as a Premier League player as part of the Newcastle team that exploded into the top flight in 1993 and secured back-to-back second place finishes soon afterwards.
Son Elliot was born in the north east but started his career at West Ham when the family moved back to London. He played only twice in the top flight but is enjoying a respectable lower league career.
Another Lee son, Olly, is also a professional footballer. Unlike, Rob or Elliot, however, he has never played in the Premier League to date, despite also starting out at West Ham.
7. Kevin & Tyrese Campbell
Kevin Campbell had important spells as a Premier League player with Arsenal, Nottingham Forest and Everton in the 1990s and early 2000s, having also played briefly in Turkey.
He scored 83 Premier League goals in total during his career and even collected a First Division medal with Arsenal before the modern era kicked off after 1992.
Tyrese Campbell is yet to make his impact in the Premier League, although at just 20 years of age, time is on his side. He made his top flight debut for Stoke aged 18 in February 2018.
6. Alan & Jack Cork
Ex-Sheffield United forward Alan Cork became something of a Premier League cult hero in the early years, having earlier been part of Wimbledon’s ‘Crazy Gang’ in the pre-1992 era.
Jack Cork is more famous than his father these days. He failed to make the breakthrough at first club Chelsea, but has consistently been a Premier League player since 2012.
Jack helped Southampton earned promotion back to the top flight and now has over 250 top flight appearances under his belt with the Saints, Swansea and Burnley.
5. Bryan & Angus Gunn
Bryan Gunn was an early Premier League star, playing over 400 games for Norwich in all competitions, and part of the Canaries side that finished third in 1992/93.
He went on to play in the UEFA Cup against Bayern Munich and, all told, spent 12 years at Carrow Road, having originally played under Alex Ferguson at Aberdeen.
Angus is now a goalkeeper like his father. He spent the 2017/18 season on loan at Norwich in the Championship, leading to a £13.5m transfer from Manchester City to Southampton.
4. Steve & Alex Bruce
Long before he was on the Premier League managerial merry-go-round, Steve Bruce was the captain who lifted three titles with Manchester United in the early and mid-1990s.
Despite a patchy coaching career in the 24 years since, Steve was legitimately one of the best centre-backs the Premier League has seen. His son Alex tried to follow in those big footsteps.
Alex has played just shy of 50 Premier League games in his career for Birmingham and Hull, but spent most of his time in the Championship with the likes of Ipswich and Leeds.
3. Paul & Tom Ince
Paul Ince was a two-time Premier League champion as part of Manchester United’s dominant side in the early 1990s, later playing for Liverpool, Middlesbrough and Wolves.
Son Tom started out in the academy ranks at Liverpool, although he never played for the club in the Premier League. His top flight debut actually came with Crystal Palace on loan from Blackpool.
Unlike his father, Ince Jr. has never made the same impact in the game. He briefly played a handful of games for Hull and got his third and most recent go at the Premier League with Huddersfield.
2. Ian Wright & Shaun/Bradley Wright-Phillips
Arsenal legend Ian Wright has seen two sons go on to play in the Premier League, with both Shaun and Bradley Wright-Phillips each making their professional bow with Manchester City.
Ian’s title with Arsenal in 1997/98 and Shaun’s subsequent triumph with Chelsea in 2005/06 made them the first father-son duo to have won the Premier League.
Bradley’s Premier League career was only brief. He played 32 league games for City between 2004 and 2006, before dropping down divisions and eventually becoming a leading MLS player.
1. Peter & Kasper Schmeichel
Peter Schmeichel was the best goalkeeper in the world during his Premier League career with Manchester United, while son Kasper has been among the league’s top stoppers since 2014.
Peter helped redefine the art of modern goalkeeping in the 1990s. Kasper grew up watching his father at Old Trafford, although his own professional debut came at Manchester City.
After then starting from the bottom with Notts County in League Two, Kasper spent several years in the Championship, before being an ever-present for Leicester in their 2015/16 fairytale triumph.
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