Alan Shearer – Ballon D’Or Third Place (1996)
The English National Team forward played 4 seasons at Southampton, making 118 appearances and scoring 23 goals. On his full debut for the club, when Southampton won 4-2 against Arsenal at the Dell, he managed to score an impressive hat-trick, becoming the youngest player at the age of 17 years and 240 days to score a hat-trick in the First Division. Seen his performance in the centre of Saints’ attack, the fans voted him without a doubt Southampton FC Player of the Year in 1991. Shearer was sold to Blackburn Rovers in July 1992 for a record fee of £3.6 million.
Ron Davies - English First Division top scorer (1967, 1968)
The loyal Welsh National Team forward spent most of his career at Southampton (7 seasons), making 240 appearances and scoring 134 goals. He played a fabulous game against Manchester United in 1969, when Saints beat the Devils by 4 goals to 1. Every Saints’ goal was scored by Ron Davies and at the end of the match, the opponents’ manager described him as “the finest centre-forward in Europe”. In 1973 he left Southampton and joined Portsmouth.
Rickie Lambert – Southampton FC Player of the season (2010, 2012)
The English National Team forward played 5 impressive seasons at Southampton, making 230 appearances for the club and scoring 115 goals. He ended up being a crucial signing for the club, seen that he helped Saints return to the Premier League. One of the greatest matches he played wearing a red and white shirt, was Leeds United 0-1 Saints, where he scored in the 16th minute to help Saints win the match. That game was crucial to Southampton, given they had to achieve promotion to claw their way back to the Premier League, and that game was the second most important of their season (the most important was Saints 4-0 Coventry).
Ted Bates MBE – “Mr. Southampton”
The English forward spent 16 seasons playing for Southampton, making 202 appearances and scoring 63 goals. He is considered one of the most important people in Saints’ history, and given his time spent at the club he was named the president of the football club. In 1953 he announced his retirement from football and two years later, he became the first team manager of Southampton. He led Saints to victory in the famous match against Manchester United in 1969, when Ron Davies scored all the goals for Southampton. In 1973, after spending 18 years as a manager for the team and 34 years overall (even as a player), he resigned from his manager role.
