Sports

Ben Brereton Diaz and the longest runs without winning a Premier League match

Published

2 years ago

October 16, 2024

Press Room

Ben Brereton Diaz and the longest runs without winning a Premier League match

It’s early days, but you fear Southampton might set a few unwanted records this season.

After seven games, they are winless, with only a point to their name and just four goals scored.

At least the club has the faint afterglow of success from winning promotion last season, though there is one member of their team who doesn’t even have that — and, instead, has within his sights one of the more undesirable individual records around.

Step forward Ben Brereton Diaz, who has played 20 Premier League games in his career so far — six for Southampton, 14 for Sheffield United last season — without winning any. That is the record for the most games played by someone who has never won a Premier League game, ahead of Marvin Sordell on 17, and Emanuel Villa on 16.

Players with no Premier League wins

Player	Club(s)	Winless games
Ben Brereton Diaz	Sheffield United, Southampton	20
Marvin Sordell	Burnley, Bolton Advertisement	17
Emmanuel Villa	Derby County	16
Willo Flood Advertisement	Manchester City	14
Jonathan Leko	West Bromwich Albion	14 Advertisement
Edo Kayembe	Watford	13
Jonathan Rowe	Norwich City Advertisement	13

Unlike that duo, he still has a chance of celebrating his first victory. However, the Chile international is also in danger of setting the record for the most games played by an individual before being involved in a Premier League win (see table below).

This, hopefully, is not designed to denigrate or mock Brereton Diaz. He has just been unfortunate enough to play for a couple of struggling sides. You could argue he has been part of those struggling sides, so bears at least some of the responsibility for the failure to win. But with six goals in 14 games for Sheffield United, he ended the season as their joint-top scorer despite only joining in January, while he has frequently looked like Southampton’s most threatening attacker this term.

His teams haven’t won any games, but it’s not necessarily his fault.

Brereton Diaz, then with Sheffield United, shoots against Tottenham last season (Barrington Coombs/PA Images via Getty Images)

You could even argue that Brereton Diaz is almost being punished for being good. If you’re a terrible player in a terrible team, you probably aren’t going to stay in that team. But if you’re a decent player in a terrible team, you’ll be out there every week, your win-loss record at the mercy of the dysfunction around you.

In any case, the list of players who have taken a long time to get their first win isn’t exactly full of complete duds.

Take Gareth Bale, who appeared in 24 games for Tottenham before he claimed his first Premier League victory. His was a slightly different case, because it wasn’t down to him joining a struggling team, but more an odd quirk of his first two seasons at Tottenham; a combination of coincidence, poor form and injury conspiring to keep him out of the games Spurs won in that time.

Bale joined Spurs from Southampton in 2007 and, while he had to wait a long time for his first Premier League success, he did win in his fourth appearance for their first team when they beat Anorthosis Famagusta 6-1 in the UEFA Cup.

Having appeared sporadically in the following months, his season was ended in December by an ankle injury. He returned at the start of the following season, when Spurs infamously took just two points from their first eight games, but missed their first victory of the season because he had been sent off in the previous match. From there, he was in and out of the team, variously injured or out of favour, but his presence always coincided with draws or defeats and the team won plenty of times in his absence.

But his winless Premier League run became a running joke, one of the early football social media memes after Opta spotted the unfortunate statistic. In the end, it spanned 1,607 minutes over those 24 games, lasting 762 days and taking in three Spurs managers.

Premier League games before first win

Player	Club(s)	Games
Oliver Burke	West Bromwich Albion, Sheffield United	25
Gareth Bale Advertisement	Tottenham Hotspur	24
Nicky Summerbee	Swindon Town, Manchester City	23 Advertisement
Craig Fagan	Birmingham City, Derby County	23
Giles Barnes	Derby County, West Bromwich Albion Advertisement	22
Jan Aage Fjortoft	Swindon Town	20
Adam Idah Advertisement	Norwich City	19
Carles Gil	Aston Villa	18 Advertisement
Robert Earnshaw	West Bromwich Albion	18
Dean Gordon	Crystal Palace Advertisement	17
Andrew Todd	Bolton Wanderers	17

He eventually broke the streak on a bit of a technicality: he came on in the closing stages of Tottenham’s victory over Burnley in September 2009, when they were already 4-0 up and eventually won 5-0. And that was a deliberate move by then Spurs manager Harry Redknapp, to shake the unwanted statistical millstone. Redknapp told talkSPORT in 2019: “I stuck him on against Burnley… with six minutes to go. I thought, ‘He can’t mess this up!’”

He didn’t. And over the following years, he went on to win scores of games basically on his own so, by the time he left for Real Madrid in 2013, he was significantly in credit.

“It was a bit annoying that people went on about that statistic but it didn’t affect me at all,” Bale told The Guardian in 2010 after things had turned around. “It was just one of those things that freakily happened. I knew as soon as I got my chance to play we’d win a few games and it’d be done.”

Bale had to wait 24 games to taste victory with Tottenham in the Premier League (Clive Rose/Getty Images)

The current unfortunate record holder is Scottish forward Oliver Burke, who took an excruciating 25 games to taste Premier League victory for the first time.

Burke played his first Premier League game for West Brom in August 2017 after joining from RB Leipzig, but injuries ensured he only played in 15 matches, none of which West Brom won. And in his defence, they didn’t win many without him, either: this was the season in which they were relegated, went through four managers and endured an ill-fated mid-season trip to Barcelona where a group of players stole a taxi from outside a McDonald’s.

As for Burke, he reappeared in the Premier League a couple of years later, signing for Sheffield United at the end of the summer 2020 transfer window. Again, he wasn’t a regular, so had to wait until the January of that season before contributing to a win, which came against Newcastle.

The Blades were also relegated, so Burke has only played in two Premier League seasons, both of which have ended in the drop. Poor Oliver. He is currently with Werder Bremen after a couple of injury-hit loans at Millwall and Birmingham City.

Rob Earnshaw is another name in the top 10 who can’t be entirely blamed for not collecting a victory for a long time. It took 18 games before he won one for West Brom in 2004-05, but he did rattle up 11 goals that season, was the Baggies’ top scorer and, in terms of minutes per goal, he was second only to Thierry Henry in the whole division that season.

“The context of that season and that team was lots of new players,” Earnshaw tells The Athletic. “It was a team that wasn’t really expected to be in the Premier League. We were trying to figure each other out: I had about five different strike partners in that season. You’re always trying to get those relationships, so that’s perhaps why it took so long (to get a win).”

Earnshaw in a rare moment of joy for West Brom in the autumn of 2004 (Nick Potts – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)

That chopping and changing of the team’s forward line was also a reason why Earnshaw missed their rare victories. West Brom got their first three points in their eighth league game, a 2-1 win over Bolton in October, but Earnshaw was an unused substitute. Which itself presents a curious dilemma: when you haven’t won a game yet yourself, how do you feel when your team wins without you contributing?

“It’s a very strange thing, a very weird dynamic,” he says. “No 1, you’re always super happy when you win. I was always the first one to celebrate and congratulate my team-mates. But there’s always a weird feeling of disappointment. The No 1 thing is, that little kid in you just wants to play football and win games.”

Jan Aage Fjortoft is another unfortunate name on the list, having taken 20 games to earn his first first victory with Swindon in 1993-94. Swindon only won two games in the first half of that season, and Fjortoft missed both of them. But, unlike Earnshaw, he wasn’t a victim of squad rotation or injury: he missed those games because he wasn’t scoring goals.

After moving to Swindon for a club-record fee from Rapid Vienna following their promotion to the Premier League, Fjortoft did not find the net at all before the turn of the year.

“You start thinking, ‘Maybe the way I play doesn’t fit here — maybe I have to change’,” he tells The Athletic. “That’s the worst phase, because then you’re going nowhere. You’re building up to that moment, hopefully, when you get that first goal. But then you realise you just have to do what you do, because that’s good enough.

“It was a very testing time, and the thing that saved me was I was scoring goals for Norway, though that made it even more complicated in my head. Eventually, I wasn’t in the team as much, which is normal: Swindon had paid a lot of money for me to score goals.

“I was more annoyed that I didn’t break the code. I had played against these players before for Norway. We’d won against England. Why couldn’t I break this thing called the Premier League?”

Fjortoft celebrates scoring a goal for Swindon against Manchester United (Andy Heading/EMPICS via Getty Images)

Things reached a nadir when Fjortoft — still winless and goalless — played a reserve game against Wycombe Wanderers on Christmas Eve in which he was “out of 22 players… the worst on the pitch”. With the 1994 World Cup looming and his spot in the Norway team under threat, he arranged a loan back to his former club Lillestrom.

But then Keith Scott, who had been playing up front for Swindon instead of Fjortoft, was cup-tied for a game against Ipswich in the FA Cup. Fjortoft played, scored and kept his place for the league game against Tottenham a few days later. In that game he finally secured his first league goal, and first win in the English top flight, after 20 unsuccessful attempts, as they beat Spurs 2-1.

“It was fantastic,” he says. “There was a lot of relief for myself, but we beat Tottenham, and we were allowed to dream. Could we make it? Could we get enough points to stay up?”

Fjortoft had a sensational second half to the season: having failed to score at all in his first 20 games, he managed 11 in his next 16, although it wasn’t enough to save Swindon from relegation, broadly down to them conceding a whopping 100 goals.

Ultimately, it would be hugely unfair to treat Brereton Diaz or any of the players mentioned here as figures of fun. Not least because, by even making it to the Premier League, they’re already in the top one per cent of the top one per cent.

“When you get a chance to play in the Premier League, the playing is the actual achievement,” adds Earnshaw. “That’s the dream. You’re playing against the very best.”

(Top photo: Alex Dodd – CameraSport via Getty Images)

Click to comment

Sports

2026 World Cup Odds: How Far Can Mexico Go After Winning Group A?

Published

2 hours ago

June 19, 2026

Press Room

2026 World Cup Odds: How Far Can Mexico Go After Winning Group A?

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

After its massive 1-0 win over South Korea on Thursday night, Mexico has won Group A and officially clinched a spot in the knockout round.

El Tri will play its Round of 32 game in Mexico City, and will face the third-place finisher in either Group C/E/F/H/I.

This is the fourth time that Mexico has topped the group stage of a World Cup, with the other three coming in 1986, 1994 and 2002.

With the win, Mexico remains unbeaten in World Cup group games at home, going a combined 6-2-0 (W-D-L), with two wins and a draw in 1970 and 1986, and now two wins in 2026.

Before the tournament began, Mexico was listed at +6500 to win the World Cup. Now, after winning its first two games of the tournament, Mexico has surged up the oddsboard to +5000.

Can Mexico build off its first two matches and make a deep run in this tournament? Let’s check out the updated odds for El Tri as of June 19.

This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about Sports Betting on FOX Sports.

Team Mexico — Stage of Elimination

Last 32: +125 (bet $10 to win $22.50 total)
Last 16: +135 (bet $10 to win $23.50 total)
Quarterfinals: +600 (bet $10 to win $70 total)
Semifinals: +1600 (bet $10 to win $170 total)
Runner-up: +3000 (bet $10 to win $310 total)
Outright winner: +5000 (bet $10 to win $510 total)

Mexico is currently +5000 to win the 2026 FIFA World Cup after winning Group A (Getty Images).

Mexico’s Past World Cup Results:

1930: Group stage
1934: Did not qualify
1938: Withdrew
1950: Group stage
1954: Group stage
1958: Group stage
1962: Group stage
1966: Group stage
1970: Quarterfinals
1974: Did not qualify
1978: Group stage
1982: Did not qualify
1986: Quarterfinals
1990: Banned
1994: Round of 16
1998: Round of 16
2002: Round of 16
2006: Round of 16
2010: Round of 16
2014: Round of 16
2018: Round of 16
2022: Group stage
2026: TBD

What to know: Mexico has made a habit of being in the running, but never really being in the running. Make sense? Consider this: El Tri made it out of the group stage in seven consecutive World Cups (1994-2018), but never made it past the Round of 16 in any of those years. In 2022, Mexico failed to make it out of the group stage, and it will look to get back to its winning ways in 2026 after a great start to the tournament. With its win Thursday night, Mexico has now advanced to the knockout stage in eight of the last nine World Cups. It is important to note, however, that Mexico has never made it past the quarterfinals at a FIFA men’s World Cup.

Sports

Goalkeeper Raúl Rangel’s elite play and South Korea’s mistake help Mexico advance

Published

3 hours ago

June 19, 2026

Press Room

Goalkeeper Raúl Rangel’s elite play and South Korea’s mistake help Mexico advance

GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Three and a half years after its biggest failure on the World Cup stage in half a century, the Mexican national team needed only two games to advance to the knockout round of this year’s tournament as winner of Group A.

Mexico’s defense held off a spirited final push by South Korea, earning a 1-0 win on Thursday night at Guadalajara Stadium in front of a fiery announced sellout crowd of 45,522.

“It was a very tough game,” Mexico coach Javier Aguirre said.

Goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu made a mistake in the 50th minute, failing to stop what appeared to be a simple cross and bobbling the ball. That allowed Mexico’s Luis Romo to easily tap the ball into the net and claim a 1-0 lead.

“In the end, a mistake was going to tip the scales,” Aguirre said.

Mexico goalkeeper Raúl Rangel blocks a shot from South Korea’s Son Heung-min during their World Cup match at Guadalajara Stadium on Thursday.

(Natacha Pisarenko / Ap Photo/natacha Pisarenko)

“You always want to be there; I felt it, and I got the chance,” said Romo, who started the game after starting the opener on the bench — a strategic change by the Mexican coach that paid off.

South Korea put pressure on the Mexican team throughout the game. Late in the scoreless first half, Jae-sung Lee came close to giving South Korea the lead. Aguirre hoped his team would shake off nerves following the emotional opener at Azteca Stadium and show more bite in its second game against South Korea, but his team didn’t have much power behind its attack during the game’s first 45 minutes.

The crowd in Guadalajara grew frustrated and began booing the Mexican national team’s performance at the end of the first half.

Mexico, however, won back their cheers when it capitalized on South Korea’s costly mistake and converted it into a goal.

Obed Vargas replaced Romo in the 71st minute and was close to scoring a spectacular goal if not for Seung-gyu’s save.

El Tri earned a win without any other goals thanks, in part, to a great night by goalkeeper Raúl Rangel, who stopped a header by Cho Gue-sung in the 87th minute. Captain Edson Álvarez helped turn away South Korea’s attack late, holding up relatively well despite having left ankle surgery during the past year.

“It was just a reflex,” said Rangel, whose club team Chivas plays at at Guadalajara Stadium. “I was very focused and stepped up when the team needed me, and I’m happy about that.”

LAFC star and South Korea captain Son Heung-min fired one shot over Mexico’s goalkeeper in the first half, but Álvarez cleared it off the line before the referee ruled Son was offsides.

South Korea finished controlling possession 58% of the time, but it only earned two shots on target.

“It wasn’t a good game because they didn’t let us do much,” Aguirre said.

Mexico was coming off a comfortable 2-0 victory over South Africa, while the South Koreans had defeated the Czech Republic 2-1, marking their first World Cup opening-match win since 2010.

During the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Mexico was eliminated in the group stage for the first time since 1978, breaking a streak of seven consecutive appearances in the knockout rounds. However, playing on home soil, the team’s goal is to emulate El Tri’s achievements in 1970 and 1986, when they reached the quarterfinals — the country’s best World Cup finish.

Due to the new 48-team format, Mexico would need to win two knockout-round matches and reach a sixth game to realize its goals.

“We’re taking it one step at a time; first, there’s the third game,” Romo said.

Mexico's Luis Romo celebrates with his teammates after scoring during a match against South Korea at Guadalajara Stadium

After the win over South Korea, Mexico will close out group play against Czechia at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City on Wednesday. El Tri will get to play the first two games of the knockout round — should it win the first one — at Azteca Stadium, a venue where it has never lost a World Cup game.

South Korea has four points and will be favored when it plays South Africa Wednesday in Monterrey. If South Korea wins the match, it would be the Group A runner-up and advance to play the Group B runner-up on June 28 at SoFi Stadium.

“We want all nine points,” Vargas said of Mexico’s goal entering its next game against Czechia.

Sports

2026 FIFA World Cup Golden Boot Race Tracker: Lionel Messi Is Alone At The Top

Published

12 hours ago

June 18, 2026

Press Room

2026 FIFA World Cup Golden Boot Race Tracker: Lionel Messi Is Alone At The Top

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Who’ll win the Golden Boot at the 2026 FIFA World Cup? The race is on for who’ll score the most goals at the tournament, and it is set to be one of the tournament’s most closely watched storylines.

Several of the world’s top forwards will be aiming to finish as the competition’s leading goalscorer. Kylian Mbappé enters the tournament after winning the Golden Boot at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, while Harry Kane, Erling Haaland, Lionel Messi, and Mikel Oyarzabal are among the other players expected to challenge for the award.

And check out our list of all the 2026 World Cup goals, ranked!

Favorites To Win The Golden Boot

Harry Kane: +310 (bet $10 to win $41 total)
Lionel Messi: +350 (bet $10 to win $45 total)
Kylian Mbappé: +350 (bet $10 to win $45 total)
Erling Haaland: +1000 (bet $10 to win $110 total)
Kai Havertz: +1300 (bet $10 to win $140 total)
Vinícius Júnior: +3300 (bet $10 to win $340 total)
Folarin Balogun: +3500 (bet $10 to win $360 total)
Mikel Oyarzabal: +3500 (bet $10 to win $360 total)
Lamine Yamal: +3500 (bet $10 to win $360 total)
Raphinha: +4500 (bet $10 to win $460 total)
Michael Olise: +4500 (bet $10 to win $460 total)
Romelu Lukaku: +4500 (bet $10 to win $460 total)
Viktor Gyökeres: +4500 (bet $10 to win $460 total)
Cody Gakpo: +5500 (bet $10 to win $560 total)
Cristiano Ronaldo: +5500 (bet $10 to win $560 total)

3 Goals

Lionel Messi (Argentina)

2 Goals

Johan Manzambi (Switzerland)
Harry Kane (England)
Erling Haaland (Norway)
Kylian Mbappé (France)
Harry Kane (England)
Elijah Just (New Zealand)
Yasin Ayari (Sweden)
Kai Havertz (Germany)
Folarin Balogun (USA)

1 Goal

Granit Xhaka (Switzerland)
Rubén Vargas (Switzerland)
Ermin Mahmic (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Michal Sadilek (Czechia)
Teboho Mokoena (South Africa)
Jáminton Campaz (Colombia)
Luis Díaz (Colombia)
Daniel Muñoz (Colombia)
Abbosbek Fayzullaev (Uzbekistan)
Caleb Yirenkyi (Ghana)
Jude Bellingham (England)
Marcus Rashford (England)
Martin Baturina (Croatia)
Petar Musa (Croatia)
Yoane Wissa (DR Congo)
João Neves (Portugal)
Marko Arnautović (Austria)
Jude Bellingham (England)
Marcus Rashford (England)
Yoane Wissa (DR Congo)
João Neves (Portugal)
Caleb Yirenkyi (Ghana)
Ali Olwan (Jordan)
Romano Schmid (Austria)
Leo Østigard (Norway)
Ayman Hussein (Iraq)
Ibrahim Mbaye (Senegal)
Bradley Barcola (France)
Ramin Rezaeian (Iran)
Mohammad Mohebbi (Iran)
Maxi Araújo (Uruguay)
Abdulelah Al-Amri (Saudi Arabia)
Emam Ashour (Egypt)
Alexander Isak (Sweden)
Viktor Gyökeres (Sweden)
Mattias Svanberg (Sweden)
Omar Rekik (Tunisia)
Amad Diallo (Ivory Coast)
Keito Nakamura (Japan)
Daichi Kamada (Japan)
Virgil van Dijk (Netherlands)
Crysencio Summerville (Netherlands)
Felix Nmecha (Germany)
Nico Schlotterbeck (Germany)
Jamal Musiala (Germany)
Nathaniel Brown (Germany)
Deniz Undav (Germany)
Connor Metcalfe (Australia)
Nestory Irankunda (Australia)
John McGinn (Scotland)
Ismael Saibari (Morocco)
Vinícius Júnior (Brazil)
Breel Embolo (Switzerland)
Gio Reyna (USA)
Mauricio (Paraguay)
Cyle Larin (Canada)
Jovo Lukić (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Ladislav Krejcí (Czechia)
Julián Quiñones (Mexico)
Raúl Jimenez (Mexico)
Hwang In-Beom (South Korea)
Oh Hyeon-Gyu (South Korea)