Tottenham Legends: Ledley King
By Ryan Wrenn
Today – Monday, October 12th – marks Ledley King’s 35th birthday. The English centre-back arrived in Tottenham’s youth academy when he was 16 years old and spent the next sixteen years serving the club. King is one of those rare players who spent their entire playing career with a single club.
In a more just world, King would have joined the likes of John Terry and Phil Jagielka in serving his club regularly well into his 30s. Instead, a lingering and untreatable knee injury kept King limited for the last few years of his Tottenham tenure, and in the summer of 2012 forced him to retire completely.
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Retiring from football at 31 years old isn’t entirely uncommon, but it seemed way too early for a player of King’s abundant ability. In his prime he was easily one of the most formidable centre-backs playing in England. Former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry cited King as one of the only defenders in England who could stop him without also committing a foul. His game was such that he could forego a hard or cynical tackle and instead rely on superior positioning and marking to nullify opponents. The numbers back up this observation: in 297 appearances for Tottenham, King accumulated a mere 9 yellow cards and not a single red card.
Via that fair and efficient play, King became one of the key factors in Tottenham’s return to prominence around the turn of the first decade of the new century. He earned the club captaincy and held it until his retirement. Even as injury began to hamper him and Rio Ferdinand and John Terry dominated the center of the England national team’s defense, King managed 21 international caps during his career, including the 2010 World Cup squad.
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Even as his injuries worsened and his game began to wane in his final years with the club, he managed to turn in a series of quality performances despite the fact that his condition more or less meant he was unable to train. Relying on regular, low impact exercises, he maintained a level of fitness that allowed him to make 23 quality starts for Tottenham in all competitions in his final season with the club.
If he had any cartilage left in his knee, it’s easy to imagine King serving in some capacity within the team. Perhaps at this point it would have been in a mentor role similar to that which goalkeeper Brad Friedel occupied in the club before his own retirement earlier this year. As it stands, King acts as an ambassador for the club, continuing to represent Tottenham at supporter or media events.
Though his haul of trophies and records are relatively slight – he helped Tottenham to win the League Cup in 2008 and still holds the fastest goal in Premier League history at 10 seconds – he is justifiably included among the more impressive players the club has ever produced. In an era where chairman Daniel Levy and coach Mauricio Pochettino are molding a new batch of homegrown players to have long careers with the club, King’s inspirational legacy has never been more important.