Cole Palmer Tops Greatest FPL Icons Ranking — SkimNews
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- Cole Palmer is ranked the greatest FPL icon of all time for his £5m 2023-24 Chelsea debut, having left Manchester City for first-team gametime and delivering one of the game's most explosive bargain seasons
- Mohamed Salah takes No. 2 with a record-breaking 344-point 2024-25 campaign at £12.5m, and is the only FPL player ever to surpass 300 points in a season — achieving it twice — while reaching 200+ points in eight separate seasons
- Michu earns No. 3 as arguably FPL's biggest one-season wonder: a £6.5m midfielder (effectively a striker) who scored 18 goals for Swansea in 2012-13 after just 15 La Liga goals the prior season, before leaving for Napoli with only two goals the following year
- Riyad Mahrez delivered Leicester's 2015-16 title-winning season's top FPL score with 240 points, starting in just 5.9% of teams before his ownership surged past 50% by gameweek seven — finishing as overall top scorer despite a £5.5m starting price
- Michail Antonio and John Lundstram exemplify the cult-hero theme — Antonio posted a 26-point gameweek with four goals at Norwich (joint-most ever for a sub-£7m player), while misclassified 'defender' Lundstram delivered 144 points at £4m for Sheffield United, freeing budget elsewhere
- Harry Kane rounds out the top 10 after a 2014-15 Tottenham breakthrough that saw him rise from £5m to a peak £6.4m, netting 21 Premier League goals and racking up 191 points — the 11th-best value season in FPL history
Why it matters: Fantasy Premier League's 25-year mythology is built on bargain hunters and misclassified gems — from Michu's 18-goal £6.5m debut to Cole Palmer's £5m Chelsea breakout to Salah's unprecedented 344-point season — proving that value recognition, not premium price tags, drives the game. For the millions of global FPL managers, this ranking codifies which archetypes reward the savviest roster-building over 38 gameweeks.
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