Premier League players are only allowed to receive a winner's medal if they made at least five appearances in a campaign. Here are some stars, including a South African and five from Manchester United, who missed out on a medal after their teams won the title.
Click through the gallery above to see 11 stars who missed out on an EPL winner's medal despite seeing their clubs win the league title.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp recently criticised the rule, which states that players need to have played in at least five games to qualify for a winner's medal if their clubs win the league.
"Even if you have played one game, you should have a medal," he said, as quoted by The Sun.
"If the people don't understand how important a squad is to win a championship, then I cannot help them, to be honest.
"If you are the second goalie and have had less games, you should get a medal.
"You train five million times over a year and if you don't train at the highest level, you have no chance to win a championship.
"Somebody decided you have to have five games for a medal?"
In fact, before 2012, players needed 10 appearances to qualify for a winner's medal.
One of the first players to miss out on one because of this ruling was United legend Gary Neville in his debut campaign for the club in 1993/94, when he only played in one game. The former right-back, though, managed to win eight winner's medals before missing out again in 2010/11 when he retired halfway through the title-winning campaign.
South Africa's Quinton Fortune played in three Premier League-winning seasons for United: in 1999/2000, 2000/01 and 2002/03. He never matched the then required 10 games quota, but received a winner's medal by special dispensation in 2003 after making nine appearances.
Mohamed Salah claimed his first EPL medal in 2019/20 with Liverpool. He could have done so earlier, however, when the Egyptian winger was part of Chelsea's 2014/15 title-winning squad, but only made three appearances after joining Fiorentina on loan in January. As a consequence, he did not qualify for a medal even though then-Blues boss Jose Mourinho insisted he would get a replica.
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One of the unluckiest players in the league's history is former United forward Federico Macheda, who missed out on medals in both the 2008/09 and 2010/11 campaigns after making four and six appearances, respectively.
Unlike the abovementioned players, he never managed to bag a winner's medal – you can see some more stars who also missed out on their individual pieces of silverware, including one who failed to do so three times, in the gallery above!
Do you think the Premier League should take away the minimum appearances rule to qualify for a winner's medal? Have your say in the comments section below.
