Cult Heroes: Top 5 Right Backs

It’s the same for right backs as left backs. Glamour and headlines don’t come easy for the men donning the number 2 jersey. But these five cult heroes all brought a certain bit extra to proceedings, despite the limitations of their positions. Here’s our Top 5 Right Backs…

1. BARRY VENISON

Forget the fact that he was actually a pretty useful defender who played over 100 times for Liverpool in the late 80s and early 90s. Forget the fact, too, that he went on to be a half-decent pundit. Just remember the hair. A good 10 years after it had gone out of fashion, the mullet lived on through Venison’s persistence with the “business at the front, party at the back” hairstyle. A cult hero without a shadow of a doubt, Venison also has one of the best tribute songs we’ve heard. Fans used to ever-so-slightly rework Bon Jovi’s classic, Bad Medicine, substituting the title lyric with “Barry Venison”. Take a look, have a listen and tell us it’s brilliant. Because it is.

2. JOSIMAR

Young right back Josimar Higino Pereira became a Brazilian cult hero with this stunning strike against Pat Jennings on his international debut in Mexico ’86…

And he followed it up in his very next match with this wonder-goal against Poland…

3. PAUL STALTERI

Dan’s pick from his own club Tottenham Hotspur, Paul Stalteri earned cult hero status with his one and only goal for the Lilywhites, a last-gasp winner against West Ham at Upton Park

4. CARLOS ALBERTO

If you scored the greatest goal in World Cup history, that pretty much cements your status as a cult hero. Carlos Alberto Torres scored “that” goal against Italy in the 1970 final and went on to star in the NASL for New York Cosmos. If only we could find a video of him in action…

5. RICHARD SHAW

Shaw made 587 career league appearances, scoring just four goals. His prolific record of 3 goals from 207 league appearances for Crystal Palace was bettered at Coventry City, where he managed just one goal in 317 league appearances for the Sky Blues. But what a goal it was (see below). Other than his netbusting antics, Shaw also attains cult hero status for being the man behind one of the most famous incidents in English football history. It was Shaw who was kicked by Eric Cantona, leading to his red card – and subsequent kung-fu lunge into the crowd – at Selhurst Park in 1995. But all that aside, Shaw has been a loyal servant to the game, and a hugely popular figure at the clubs he’s played for.