Jermain Defoe has played with some top players during his spells at Tottenham, West Ham, Portsmouth, England and more. However, it is no surprise to see Spurs and Three Lions players dominate the strikers all-time best eleven.
Defoe was asked to pick a team from the best players he shared a dressing room with by Rangers TV and four of his picks were those he played alongside at White Hart Lane.
The Spurs legend named Ledley King, Kyle Walker, Luka Modric, and Gareth Bale in the star-studded eleven.
Walker’s pick may raise a few eyebrows given that the striker only played a couple of seasons with the full-back towards the end of his time at Tottenham but Defoe insisted that Walker’s potential was clear even at a young age.
He said: “I remember when he (Walker) first came to Tottenham as a young lad. It took him quite a while to settle in to be honest, coming from Sheffield.
“Even in the early days, you could tell that he was going to be something special. For the modern-day game, he’s probably up there with the best athletes that I’ve seen, so that was an easy one.”
He lauded King’s ability to put in amazing displays despite not being able to train due to his knee problems and also waxed lyrical about Luka Modric’s ability to control the game from midfield.
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Defoe said: “You can play Ledley on the left because he’s both-footed. You could ask him what foot he was and he wouldn’t even know!
“I think Ledley was an amazing footballer and for someone who had so many injuries and never really trained, and could still go out on a weekend and put in a 9/10 performance, that takes something special.
“It’s unbelievable how he’d come out on a Friday and go for a little jog and then play on a Saturday, and literally had 10/10 performances every week.
“Luka can literally dictate a whole game.
“I remember when he came to Tottenham because I remembered playing against him for England against Croatia, and the whole build-up was all about Modric.
“Technically he’s one of the best players I’ve played with and he’s such a nice guy. He’s a special footballer.”
The 37-year-old also revealed that he didn’t expect Gareth Bale to evolve into the player he eventually did when the Welshman first arrived in North London.
Speaking about Bale, the striker said: “I remember when he came from Southampton to Tottenham when he was young, and he couldn’t really get in the team, to be honest.
“He came as a left-back but when I saw him, I thought he should maybe play higher up because he could knock the ball past people and just run.
“When he developed and he scored the hat-trick against Inter Milan at the San Siro, he didn’t look back from there.
“We knew at some point he would leave Tottenham and go somewhere else.”
Apart from the aforementioned stars, David James, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, David Beckham and Wayne Rooney completed Defoe’s eleven.
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That is a pretty solid eleven with David James in goal possibly being the only weak point. Defoe also played with some sensational strike partners in his career, so it must have been hard for him to leave out the likes of Keane, Crouch, and Berbatov.
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