Excuse the pun but height is a big advantage for any player, especially those who reside between the sticks. It’s not a coincidence that a good proportion of the skyscraping footballers mentioned below are goalkeepers.
Elsewhere, a towering centre-back will always back himself to win aerial duels while they may have gone out of fashion in recent years but betting on football online is always a little easier when a team is blessed with a big man up front.
That’s assuming of course that he also has ‘good feet’. You know, ‘for a big lad’. Here are the tallest players in Premier League history, all of which stand at 6’6 or taller. Some we had to look up. All we look up to.
Asmir Begovic – 199 cm
The Bosnian stopper commanded his box with authority and had the reactions to pull off some spectacular saves, often putting in match-defining performances for Stoke.
Spending several years as number one with the Potters, Begovic eventually opted to become second choice at Chelsea.
He eventually got bored of the bench, though, and moved on to make over 100 appearances for Bournemouth.
Loans to Qarabag and Milan were underwhelming before Begovic joined Everton on a one-year deal in the 2021 summer window.
He is presently number one at QPR as his career winds down.
Sasa Kalajdzic – 200 cm
Austrian international Sasa Kalajdzic signed for Wolves in the summer of 2022, but his top-flight adventures got off to the worst possible start, tearing an ACL just 45 minutes in.
Requiring surgery, the injury set him back a full year.
All of which left a striker often compared to Peter Crouch, due to his lofty stature and slender build, somewhat of a forgotten figure and certainly he didn’t feature in any football prediction ahead of the 2023/24 season.
Still, from August to January, the 26-year-old was making a name for himself as an impact sub at Molineux, that was until he was loaned back to the Bundesliga.
In February, he scored his first goal for Eintracht Frankfurt but just three days later he cruelly succumbed to another ACL tear.
Thibaut Courtois – 200 cm
One of the best goalkeepers of his generation, Thibaut Courtois stands at 200 cm and cuts an imposing figure for opponents.
Courtois uses his height well in one-on-one situations, making himself big and giving attackers little margin for error. At set pieces, he is decisive and commands the area with calm claims and punches.
Courtois won the Premier League Golden Glove in 2016-17, but his spell at Chelsea may ultimately be a footnote once he hangs up the gloves.
That’s because, despite being a Premier League champion, the Belgian has enjoyed even greater success in La Liga, including a string of heroic performances in Real Madrid’s run to the 2021-22 Champions League.
His career is likely to age well, placing him alongside Manuel Neuer, Gianluigi Buffon, Petr Cech and a small group of others as the greatest goalkeepers of the 21st century.
Dan Burn – 201 cm
A match-going Newcastle obsessive as a young boy, Dan Burn started his career at Darlington before joining Fulham in 2011. There he made his Premier League debut prior to the West London club enduring relegation.
A spell with Wigan followed, which earned a big move to Brighton and a return to the top-flight.
At 201 cm tall, Burn played in central defence for much of his career, but a reinvention on the South Coast had him deployed as a left-back, a role that has continued since joining his boyhood club Newcastle in 2022.
Unsurprisingly, the defender is a major threat in both boxes at set-pieces though a recent trend has seen opposing teams target his weaknesses, namely an inability to turn quickly due to his imposing frame.
Lucas Bergstrom – 201cm
Courtois left Stamford Bridge for even better things and to a lesser extent the same will surely apply to Bergstrom, the young Finn showing a lot of promise on loan at Peterborough but with his path blocked twice-over to Chelsea’s first team.
With Robert Sanchez and Djordje Petrovic ahead of him in the pecking order in West London, a move elsewhere looks increasingly likely at some juncture, and after keeping clean sheets galore at Posh there will be no shortage of takers for the 21-year-old.
Paul Onuachu – 201 cm
Signed by Southampton in January 2023, Paul Onuachu is one of the tallest players in Premier League history.
Onuachu debuted for the Saints soon after his move from Gent, where the forward had been prolific across two seasons.
Alas, most of his appearances came from the bench and with Southampton ultimately justifying their short-priced odds in the Premier League betting to drop last season, the player has subsequently headed to Turkey on loan.
Stefan Postma – 201 cm
Making 11 Premier League appearances for Aston Villa, Dutch goalkeeper Stefan Postma filled the goal with his 6’7 frame.
While he never become first choice with the Villains, Postma opted to remain in the Midlands and spent a short period of time with Wolves.
He eventually returned to the Netherlands, presumably paying extra for legroom on the flight over.
Lars Leese – 201 cm
Distinctive name, distinctive physique, Leese was for a number of years the tallest ever player to ply his trade in the Premier League, the Barnsley goalkeeper making 16 appearances in the late-1990s.
Returning to his native Germany around the Millenium, he is presently the coach of DSK Koln.
Ian Feuer – 201 cm
Better remembered for his years in the lower leagues with Luton, Ian Feuer had to wait until his second spell with West Ham to make his Premier League debut.
The Las Vegas born goalkeeper was signed as a backup by the Hammers and made three appearances during the 2000/01 campaign.
He retired in 2002 and has since become an assistant with the LA Galaxy and USC Trojans.
Stefan Maierhofer – 202 cm
It was a short and largely uneventful spell in the Premier League for Stefan Maierhofer.
Having started out at Bayern, he made a real impact in Austria with Rapid Wien, but a £1.8m switch to Wolves in 2009 resulted in just ten outings and a singular goal.
Never really settling at a club, Maierhofer continued to move around and, standing at 6’8, perhaps it could be said that his height counted against him. Too often he was viewed as a last resort, thrown off the bench when a goal down.
Nikola Zigic – 202 cm
At comfortably over two metres tall, Nikola Zigic was the archetypal powerhouse.
He arrived in the Premier League following an underwhelming stint with Valencia, but he had plenty of goal scoring pedigree. The Serbian had been prolific with Red Star Belgrade in the mid-noughties.
Signing for Birmingham in 2010, Zigic was unable to prevent his side’s slide into the second tier, but he also enjoyed a pivotal role in the club’s greatest ever day as they shocked Arsenal in the League Cup final.
Peter Crouch – 202 cm
The most iconic of the players in this article, Peter Crouch made just shy of 470 Premier League appearances across a lengthy career. He’s also the all-time leader in headed goals.
With 108 top flight goals and over 40 England caps, Crouch was more than an old school target man.
The boy could play and several worldies notched throughout his club career is testament to that.
Now a very successful podcaster, presenter and occasional pundit, ‘Crouchinho’ is one of the most universally loved players in the history of the Premier League.
Lacina Traore – 203 cm
Nicknamed the ‘Big Tree’, Traore accrued just three minutes of Premier League football for Everton but that’s sufficient to have him earn joint-top spot on this list.
The Ivory Coast forward first came to prominence at CFR Cruj but a later move to Monaco turned sour, resulting in a multitude of loans.
Unplayable on his day due to his giant stature, sadly those days were few and far between.
Costel Pantilimon – 203 cm
There were a great many reasons why Manchester City were perennial favourites in the Premier League odds back in the day, just like they are now.
Possessing a star-studded squad was one. That they could occasionally rest Joe Hart and fill up their goal with an enormous Romanian was another.
After serving as an able back-up to Hart, the 6ft 8 stopper moved to Sunderland, then Watford, before dropping down into the Championship.
He has since played in Cyprus and Turkey, racking up 27 caps for his country along the way.
Current Tallest Players In Premier League
Chelsea’s Bergstrom has the honour of being the tallest player in the Premier League right now, though there is only a longer haircut between the Finn and Dan Burn.
Elsewhere there are a plethora of keepers towering over their peers, from Fraser Forster to Burnley’s Arijanet Muric.
Naturally, Burn is the tallest defender in the Premier League, while Manchester United’s Scott McTominay shades it in midfield, just peeking over Everton’s Amadou Onana and West Ham’s Tomas Soucek.
Up front, meanwhile, Erling Haaland stands head and shoulders above the rest, which is apt given his extraordinary goal-scoring record.
*Credit for the main photo belongs to Alamy*
