A torn medial ligament means that we have seen the last of Alan Shearer in the Premiership.

A truely great striker. These stats back it up.

Newcastle - 404 games 206 goals
Overall - 733 games 379 goals

England - 63 games 30 goals

An immense player and I doubt there will be anyone else like him, a sublime goal-getter pure and simple, and did it with remarkable ease from anywhere on the pitch. People can slag him off but its merely sour grapes, if he played for their team they would absolutely love him. Shame he's had to retire early, but at least he went out on a high note, with over 400 goals for club and country to his name. One of England's finest ever.

Shearer - will always be a legend!

He has a world cup title?

Yeah, he was that good that was playing football even before he was concieved.

Great loss to the game and a great player, legend is often given out, but in his case he deserved it.

what i meant was, however legendary a footballer is, without world cup title, he will be forgotten. You need the best title in your profession if your name is to survive.

Shearer had one title only iirc, one premier ship win with Blackburn. Does not diminish his greatness though, one of England's best strikers ever.

what i meant was, however legendary a footballer is, without world cup title, he will be forgotten. You need the best title in your profession if your name is to survive Absolutely no. Puscas, Platini, Cruyff, Budragenio, Gasgoigne, Hatzi, Yassin, Eusebio, shall I continue? No one of them has won the world cup but if someone, who claims to be a football fan doesn't know them, the he knows nothing about football.

BOC, don't forget names as Maldini, Baggio, the Laudrup brothers, and even more.

who claims to be a football fan doesn't know them, the he knows nothing about football. Yes, they are famous, locally, regionally. How do you explain, for example puskas, to a say... malaysian. This malaysian knows a few names and love football as his second life. How can this malaysian knows a world cup final runner up who lost to the team he beaten earlier? you know, sadly, legendary, a rare and unique attribute, is only given to a very few players and a prereq. is world cup title.

The players who belong to the local/regional fame category are players like the players of the Greek national team, who won the Euro 2004. Nobody outside the greek borders will remember their names after 5 years but here they will never be forgotten. Players like Puscas don't fall in this category, they are considered legends because of their ability and their whole career and not only because of one exceptional part of it like a possible WC title. Puscas is a legend because a) He was perhaps the best player of his era b)he was the leader of the hungarian team, which had terrorized Europe c)he was member of Real Madrid's golden team. To sum it up, the WC title is not a prequisite because it's the journey that matters and not the final destination.

the americans have for some sports a hall of fame. Shearer is a name well placed in a football hall of fame. But he is not a legend as Maradonna, platini, pele. He is not in that über-group. George Best is. Sorry England.

By the way did you know that Kluivert is the dutch best striker ever, scoring the most goals for Holland. But he is not a legend. Cruyff is.

Diego "I can`t play without taking a dive, handball or play without being pumped up on illegal drugs" Maradonna?
Sure he is a legend, too bad its tainted by the wrong reasons.

I would also like to point out that alan Shearer has been in 2 cup finals with newcastle. And also has 2 second places on the table in the premiership. ! for Blackburn and 1 for Newcastle. Also he was the top scorer in Euro 96. And was the first person ever to score over 30 league goals in 3 succsessive seasons in the premier league. AND he has sufferd 4-5 big injuries in his career.

Big Al will allways be the man.