The EFL Championship is arguably the most exciting league in world football and it’s certainly had its fair share of superstars.
If a player has top-level quality, it’s rare they stick around for long before making their way in the biggest leagues on the planet.
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That means that their time in the EFL could have been anything from a couple of games to a couple of months or a couple of seasons.
But in that time, each of these players proved that they were a superstar in the making.
Here talkSPORT.com takes a look 15 global names that you may have forgotten played in the EFL…
Gareth Bale (Southampton: 2006-2007)
He was the Welsh wizard who won five Champions League winners’ medals with Real Madrid, but Bale’s first steps in the game were at Southampton.
Relegated to the Championship in 2005, Bale was one of the first young stars to break into the first team and did so with a stunning free-kick on the opening day of 2006/07.
Bale added another three set-piece goals over the rest of the campaign to earn a move to Tottenham in 2007 where he continued his rise to stardom.
Micah Richards once recalled his improvement after moving to Spurs, saying: “Many moons ago now, at Southampton, he was playing left-back and I was playing right-back,” he told Sky Sports. “There was a big spread in the paper, Richards vs Bale. Let’s say I got the better of him. I ate him for lunch.
“So then, forward a few seasons, he goes to Spurs and subconsciously I’m thinking ‘it’s only Gareth Bale. I can deal with him. I had him at Southampton’.
“It was a massive, massive mistake. He destroyed me.”
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David Beckham (Preston: 1995)
Beckham is as box-office as it gets and is rightly remembered for his time at the world’s biggest clubs including Manchester United, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan.
So who’d have believed that his first real opportunity came with Preston North End?
Having already made his debut for Man United, Beckham headed to Deepdale on brief loan deal in 1995/96 where he was introduced to ‘real football’ by scoring direct from a corner to give a small glimpse of his special talent.
He even scored a free-kick in a 3-2 win over Fulham that he later described as one of his favourite-ever goals.
It wasn’t long after that he was showing his value when he scored from the halfway line against Wimbledon in August 1996.
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Jude Bellingham (Birmingham City: 2019-2020)
Arguably the biggest star in world football right now, Bellingham has made no secret of his love for boyhood club Birmingham City after becoming the youngest player in Blues’ history when he made his debut in August 2019.
Bellingham started 35 times in 44 matches before turning 17, leading former teammate Josh McEachran to tell talkSPORT: “I probably sound like a lot of other pros now, they said like you can just tell when he first come over.
“As a 16-year-old, you think you could bully him almost, but he was a man at that age. What he done with the ball and his physique was unbelievable.”
Young and talented, Bellingham was swarmed by scouts during the 2019/20 campaign and at the age of 17 by signed a deal to join Borussia Dortmund for an initial £25million before joining Real Madrid three years later for almost four times as much.
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Jarrod Bowen (Hull City: 2014-2020)
Unlike many others in the list, Bowen started his career in non-league football with Hereford before joining Hull City in the summer of 2016.
After a season of adapting to life in the second tier, Bowen was let loose in the 2017/18 campaign and scored 15 goals in his first season before getting 23 in his second.
Attracting interest from the Premier League and with Hull not ready to challenge for promotion, Bowen struck 17 goals in the first half of 2019/20 before earning a £22million move to West Ham halfway through the season.
Since then Bowen has been a regular goalscorer in the Premier League and even established himself as a key man for England, including making their 26-man squad for Euro 2024.
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Conor Gallagher (Charlton/Swansea: 2019-2020)
Few players have benefited from extended loan spells in the EFL like Conor Gallagher.
After shining for Charlton in the first half of 2019/20, the midfielder earned a move to Championship side Swansea for the second half of the season.
There he provided seven assists in 21 games to help Steve Cooper’s side into the play-offs.
Crediting his time at Swansea for making him a more creative player, Gallagher stepped up to the Premier League with West Brom and Crystal Palace over two successful campaigns, before becoming a regular feature for Chelsea and England.
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Jack Grealish (Notts County: 2013-2014, Aston Villa: 2016-2019)
Having been sent back to Aston Villa’s Under-21s for what head coach Remi Garde regarded as a lack of professionalism, the club’s relegation to the EFL Championship in 2016 was perhaps a blessing in disguise.
Villa were looking for a new hero and while it took them three years to earn promotion, Grealish stepped into the role of hometown hero by becoming their midfield talisman and the beating heart of the team.
He was even punched by a Birmingham City fan and carried on playing to cement his status.
His flashes of quality and showmanship made him a target for the toughest opponents in the Championship, but in truth it was that experience that stopped him from wasting his talent to become a top-tier star.
Despite interest from Tottenham and other clubs in the Premier League, Grealish offered 14 goal involvements as Villa were promoted via the play-offs, before helping them to preserve their Premier League status and moving to Man City for £100million.
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Viktor Gyokeres (Swansea and Coventry: 2020-2023)
Having left Brighton in the summer of 2021, few would have predicted just how lethal a goalscorer the Seagulls had let go.
Following a loan spell, Gyokeres joined Coventry for a fee worth just over £1million – a deal that will go down as one of the EFL’s greatest bargains.
In two seasons with the Sky Blues, the Swedish striker hit 40 goals and 17 assists, leading Coventry to the play-off final where they lost on penalties to Luton.
Coventry were powerless to keep him and sold Gyokeres to Sporting Lisbon for £24m, but after scoring 43 goals and bagging 15 assists in his first season, he is tipped to join one of Europe’s biggest clubs for a huge fee.
And that would see Coventry receive up to 15 per cent of the fee due to a clause in the deal taking him to Portugal – not bad business, really.
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Harry Kane (Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich, Leicester: 2011-2013)
Kane spent a fair bit of time in the EFL and he started by scoring five goals in 18 before Leyton Orient before joining Millwall where he netted nine goals and made five assists in 27 goals.
Footage of some of those strikes reemerged with fans stunned by his quality at such a young age, a time in his life that Kane looks back on fondly, saying: “My loan at Millwall was a big part of my development.
“I was 18, we were in a relegation battle and it turned me into a man. I played in difficult, high-pressure games and I managed to come out of it positively.”
A short loan spell with Norwich followed, before Kane was part of the Leicester side who earned promotion in 2013.
While the 30-year-old has gone on to become England’s record goalscorer, as well as netting 44 goals for Bayern Munich in his debut season there, it’s those formative years in the EFL that helped him to where he is now.
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Harry Maguire (Sheffield United, Cardiff, Hull: 2011-2015)
The EFL really was the making of Harry Maguire.
Progressing through Sheffield United’s youth and made his breakthrough into the first team with the Blades suffering relegation from the Championship.
It was there that Maguire made 129 appearances in League One, before joining Wigan on loan shortly after securing a permanent move to Hull City.
With Hull relegated in 2015, Maguire spent the next season in the second tier as well, taking his tally of EFL games to 172 before becoming an established Premier League star.
His time at Hull and then Leicester paved the way for his £80m move to Man United where he has since made over 200 appearances and won 63 caps for England as one of the Three Lions’ most trusted defenders.
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Aleksandar Mitrovic (Fulham: 2018-2023)
We all love the Championship, but Aleksandar Mitrovic LOVES the Championship due to his stunning goalscoring record there.
Having joined Newcastle in 2015, Mitrovic got his first taste of the second tier when he scored six goals in 2016/17 – a campaign where he struggled to nail down a starting place.
Frustrated by a lack of first team opportunities, the Serbian star moved to Fulham in January 2018 and didn’t look back with 12 goals in 20 Championship games to help the Londoners to promotion.
Relegation soon followed, but Mitrovic scored 26 to send them back up, before the Serbian was rewarded for sticking around after another relegation.
A total of 43 goals in 46 games made him the highest-ever goalscorer in the Championship since it moved to a a 46-game format – a surefire sign that Mitrovic had completed the EFL.
That was his last season in the Championship before another campaign in the Premier League earned a move to Saudi Arabia with Al-Hilal where he scored 40 goals in 43 games to win them the Saudi Pro League title.
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Mason Mount (Derby: 2018-2019)
He might not have spent long in the EFL, but Mason Mount’s time in the Championship was a key step in his journey to the top.
One of Chelsea’s top talents, the midfielder had just enjoyed a fruitful loan spell with Vitesse Arnhem when Blues legend Frank Lampard was given the manager’s job at Derby.
Along with Fikayo Tomori, Lampard brought Mount to Pride Park in 2018 to help him to guide the club to promotion – something that he very nearly managed.
A class act on the ball, Mount scored 11 goals and provided six assists for Derby as they made it all the way to the play-off final, only to be beaten by Jack Grealish and Aston Villa at Wembley.
While disappointing for Derby, it was the audition that led to him being given a starring role with Chelsea.
A total of 33 goals in 195 games for Chelsea followed, before joining Man United in 2023 for a fee worth £55million.
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Adel Taarabt (QPR: 2009-2015)
Arguably the most talented player on our list and someone who is the epitome of a ‘streets won’t forget’ star.
Joining Tottenham at the age of 17, Taarabt was young, raw and hot-headed but a supreme talent that needed nurturing, leading him to join Queens Park Rangers on back-to-back loan spells.
He then moved to QPR on a permanent basis in 2010, taking his Championship tally to 59 goal involvements in 92 games and helping the club to win the second tier in 2011.
A player who was simply unplayable on his day, Taarabt endured problems with fitness and temperament during his time in west London, with Harry Redknapp famously saying in October 2014: “I can’t protect people who don’t want to run and train, and are about three stone overweight.
“Taarabt is not injured. He’s not fit. He’s not fit to play football unfortunately.”
But despite his flaws, few will forget his stunning, silky displays that left fans purring over the sheer quality of one of the EFL’s biggest mavericks.
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Ivan Toney (Northampton, Peterborough, Brentford: 2013-2021)
He might be one of the Premier League’s most lethal strikers, but Toney is one of the EFL’s great success stories.
Having made over 50 appearances for Northampton and scoring 13 goals, he earned a move to Newcastle before returning to the EFL in 2018 with Peterborough.
Proving Newcastle wrong for letting him go, Toney hit 23 goals in his first season with the club and 26 in his second year with the League One club.
Amid big interest from the Premier League and Championship, Toney joined Brentford in 2020 where he scored 33 goals and offered 10 assists to earn promotion in his first season with the Bees, before scoring 36 in 85 Premier League games in the three seasons since.
Peterborough owner Darragh MacAnthony said: “Put him in an Arsenal team, put him in a Liverpool or a Man United team, he scores 30 Premier League goals in a season.
“I think anyone who disagrees with that hasn’t been watching the last two-and-a-half years.
“I think there’s five clubs in the world who could probably end up buying him and he will improve any of those clubs by a mile. He turns Manchester United into challengers for the Premier League.”
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Ollie Watkins (Exeter City and Brentford: 2014-2020)
The third striker in England’s Euro 2024 squad to be raised in the EFL, but Watkins’ story is even more of a journey.
Watkins started his career at Exeter City and having scored 10 times in 25 matches on loan Conference South side Weston-Super-Mare, Watkins made his Grecians breakthrough in 2015 and went on to score 25 goals and offer 17 assists to send Brentford calling.
That move came in 2017 where Watkins scored 45 goals and provided 16 assists over three seasons – including 26 in his final season as the Bees were beaten play-off finalists when they faced Fulham.
He was then offered the chance of Premier League football in the summer of 2020 with Aston Villa where his career as reached a new level with 70 goals in 169 games – including 27 goals last term to help Villa into the Champions League.
Speaking about Watkins on talkSPORT, Gabby Agbonlahor said: “He’s ‘Mr Reliable’ and his injury record is outstanding. 19 Premier League goals last season… outstanding. No penalties. His finishing has got so clinical.
“He’s going to cost you £100m – and I don’t think they would sell him for £100m.”
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