8 greatest EFL Championship midfielders since the 2004 rebrand (Ranked) | OneFootball

The Championship has seen some serious midfield maestros - but who has been the best?

The 2026-27 Championship season is the 23rd of its kind, with the rebranding from the First Division to what it's now known as coming in from 2004.

But who have been the BEST midfielders since the beginning of that rebrand - players who have dictated play from the middle of the park and have dazzled their club's fans and neutrals alike? FLW takes a look at their top EIGHT over the last 22 years...

Honourable mentions go to the likes of Barry Bannan for his longevity, Charlie Adam for ripping it apart with Blackpool, Emi Buendia, who played mostly as a winger for Norwich City instead of a number 10, Kevin Nolan for his two seasons and 29 goals for Newcastle United and West Ham, and perhaps even Hayden Hackney, who won the Championship Player of the Year for the 2025-26 season.

8 ? ? Gus Hamer

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When Coventry City raided the Eredivisie for the signature of Gus Hamer in the summer of 2020, having won promotion from League One, it looked like a bit of a gamble.

Fast-forward six years though, and he's since narrowly missed out on promotion with the Sky Blues, left the club for an eight-figure fee, then returned to the CBS Arena once they finally won their place back in the Premier League.

A combative midfielder in his first couple of years at Cov, Hamer knew where the back of the net was, but also loved a yellow card and occasionally got into trouble on the pitch, being booked 14 times in the 2021-22 Championship campaign.

His 11 goals and 10 assists though for City in his third year at the club, mainly in a more advanced midfield role, saw him gain a move to Premier League club Sheffield United once Mark Robins' side failed to win promotion, but he would not be away from the Championship for long.

10 goals and eight assists for the Blades in the 2024-25 second tier season saw him named Player of the Year in the second tier, even if it came with another play-off final defeat.

Whilst his two years in the Championship with United saw him play a more wide-left role under Chris Wilder, Hamer still falls under the midfielder bracket - of which he's undisputedly up there as one of the best in recent years.

7 ? ? Jason Koumas

Going back to the early days of the Championship, it was the strikers who mainly took all the glory in the regular 4-4-2 systems - the likes of Jason Roberts, Nathan Ellington, Marlon King and Kevin Doyle among others.

Number 10s and midfielders still chipped in though, and Jason Koumas was one of the best of his time in the second tier.

Prior to the 2004 rebrand, Koumas came through at Tranmere Rovers, and he was a real threat at Prenton Park, scoring 18 goals in his final two seasons at second tier level before being snapped up by West Brom for their Premiership campaign, in a £2.25 million deal.

Whilst the Welshman would be decent in the top flight, being a big hitter in the Championship was more fruitful for Koumas - he scored a further 10 goals in the final season before the renaming of the division, and after being loaned out to Cardiff City in 2005-06, he hit the back of the net another 12 times.

Returning from his stint with the Bluebirds, Koumas would again help fire Albion to the Premier League in 2006-07 with nine goals and 11 assists - with two Team of the Year awards and a Player of the Year trophy under his belt at Championship level, it's hard to argue with his spot in this list.

6 ? ? Jack Grealish

Before Jack Grealish became a £100 million player with his 2021 transfer to Man City, the playmaker had to somewhat graft in the Championship.

Grealish already had top flight experience as a youngster before Aston Villa's relegation in 2016, but he would establish himself within the first-team setup in 2016-17 as a number 10, and he would play a big part in their run to the play-off final in 2018 - a losing effort against Fulham.

At the third time of asking, though, Villa won their spot in the top flight back, again through the play-offs, and Grealish was their lynchpin in the middle - six goals and eight assists on the face of it doesn't look anything special, but he missed chunks of the campaign through injury, and it was easy to see how talented he was on the ball, and why he would in two years time get his huge move.

5 ? ? Pablo Hernandez

Splitting his time between the wing and the number 10 position, Pablo Hernandez was undoubtedly a Championship icon.

The Spaniard had spent time in the UK with Swansea City, but it was his stint with Leeds United where EFL fans will more know Hernandez from - he would feature over 150 times in the Championship for the Whites before a short stint in the Premier League.

Notching 30 goal contributions in his first two league seasons at Elland Road, Hernandez would peak in 2018-19, making it into the Championship Team of the Year for 2018-19, thanks to his 12 goals and 12 assists.

Hernandez would win Leeds' Player of the Year award THREE times in a row between 2018 and 2020, with a final season of 18 goals and assists in the second tier being a fitting farewell to the division for the playmaker, who goes down as one of the modern day greats.

4 ? ? Wes Hoolahan

Wes Hoolahan arrived to the EFL in 2006 as a little-known Irish midfielder - he'd leave it 16 years later as an icon at Norwich City.

Blackpool took a punt when in League One on the then-Livingston man on loan, before then signing him permanently the following summer in what was a protracted legal battle - it proved to be worth it for the Seasiders, though.

They were a Championship club when Hoolahan joined permanently in 2007, but it would be a year later that he joined Norwich for £250,000 - which turned out to be an absolute bargain.

Whilst the Irish playmaker didn't immediately hit it off at Carrow Road, it took relegation to League One and an immediate promotion back for 'Wessi' to show his best stuff, and with 17 goal contributions in the 2010-11 campaign which saw the Norfolk outfit win a second consecutive promotion, Hoolahan was proving he was a Premier League-quality player.

Back then, Hoolahan was playing on the left-hand side of a 4-4-2 primarily, but when Norwich returned to the Championship in 2014, he would often play in the number 10 role instead, with two fantastic second tier seasons either side of another brief top flight foray.

Hoolahan would leave Norwich in 2018 as a club icon, named in the Championship Team of the Year in 2010-11 and winning City's Player of the Year accolade in 2017, and across three different clubs (including a short West Brom stint), he'd appear 225 times in the Championship, scoring 29 times and creating 44 goals - a real stalwart of the division indeed.

3 ? ? Ruben Neves

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This one is based on pure talent rather than a mix of all factors - Ruben Neves may be one of the silkiest players to EVER grace Championship pitches.

Eyebrows were raised when Neves joined Wolves in 2017 for £15.8 million, a club and Championship record at the time, especially as he had a lot of experience for a 20-year-old - which included captaining FC Porto on multiple occasions at first-team level.

Neves spent just one season in the second tier of English football, as Nuno's Wolves side coasted to the title, but the Portuguese maestro was a star in the middle of the park, scoring six goals - which included a world-class volley against Derby County at Molineux.

It was unsurprising that Neves claimed the league's Player of the Year award for his sole season, as well as a place in the Team of the Year too - he's gone on to bigger and better things since then, and has proved how ludicrous it was that he was in the Championship in the first place.

2 ? ? Adel Taarabt

The streets certainly won't forget Adel Taarabt for his time at QPR - and neither will the Championship defenders he eviscerated over the years.

The Moroccan always had flair at Tottenham, but it never got him very far at White Hart Lane, and he had to earn his stripes at QPR, where he was sent in March 2009 on loan.

His brief time at Loftus Road went well enough for the Hoops to sanction another incoming loan deal for the 2009-10 campaign, and that is where he started to show he was the real deal.

Taarabt scored seven goals and notched 11 assists that year for the R's, and he was that unwanted at Tottenham that they sanctioned a £1 million permanent sale for him in the summer of 2010 - that was far less than the £4.5 million option QPR had to buy him months prior.

What followed was absolutely astonishing - 19 goals and 21 assists in 44 Championship matches under the tutelage of Neil Warnock and the Championship Player of the Year award to boot, Taarabt was the driving force of QPR's promotion-winning campaign in 2010-11. It was a team effort of course, but he was the magician that made most things happen.

Whilst not as effective at Premier League level, and his QPR career would ultimately fall apart towards the end, Taarabt's Championship exploits will never be forgotten.

1 ? ? Peter Whittingham

There was only going to be one player at the top of this list, and it is Mr Championship himself.

Peter Whittingham had spent time on loan at Burnley and Derby County from Aston Villa before his permanent move to Cardiff City in 2007, and would often play out wide in his early years at the Bluebirds, producing a decent output.

It was the 2009-10 season though that Whittingham came into his own - 20 goals and 10 assists was an incredible output for a non-striker, and he'd be creative again a year later with 20 goal contributions overall as Cardiff lost out in the play-off final to Blackpool.

12 goals and 15 assists followed in 2011-12, which is when he'd make a more full-time transition to a middle of the park role from the wing, and after a 13 goal contribution haul in 2012-13, Whittingham finally tasted Premier League football with the South Wales outfit when winning promotion under Malky Mackay.

After his brief dalliance with the top flight, Whittingham had three more seasons at second tier level, where he scored 19 goals and produced 24 assists before his exit in 2017, ending his career after a stint with Blackburn Rovers.

406 games across the regular season and the play-offs, 84 goals and 80 assists, Whittingham is the ultimate Championship player when you mix ability and his long-lasting impact, and his tragic and untimely 2020 passing was a heartbreaking one not just for Cardiff fans, but for all football fans who got to witness him on the pitch.