Another list.
It's pretty much 40 years since I started watching England play international football. Let's round it up to 40.
So, this list is -
All the male footballers with over 40 caps who have played since the 1986 World Cup.
There are over 60 of them.
I am going to leave out four; Kenny Sansom, Ray Wilkins, Glenn Hoddle, Chris Woods - the first three because, though I remember very well seeing them play club football in their later years, I honestly can't quite remember them playing for England in all but the sketchiest detail - their distinguished international careers were all nearly entirely before 1986. Those three were all great footballers. The other one, Chris Woods, I have less excuse for not remembering, but, really, I can't place myself properly watching him, even though he was England's first choice keeper at Euro 92. He was second choice to Shilton for a long time, played a lot of his career at Rangers, was clearly a very solid keeper, but I just can't quite do justice to anything I remember him doing.
There are some pretty notable England footballers of this era with fewer than 40 caps - Nicky Butt, Ashley Young, McManaman, Dele Alli, Trevor Steven, Ian Wright, Viv Anderson, Sturridge, Vardy, Merson, and a few others, as well as a few who haven't got there yet but probably will - Alexander-Arnold, Luke Shaw, Guehi, Grealish, not to mention the likes of Cole Palmer.
Key parameters -
-I'm only going to include what they did from 1986 onwards. A couple of England legends will be significantly downgraded because of that.
-This is about how they were for England, not how good a footballer they were. Indeed, if they were a particularly good footballer who never quite fulfilled their promise for England, that will count against them.
- They've all got 40+ caps. They're good enough footballers to keep getting picked for a Top 10 football nation. So, there won't be that much fun in "ha, this guy was rubbish". Most of them are good, and consequently quite hard to differentiate. But, maybe there are a couple of slightly rubbish ones at the bottom ...
There are other reasons it is quite tricky to make solid judgements on this - "Playing well for England" mainly means standing out in major tournaments. Having a few decent games in qualifiers and friendlies just ends up not mattering much. And, obviously, England have failed in major tournaments, though not that badly. So there's not actually that much to go on... but so be it.
There are a few phases, roughly -
86-90 good.
Early 90s bad.
96-2006 pretty good.
2007-2016 bad.
2017-present, very good.
With a few exceptions, that holds pretty well. So obviously players who mainly played in the good eras will mainly be judged higher than those from the not-good eras.
Let's start.
61. Phil Neville. Has more England caps than Paul Gascoigne, remarkably. Was rarely a first choice, was usually not picked for tournaments, and when he was, in 2000, was responsible for England going out in the group stages. In his later career, he showed he was a really good mid-table midfielder, but, as a fill-in defender, there's no way he deserved to play 59 times for England.
60. Phil Jagielka. Another pretty good player who played more for England than he should have, and was found wanting when he was picked in the main XI.
59. James Milner. More a reflection on England than him. Could easily have 150 caps. As it is, had 46 for the U21s, 61 for the senior side, but was generally treated as an afterthought, so retired from international duty early, after which he played his best club football. Never really did anything notable for England.
58. Glen Johnson. Just a real symbol of the not-good era, remember him being exposed in some big games.
57. Gary Cahill. Truthfully, I veered away from watching England much between 2010 and 2013. It had just all been so crap for so long. So perhaps this is unfair on Gary Cahill, but it just was not a great era.
56. Kieran Trippier. And perhaps this is unfair on Kieran Trippier, who did after all score a magnificent goal for England in an actual World Cup semi-final, but, I don't know, he was just so rubbish, so hopelessly mind-numbingly out of position and ideas, in the 2024 Euros...
55. Phil Foden. As was he. He kept on almost getting there, almost doing something good, at which point the floodgates may have opened, but it didn't happen.
54. David James. Was hardly ever first choice, and was always likely to make a mistake, but, to be fair, looking at his record, did actually keep a few clean sheets in major tournaments.
53. Gareth Barry. Just the memory of the German attacks flying past him in 2010.
52. Joe Hart. Was not good in both 2014 and 2016, and his career never really recovered.
51. Emile Heskey. Had his moments, did the job.
50. Peter Shilton. Yes, yes, I know Peter Shilton was best goalkeeper in the world etc, but he was already 36 by 1986. and he made key mistakes, legendary mistakes, both that year and in 1990. There was no way he was England's best keeper during that era. I'd watch David Seaman and John Lukic on the TV and presumed the latter must be ineligible and the former, well, I don't know. But Seaman should have been playing for England throughout the late 80s and the whole 90s.
49. Martin Keown.
48. Eric Dier.
47. David Batty. A quite good player, forever to be associated with Kevin Keegan's "Yes" ... oh no
46. Gareth Southgate.
45. Theo Walcott. Did score one magnificent hat-trick, but it is hard to remember much else.
44. Bryan Robson. Well, I know this is going to seem like nonsense. as Robson was widely and clearly known as England's best player of the 80s, and his record reflects that, but, the fact is, he got injured early in both 86 and 90 World Cups and England were better afterwards, he played three games in Euro 88 and England lost all three.
43. Chris Waddle. One of my favourite ever players, and almost did it for England, but, of course, and famously, didn't ...
42. Danny Welbeck. Was really actually pretty good for England. 16 goals in 42 games.
41. Jermaine Defoe. Likewise, scored 1 in 3 for England as he scored 1 in 3 throughout his club career.
40. Mark Wright. Was very good, as I recall, in the 1990 World Cup.
39. Owen Hargreaves. Was really disliked by England fans for quite a few years, then was the team's best player at the 2006 World Cup, just by virtue of working hard and being smart (exposing, dare i say it, some more vaunted midfielders). Injuries meant he didn't play much more after that.
38. Gary Neville. Gary Neville was quite good, but only ever quite good.
37. Teddy Sheringham. Had some fairly glorious moments.
36. Paul Robinson. I really stick up for Paul Robinson. Conceded very few goals for England and truly i think McClaren bowing to public pressure and dropping him for the decisive qualifier in 2007 vs Croatia cost England a place in the 2008 World Cup.
35. Des Walker. Des Walker had about 50 games for England when he was one of the best defenders in the world, but then it all ended a bit disastrously, making three big mistakes which cost England badly for the 1994 WC.
34. John Barnes. Although people will say Barnes' England career was a relative disappointment, and it surely was, he still almost turned round a World Cup quarter-final, and produced a fair few other great moments (including scoring one of the best goals ever in 84), all thw while dealing with his own fans being massively racist to him.
33. Marcus Rashford.
32. Peter Beardsley.
31. Peter Crouch. Now, I think the question 'Of these strikers who all scored more than 20 goals for England a) Wayne Rooney b) Michael Owen c) Peter Crouch d) Alan Shearer, which of them did so at the highest goals-per-game average?' is a pretty enlightening one ...
30. Jordan Henderson.
29. Declan Rice. Was not quite his best at Euro 24. Couldn't quite make it tick. Still think he could be more daring.
28. Bukayo Saka.
27. Terry Butcher. Strong imagery.
26. Paul Ince. Also strong imagery.
25. Tony Adams.
24. Joe Cole. Prodigiously gifted, full of flair and ability to change a game, scored a stunning volley in a major tournament - 10 goals in 56 games for England. This almost exactly describes Paul Gascoigne's England career, but Cole had a much more substantial club career, and yet I'd imagine literally no one thinks Cole was Gascoigne's equal. Funny, isn't it ...
23. Jude Bellingham. I do slightly worry, though, that there'll always be something slightly incompatible about Bellingham. I don't think him and Kane works at all, but I also see it a bit at Real ... I think he takes up other people's space, just like ...
22. Steven Gerrard. Why did England go from so much promise in 2001 to so rotten by 2011 ... o i don't know...
21. Harry Maguire.
20. Paul Scholes.
19. John Terry.
18. Stuart Pearce.
17. Frank Lampard. Never the problem.
16. David Seaman. A great keeper in his prime. His England career should have run from 86 to 2000 (not 2003), should have played 140 games or so.
15. Alan Shearer.
14. Wayne Rooney. It's hard with Rooney, he had one great tournament, but the fact is 2006, 08, 10, 12, 14, 16, none of them went well for him. That's a lot of big opportunities missed.
13. David Platt. 27 goals in 62 games from midfield. Probably the most forgotten player in England football history., both at international and club level.
12. Michael Owen.
11. Kyle Walker. Really, Kyle Walker being able to run really fast was probably one of the three key reasons England were so successful in the last 10 years.
10. John Stones.
9. Sol Campbell.
8. Raheem Sterling. The actual best player in an actual major tournament, after all.
7. David Beckham.
6. Jordan Pickford. Has not made a single big mistake across four major tournaments, has saved penalties, He has weaknesses - distribution, shots from distance - but has done absolutely as well as he possibly could.
5. Paul Gascoigne. Even I am not immune to the romanticism of having Gascoigne this high. Was he actually that good in 90 or 96 ... maybe not really, but almost ...
4. Rio Ferdinand. I actually, in about 2008, did a statistical study in just how much better England were when Rio Ferdinand was on the pitch than when he wasn't. The difference was staggering. Ferdinand only played in two tournaments for England - the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, due to various misadventures. I genuinely think, in his prime years, he was as good as any centre back has been.
3. Gary Lineker
2. Ashley Cole If anything, Ashley Cole has gone to being a bit over-revered now, it's not like he was perfect, but he was a very good defender for England.
1. Harry Kane. Obviously, by any measure.
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