England national football team


The England men's national football team represents England in men's international football and is governed by The Football Association, the governing body for football in England. It competes in the three major international tournaments; the FIFA World Cup, the UEFA European Championship and the UEFA Nations League. England, as a country of the United Kingdom, is not a member of the International Olympic Committee and therefore the national team does not compete at the Olympic Games.
England is the oldest national team in football. They played in the world's first international football match in 1872, against Scotland. England's home ground is Wembley Stadium, London, and their headquarters is at St George's Park, Burton upon Trent. The team's manager is Gareth Southgate.
Since first entering the tournament in 1950, England has qualified for the FIFA World Cup 15 times. They won the 1966 World Cup, when they hosted the finals, and finished fourth in 1990 and 2018. Since first entering in 1964, England have never won the UEFA European Championship, with their best performances being third-place finishes in 1968 and 1996, the latter as hosts.

History

Early years

The England national football team is the joint-oldest in the world; it was formed at the same time as Scotland. A representative match between England and Scotland was played on 5 March 1870, having been organised by the Football Association. A return fixture was organised by representatives of Scottish football teams on 30 November 1872. This match, played at Hamilton Crescent in Scotland, is viewed as the first official international football match, because the two teams were independently selected and operated, rather than being the work of a single football association. Over the next 40 years, England played exclusively with the other three Home Nations—Scotland, Wales and Ireland—in the British Home Championship.
At first, England had no permanent home stadium. They joined FIFA in 1906 and played their first ever games against countries other than the Home Nations on a tour of Central Europe in 1908. Wembley Stadium was opened in 1923 and became their home ground. The relationship between England and FIFA became strained, and this resulted in their departure from FIFA in 1928, before they rejoined in 1946. As a result, they did not compete in a World Cup until 1950, in which they were beaten in a 1–0 defeat by the United States, failing to get past the first round in one of the most embarrassing defeats in the team's history.
Their first defeat on home soil to a foreign team was a 2–0 loss to Ireland, on 21 September 1949 at Goodison Park. A 6–3 loss in 1953 to Hungary, was their second defeat by a foreign team at Wembley. In the return match in Budapest, Hungary won 7–1. This stands as England's largest ever defeat. After the game, a bewildered Syd Owen said, "it was like playing men from outer space". In the 1954 FIFA World Cup, England reached the quarter-finals for the first time, and lost 4–2 to reigning champions Uruguay.

Walter Winterbottom and Alf Ramsey

Although Walter Winterbottom was appointed as England's first ever full-time manager in 1946, the team was still picked by a committee until Alf Ramsey took over in 1963. The 1966 FIFA World Cup was hosted in England and Ramsey guided England to victory with a 4–2 win against West Germany after extra time in the final, during which Geoff Hurst scored a hat-trick. In UEFA Euro 1968, the team reached the semi-finals for the first time, being eliminated by Yugoslavia.
England qualified for the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico as reigning champions, and reached the quarter-finals, where they were knocked out by West Germany. England had been 2–0 up, but were eventually beaten 3–2 after extra time. They failed in qualification for the 1974 FIFA World Cup, leading to Ramsey's dismissal.

Don Revie, Ron Greenwood and Bobby Robson

Ramsey was succeeded by Don Revie between 1974 and 1977, but the team failed to qualify for UEFA Euro 1976 and the 1978 FIFA World Cup. Under Ron Greenwood, they managed to qualify for the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain ; despite not losing a game, they were eliminated in the second group stage.
Bobby Robson managed England from 1982 to 1990. Although the team failed to qualify for UEFA Euro 1984, they reached the quarter-finals of the 1986 FIFA World Cup, losing 2–1 to Argentina in a game made famous by two goals by Maradona for very contrasting reasons - the first being knocked in by hand, prompting the "Hand of God" label, the second being an outstanding individual goal, involving dribbling past several opponents. England striker Gary Lineker finished as the tournament's top scorer with six goals.
England went on to lose every match at UEFA Euro 1988. They next achieved their second best result in the 1990 FIFA World Cup by finishing fourth – losing again to West Germany in a semi-final finishing 1–1 after extra time, then 4–3 in England's first penalty shoot-out. Despite losing to Italy in the third place play-off, the members of the England team were given bronze medals identical to the Italians'. Due to the emotional nature of the defeat to West Germany, the team were welcomed home as heroes and thousands of people lined the streets for an open-top bus parade.

Graham Taylor, Terry Venables, Glenn Hoddle and Kevin Keegan

The 1990s saw four England managers follow Robson, each in the role for a relatively brief period. Graham Taylor was Robson's immediate successor. England failed to win any matches at UEFA Euro 1992, drawing with tournament winners Denmark and later with France, before being eliminated by host nation Sweden. The team then failed to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup after losing a controversial game against the Netherlands in Rotterdam, which resulted in Taylor's resignation.
Between 1994 and 1996, Terry Venables managed the team. At UEFA Euro 1996, held in England, they equalled their best performance at a European Championship, reaching the semi-finals as they did in 1968, before exiting via a penalty shoot-out loss to Germany. England striker Alan Shearer was the tournament's top scorer with five goals. Venables resigned following investigations into his financial activities.
Venables' successor, Glenn Hoddle, similarly left the job for non-footballing reasons after just one international tournament – the 1998 FIFA World Cup — in which England were eliminated in the second round again by Argentina and again on penalties. Following Hoddle's departure, Kevin Keegan took England to UEFA Euro 2000, but the team left in the group stage and he resigned shortly afterwards.

Sven-Göran Eriksson, Steve McClaren and Fabio Capello

took charge between 2001 and 2006, and was the team's first non-English manager. He guided England to the quarter-finals of the 2002 FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro 2004 and the 2006 FIFA World Cup. England lost only five competitive matches during his tenure, and England rose to number four in the world ranking under his guidance. Eriksson's contract was extended by the FA by two years, to include UEFA Euro 2008, but was terminated by them after the 2006 World Cup.
Steve McClaren was then appointed as head coach, but after failing to qualify for Euro 2008 was sacked on 22 November 2007. The following month, he was replaced by a second foreign manager, Italian Fabio Capello, whose experience included spells at Juventus and Real Madrid. England won all but one of their qualifying games for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but at the tournament itself, England drew their opening two games; this led to questions about the team's spirit, tactics and ability to handle pressure. They progressed to the next round, however, where they were beaten 4–1 by Germany, their heaviest defeat in a World Cup finals tournament match. In February 2012, Capello resigned from his role as England manager, following a disagreement with the FA over their request to remove John Terry from team captaincy after accusations of racial abuse concerning the player.

Roy Hodgson, Sam Allardyce and Gareth Southgate

In May 2012, Roy Hodgson was announced as the new manager, just six weeks before UEFA Euro 2012. England managed to finish top of their group, but exited the Championships in the quarter-finals via a penalty shoot-out, against Italy. In the 2014 FIFA World Cup, England were eliminated at the group stage for the first time since the 1958 World Cup, and the first time at a major tournament since Euro 2000. England qualified unbeaten for UEFA Euro 2016, but were ultimately eliminated in the Round of 16, losing 2–1 to Iceland. Hodgson resigned as manager June 2016, and just under a month later was replaced by Sam Allardyce. After only 67 days Allardyce resigned from his managerial post by mutual agreement, after alleged breach of rules of the FA, making him the shortest serving permanent England manager. Allardyce's only match was a 1–0 win over Slovakia, however this made him the only England manager ever to leave with a 100% win rate.
Gareth Southgate, then the coach of the England under-21 team, was put in temporary charge of the national team until November 2016, before being given the position on a permanent basis. Under Southgate, England qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup and came second in their group at the tournament. They defeated Colombia on penalties in the first knock-out round, and then beat Sweden 2–0 in the quarter-final to reach only their third World Cup semi-final. In the semi-final, they were beaten 2–1 in extra time by Croatia and then were beaten by Belgium for a second time, 2–0, in the third place match. England striker Harry Kane finished the tournament as top scorer with six goals.
On 14 November 2019, England played their 1000th International match, defeating Montenegro 7–0 at Wembley in a UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying match.

Team image

Colours

England's traditional home colours are white shirts, navy blue shorts and white or black socks. The team has periodically worn an all-white kit.
Although England's first away kits were blue, England's traditional away colours are red shirts, white shorts and red socks. In 1996, England's away kit was changed to grey shirts, shorts and socks. This kit was only worn three times, including against Germany in the semi-final of Euro 1996 but the deviation from the traditional red was unpopular with supporters and the England away kit remained red until 2011, when a navy blue away kit was introduced. The away kit is also sometimes worn during home matches, when a new edition has been released to promote it.
England have occasionally had a third kit. At the 1970 World Cup England wore a third kit with pale blue shirts, shorts and socks against Czechoslovakia. They had a kit similar to Brazil's, with yellow shirts, yellow socks and blue shorts which they wore in the summer of 1973. For the World Cup in 1986 England had a third kit of pale blue, imitating that worn in Mexico 16 years before and England retained pale blue third kits until 1992, but they were rarely used.
Umbro first agreed to manufacture the kit in 1954 and since then has supplied most of the kits, the exceptions being from 1959–1965 with Bukta and 1974–1984 with Admiral. Nike purchased Umbro in 2008 and took over as kit supplier in 2013 following their sale of the Umbro brand.
kits

Crest

The motif of the England national football team has three lions passant guardant, the emblem of King Richard I, who reigned from 1189 to 1199. In 1872, English players wore white jerseys emblazoned with the three lions crest of the Football Association. The lions, often blue, have had minor changes to colour and appearance. Initially topped by a crown, this was removed in 1949 when the FA was given an official coat of arms by the College of Arms; this introduced ten Tudor roses, one for each of the regional branches of the FA. Since 2003, England top their logo with a star to recognise their World Cup win in 1966; this was first embroidered onto the left sleeve of the home kit, and a year later was moved to its current position, first on the away shirt.

Kits

Kit suppliers

Kit deals

Kit supplierPeriodContract
announcement		Contract
duration		Value
Nike2013–present2012-09-03Spring 2013 – July 2018 Total £125m
Nike2013–present2016-12-13August 2018 – 2030 Total £400m

Home stadium

For the first 50 years of their existence, England played their home matches all around the country. They initially used cricket grounds before later moving on to football club stadiums. The original Empire Stadium was built in Wembley, London, for the British Empire Exhibition.
England played their first match at the stadium in 1924 against Scotland and for the next 27 years Wembley was used as a venue for matches against Scotland only. The stadium later became known simply as Wembley Stadium and it became England's permanent home stadium during the 1950s. In October 2000, the stadium closed its doors, ending with a defeat.
This stadium was demolished during the period of 2002–2003, and work began to completely rebuild it. During this time, England played at venues across the country, though by the time of the 2006 World Cup qualification, this had largely settled down to having Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium as the primary venue, with Newcastle United's St. James' Park used on occasions when Old Trafford was unavailable.
They returned to the new Wembley Stadium in March 2007. The stadium is now owned by the Football Association, via its subsidiary Wembley National Stadium Limited.

Media coverage

All England matches are broadcast with full commentary on talkSPORT and BBC Radio 5 Live. From the 2008–09 season until the 2017–18 season, England's home and away qualifiers, and friendlies both home and away are broadcast live on ITV. England's away qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup were shown on Setanta Sports until that company's collapse. As a result of Setanta Sports's demise, England's World Cup qualifier in Ukraine on 10 October 2009 was shown in the United Kingdom on a pay-per-view basis via the internet only. This one-off event was the first time an England game had been screened in such a way. The number of subscribers, paying between £4.99 and £11.99 each, was estimated at between 250,000 and 300,000 and the total number of viewers at around 500,000. In 2018, Sky Sports broadcast the England Nations League and in-season friendlies, until 2021 and ITV broadcast the European Qualifiers for Euro-World Cups and pre-tournament friendlies, until 2022.

Coaching staff

Manager Gareth Southgate
Assistant Manager Steve Holland
Goalkeeping Coach Martyn Margetson
Striker Coach Allan Russell
Coach Chris Powell
First-Team Doctor Kirsty Schofield
Fitness Coach James Clarke
Physiotherapist Lyndsay Englander

Players

Current squad

The following 23 players were named to the squad for the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying match against Kosovo on 17 November 2019.
Caps and goals are correct as of 17 November 2019 after the match against Kosovo.

Recent call-ups

The following players have also been called up to the England squad within the last twelve months.
INJ Withdrew due to injury

PRE Preliminary squad / standby

RET Retired from the national team

Results and fixtures

2019

2020

2021

° On 17 March 2020, the UEFA announced that the UEFA Euro 2020 would be postponed by twelve months with proposed new dates 11 June to 11 July 2021.

Records

FIFA Rankings

Last update was on 19 December 2019.
Source:
Best Ranking Worst Ranking Best Mover Worst Mover

Most capped players

Updated 17 November 2019.
Players with an equal number of caps are ranked in chronological order of reaching the milestone.
#NameCareerCapsGoalsPosition
1Peter Shilton1970–19901250GK
2Wayne Rooney2003–201812053FW
3David Beckham1996–200911517MF
4Steven Gerrard2000–201411421MF
5Bobby Moore1962–19731082DF
6Ashley Cole2001–20141070DF
7Bobby Charlton1958–197010649MF
7Frank Lampard1999–201410629MF
9Billy Wright1946–19591053DF
10Bryan Robson1980–19919026MF
11Michael Owen1998–20088940FW
12Kenny Sansom1979–1988861DF
13Gary Neville1995–2007850DF
14Ray Wilkins1976–1986843MF
15Rio Ferdinand1997–2011813DF
16Gary Lineker1984–19928048FW
17John Barnes1983–19957911MF
18Stuart Pearce1987–1999785DF
18John Terry2003–2012786DF
20Terry Butcher1980–1990773DF

Top goalscorers

Updated 17 November 2019.
#NameCareerGoalsCapsPositionAverage
1Wayne Rooney 2003–201853120FW
2Bobby Charlton 1958–197049106MF
3Gary Lineker 1984–19924880FW
4Jimmy Greaves1959–19674457FW
5Michael Owen1998–20084089FW
6Harry Kane2015–3245FW
7Nat Lofthouse1950–19583033FW
7Alan Shearer1992–20003063FW
7Tom Finney1946–19583076FW
10Vivian Woodward1903–19112923FW
10Frank Lampard1999–201429106MF
12Steve Bloomer1895–19072823FW
13David Platt1989–19962762MF
14Bryan Robson1981–19912690MF
15Geoff Hurst1965–19722449FW
16Stan Mortensen1947–19532325FW
17Tommy Lawton1938–19482223FW
17Peter Crouch2005–20102242FW
19Mick Channon1972–19772146FW
19Kevin Keegan1972–19822163FW
19Steven Gerrard2000–201421114MF

Most clean sheets

Updated 17 November 2019.
#NameCareerClean sheetsCapsAverage
1Peter Shilton1970–199066125
2Joe Hart2008–4375
3David Seaman1988–20024075
4Gordon Banks1963–19723573
5Ray Clemence1972–19832761
6Chris Woods1985–19932643
7Paul Robinson2003–20072441
8David James1997–20102153
9Nigel Martyn1992–20021323
10Jordan Pickford2017–1024
10Harry Hibbs1929–19361025

Competitive record

For the all-time record of the national team against opposing nations, see the team's all-time record page

FIFA World Cup

England first appeared at the 1950 FIFA World Cup, and have subsequently qualified for a total of 15 FIFA World Cup finals tournaments, tied for sixth best by number of appearances. They are also tied for sixth by number of wins, alongside Spain. The national team is one of eight national teams to have won at least one FIFA World Cup title. The England team won their first and only World Cup title in 1966. The tournament was played on home soil, and England defeated West Germany 4–2 in the final. In 1990, England finished in fourth place, losing 2–1 to host nation Italy in the third place play-off, after losing on penalties to champions West Germany in the semi-final. They also finished in fourth place in 2018, after losing 2–0 to Belgium in the third place play-off and 2–1 to Croatia in the semi-final after extra time. The team also reached the quarter-final stage in 1954, 1962, 1970, 1986, 2002 and 2006.
England failed to qualify for the World Cup in 1974, 1978 and 1994. The team's earliest exit in the finals tournament was its elimination in the first round in 1950, 1958 and, most recently, the 2014 FIFA World Cup. This was after being defeated in both their opening two matches for the first time, against Italy and Uruguay in Group D. In 1950, four teams remained after the first round, in 1958 eight teams remained and in 2014 sixteen teams remained. In 2010, England suffered its most resounding World Cup defeat, 4–1 to Germany, in the Round of 16 stage. This came after drawing with the United States and Algeria, and defeating Slovenia 1–0 in the group stage.

UEFA European Championship

England's greatest achievements at the UEFA European Championship have been to finish in third place in 1968 and 1996. England hosted Euro 96, and have qualified for nine UEFA European Championship finals tournaments, tied for fourth best by number of appearances. The team has also reached the quarter-final on two recent occasions, in 2004 and 2012.
The team's worst result in the competition was a first-round elimination in 1980, 1988, 1992 and 2000. The team did not enter in 1960, and failed to qualify for the finals in 1964, 1972, 1976, 1984 and 2008.

UEFA Nations League

Minor tournaments

Honours

Major:
Regional:
Other:
Exhibition Tournaments:
CompetitionTotal
World Cup1001
European Championship0022
Nations League0011
Total1034