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England national football team

(Redirected from English national football team)

The England national football team is organised under the auspices of The Football Association, the governing body for football in England, and represents England (not the whole UK) in international football competitions, such as the World Cup and the European Championships. As the IOC does not accept regional representative teams, the UK does not compete in Olympic football.

Contents

History

England played in the first ever 'international' football match, a game against Scotland which took place at Hamilton Crescent in Partick (now part of Glasgow), Scotland in 1872. The result was a 0-0 draw.

England are by far the most successful of the Home Nations, as well as being former World Champions, they won the British Home Championship outright 34 times, as many as the other three nations managed combined.

England's moment of greatest triumph came in 1966 when they won the World Cup. They were led to victory by captain Bobby Moore, and managed by Alf Ramsey who was later knighted for the achievement. In the final England beat West Germany by 4 goals to 2, with 3 goals from Geoff Hurst and one from Martin Peters. The victory gave rise to the well known British catchphrase, "They think it's all over... it is now!" following Kenneth Wolstenholme's commentary of the final goal in the dying minutes of the game.

Goalkeeper Peter Shilton has played for England more times than anyone else. He gained his 125th and last cap in the 1990 World Cup. Sir Bobby Charlton is the top scorer with 49, with Gary Lineker second with 48.

In 2001, Sven-Göran Eriksson became the first foreign national (he is Swedish) to become the manager of England. The team qualified for the 2002 World Cup (held in Japan and South Korea) in a tense finale on the 6 October, 2001, with the final goal which gave them the much-needed draw against Greece coming from David Beckham in the dying seconds of the game. This result ensured automatic qualification above Germany on goal difference. In the World Cup itself England reached the quarter-finals before being beaten by eventual tournament winners Brazil 2-1.

So far, the highlights of Eriksson's time in charge of England have been a 5-1 victory over rivals Germany, during the World Cup 2002 qualification campaign — England came from behind, with goals from Emile Heskey, Steven Gerrard and a Michael Owen hat-trick; and a hard-fought 1-0 win over Argentina in the tournament itself.

The first national manager, Walter Winterbottom, died in February 2002.

World Cup record

European Championship record

Distinguished players

*denotes a player still playing for England or available for selection. Players in bold are those who won the 1966 World Cup. Bold figures in brackets denote a place in the Top 20 most capped players.

See also: List of English footballers

Top England goalscorers

# Player England career Goals (Caps)
1 Sir Bobby Charlton 1958-70 49 (106)
2 Gary Lineker 1984-92 48 (80)
3 Jimmy Greaves 1959-67 44 (57)
4 Tom Finney 1946-58 30 (76)
= Nat Lofthouse 1950-58 30 (33)
= Alan Shearer 1992-2000 30 (63)
7 Viv Woodward 1903-11 29 (23)
= Michael Owen 1998-present 29 (69)
8 Steve Bloomer 1895-1907 28 (23)
9 David Platt 1989-96 27 (62)
10 Bryan Robson 1979-91 26 (90)
11 Sir Geoff Hurst 1966-72 24 (49)
12 Stan Mortensen 1947-53 23 (25)
13 Tommy Lawton 1938-48 22 (23)
14 Mick Channon 1972-77 21 (46)
= Kevin Keegan 1972-82 21 (63)
15 Martin Peters 1966-74 20 (77)
16 George Camsell 1929-36 18 (9)
= Dixie Dean 1927-32 18 (16)
= Johnny Haynes 1954-62 18 (56)
= Roger Hunt 1962-69 18 (34)

England managers

Manager England career
Sir Walter Winterbottom 1946-1962
Sir Alf Ramsey 1963-1974
Joe Mercer (caretaker) 1974
Don Revie 1974-1977
Ron Greenwood 1977-1982
Sir Bobby Robson 1982-1990
Graham Taylor 1990-1993
Terry Venables 1993-1996
Glenn Hoddle 1996-1999
Howard Wilkinson (caretaker) 1999
Kevin Keegan 1999-2000
Howard Wilkinson (caretaker) 2000
Peter Taylor (caretaker) 2000
Sven-Göran Eriksson 2001 - present

See also


External links


Last updated: 10-29-2005 02:13:46