England's most capped goalkeepers

By Richard Aikman in Mirror Football Blog

Published 21:03 03/09/10

• 

With Joe Hart looking set to keep England's No.1 position for some time to come, MirrorFootball's Karl Sears takes a look at England's ten most capped goalkeepers.

106 goalkeepers have had the honor of playing between the sticks for England since Robert Barker of Hertfordshire Rangers & Wanderers became the first in 1872.

In the fledgling years of international football games were sporadic - England only played eight matches in their first seven years - so goalkeepers in the early days rarely got far beyond their first cap. It took until England's 27th stopper, Jack Robinson, before a goalkeeper achieved a number of caps beyond double figures in 1900.

The player currently wearing the gloves is Joe Hart and he has been tipped to keep the position for the foreseeable future. But the Manchester City man has some way to go before he emulates England's most capped keepers.

10. Bert Williams, 1949-1955. 24 caps

Bert Williams, nicknamed 'The Cat', was one of the many players of his era to have his career interrupted by World War 2. During the conflict he was a member of the RAF and worked as a physical trainer. Bert's England debut came in 1949 in a 1-3 win against France. He had the honor of playing in all three of England's 1950 World Cup games in Brazil, but unfortunately will always be remembered as being in goal for England's 1-0 defeat to the USA. Williams said of the game: "There was no shaking of hands after the game but no animosity at all. Just utter, sheer dejection. We just couldn’t believe it."

9. Henry Hibbs, 1929-1936. 25 caps

Henry 'Harry' Hibbs is another member of the England goalkeepers club who was racked up prolific numbers for his club, 358 appearances for Birmingham City. He played during an era when matches against the Home Nations were most common. Hibbs came from an impressive family line of footballers. His cousin Harold Pearson also played in goal for England, and Hibbs' father Hubert was selected for an England squad in 1923 also as a goalkeeper, but never played. The suspension of league football, due to the war, brought a premature end to Hibbs' career during which he was described as 'unspectacular, but highly reliable'.

8. Ron Springett, 1959-1966. 33 caps

Ron Springett's first cap came in 1959 against Northern Ireland and he played in all of England's games in the 1962 World Cup in Chile when England reached the quarter-finals. His final cap came against Norway in 1966 and was replaced by Gordon Banks just before the World Cup. Springett had the dubious honor of being chosen as second choice goalkeeper to Banks throughout England's finest tournament, and despite originally receiving no recognition for this, he now owns a World Cup winners medal after FIFA decided in 2007 to award retrospective medals to all squad members of World Cup winning sides, as is the case nowadays.

7. Paul Robinson, 2003-2010. 41 caps

The first player of the modern era to make the list. Paul Robinson's debut came as one of the 11 half time substitutes made by Sven Goran Erikkson during the infamous 1-3 defeat to Australia in February 2003. He established himself as No.1 in England's 1-2 win against Poland in September 2004 and made 27 starts over the following two years. An ever-present in the 2006 World Cup campaign, he kept four clean sheets as England went out in the quarter-finals. Despite his successful time as England goalkeeper, where he was seen by many to be long-term successor to David Seaman, he will always be remembered for the bobble which led to Croatia's second goal in 2006. After the incident Robinson was not the same goalkeeper, but still went on to keep clean sheets in England's next six competitive games. He officially retired in August this year after going three years without a cap.

6. Chris Woods, 1985-1993. 43 caps

Chris Woods had a rather unfortunate England career, first hampered by being the long-term understudy to Peter Shilton, and then by becoming No.1 goalkeeper in poorly performing England side. He held the British record for minutes played without conceding a goal for 20 years - 1,196, before it was broken by Edwin Van Der Sar in 2009. When Bobby Robson quit after Italia 90, Graham Taylor made Woods his number 1 for Euro 92 and the qualifiers for World Cup '94. Woods was eventually dropped after the unsuccessful qualifying campaign and was replaced by David Seaman. Woods never played for England again.

5. David James, 1997-present. 53 caps

Over his 13 year association with England, David James has had a particularly on/off career. Much like Chris Woods, James' emergence came about at a time when England already had an undisputed No.1 - David Seaman.  After coming through the U21 side, James got his debut under Glenn Hoddle in 1997 in a 2-0 friendly win over Mexico. It took a further five years before he was seen as England's number 1.  However, only two years later after a mistake against Austria he was replaced by Paul Robinson and had to settle for being second choice once more. In 2008, now under Fabio Capello, James made his first start for three years in a friendly against Switzerland and then went on to become a regular in the side. James played every game in Euro 2004 and was a part of the squads that went to World Cup 2006 and 2010, where he made three appearances.

4. Ray Clemence, 1972-1983. 61 caps

Ray Clemence was another England goalkeeper who had the ability to have amassed many more caps. Unfortunately for Clemence, he attracted the attention of England selectors around the same time as a young Peter Shilton, and managers; Alf Ramsay, Joe Mercer, Don Revie, Ron Greenwood and Bobby Robson struggled to decide who was the best. Another problem for Clemence was that he was a top goalkeeper during England's longest run of international failure of recent times - England failed to qualify for four major international tournaments in the 1970s.

3. Gordon Banks, 1963-1972. 73 caps

Gordon Banks is England's undisputed, best ever goalkeeper and was voted by the 'International Federation of Football History and Statistics' as the second best goalkeeper of the 20th Century, behind Lev Yashin. Banks was a bricklayer and coal bagger before turning to football and making his debut for Chesterfield in 1956. His first England chance came in 1963 against Scotland, and despite losing, caught the attention of boss Alf Ramsey. By 1965 Banks was ahead of Ron Springett in the pecking order and went to the World Cup as No.1. He kept clean sheets in England's opening four games as they went on to beat West Germany 4-2 in the final. Far from being only peak of his international career, Banks went from strength to strength. Despite occasionally losing out to Peter Bonetti, Gordon West and Alex Stepney, Banks was always chosen for the biggest games and when the 1970 World Cup came around, he was back in goal. It was during this World Cup that Banks made what is universally acknowledged as the best save of all time from Pele's header. Banks continued to play well for England and Stoke until the age of 34 when a car accident resulted in him losing sight in his right eye and a premature end to his career followed shortly afterwards.

2. David Seaman, 1988-2002. 75 caps

David Seaman was England's last undisputed number one goalkeeper and appeared for England for 15 consecutive years. He made his debut in 1988 against Saudi Arabia and was selected for the squad to go to Italia '90, only to have to withdraw through injury. He wasn't selected for Euro 1992 and didn't become first choice until Terry Venable's reign in 1994.  Seaman shot to national fame and achieved hero status with his performances in Euro '96. He saved a penalty in regulation time against Scotland and the crucial kick in the penalty shoot-out against Spain. He was named in the Championship's 'Team of the Tournament', and sponsors Phillips named him as the 'Player of the Tournament'. Seaman continued to play for England in the following three major tournaments, but he missed the crucial game in Euro 2000 against Romania after injuring himself in the warm-up. Unfortunately for Seaman his international career ended with mistakes. He was lobbed by Ronaldinho in the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Cup and was beaten straight from a corner in a 2-2 draw with Macedonia in a qualifying game a few months later. He was replaced by David James for the next game and never played for England again.

1. Peter Shilton, 1970-1990. 125 caps

Peter Shilton remains England most capped goalkeeper, and most capped player of all time. Shilton's England career began in 1970 as understudy to Gordon Banks. After Banks' retirement Shilton and Clemence battled for the jersey, a battle which Shilton ultimately won. He was the goalkeeper on the wrong end of both sides of Diego Maradona in 1986 and played in every game in England's semi-final run in the 1990 World Cup. He retired after the third place play-off defeat to Italy with a record-breaking 125 caps. Shilton broke the record, then held by Bobby Moore, when he won his 109th cap against Denmark in 1989.

Fancy winning £3,000 for FREE this month? Play Mirror Football Streak for your chance to win cash prizes! Start predicting now!