List of England national football team captains

This article lists all the captains of the England national football team.

The first ever England captain was Cuthbert Ottaway, who captained England in the first ever international match, against Scotland on 30 November 1872. He went on to captain England on just one further occasion, the third international match, 7 March 1874, against the same opposition. Alexander Morten captained England in their first international on home soil, 8 March 1873 vs Scotland, and was the first international captain to win a match. This was his only international appearance.

Since then, Billy Wright went on to set the record for most captaincies of his country, with 90. Bobby Moore, who remains the only England captain to have lifted the World Cup, reached 90 captaincies in 1973, and shares the record with Wright. John Terry is England's current captain, taking over the role after Fabio Capello's rotation policy had ended.

Capello's rotation policy

Post-War Captains

Unofficial captaincies

Players who have received the captain's armband during the course of a game are not considered by the Football Association as being official England captains. [http://www.englandfootballonline.com/TeamCapt/CaptainIndex.html] However, the following players - who have never officially captained England - have worn the captain's armband during the course of a match when the official captain has been substituted for some reason:

* Jamie Carragher
* Robbie Fowler [http://englandfootballonline.com/Seas2000-10/2001-02/M0787Ita2002.html]
* Emile Heskey
* Gary Neville [http://englandfootballonline.com/Seas2000-10/2005-06/M0842Por2006.html]
* Phil Neville
* Gareth Southgate
* Frank Lampard [http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/2007/11/17/austria-0-1-england-89520-20120804/]
* Gareth Barry

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.englandfootballonline.com/TeamCapt/CaptainIndex.html England football captains database]