English national football team - Definition and Overview

England

Nickname	The Lions
Association	The FA
Coach	Sven-Göran Eriksson, 2001-
Most caps	Peter Shilton (125)
Top scorer	Bobby Charlton (49)
Home colours 　 Away colours
First International Scotland 0 - 0 England (Partick, Scotland; 30 November, 1872)
Largest win Ireland 0 - 13 England (Belfast, Northern Ireland; 18 February, 1882)
Worst defeat Hungary 7 - 1 England (Budapest, Hungary; 23 May, 1954)
World Cup
Appearances	11 (First in 1950)
Best result	Winners, 1966
European Championship
Appearances	7 (First in 1968)
Best result	Third, 1968, Semi-finals, 1996

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.

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 54 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

• 1960 - Did not enter
• 1964 - Did not qualify
• 1968 - Third place
• 1972 - Did not qualify
• 1976 - Did not qualify
• 1980 - Round 1
• 1984 - Did not qualify
• 1988 - Round 1
• 1992 - Round 1
• 1996 - Semifinals
• 2000 - Round 1
• 2004 - Quarterfinals

Selected famous players

• Tony Adams
• Alan Ball
• Gordon Banks
• John Barnes
• Peter Beardsley
• David Beckham
• Steve Bloomer
• Terry Butcher
• Sir Bobby Charlton
• Jack Charlton
• Ray Clemence
• Duncan Edwards
• Sir Tom Finney
• Tip Foster (the only man to captain England both in football and in cricket)
• Paul Gascoigne
• Jimmy Greaves
• Glenn Hoddle
• Emlyn Hughes
• Roger Hunt
• Sir Geoff Hurst (the only player ever to score a hat-trick in the World Cup final)
• Kevin Keegan
• Gary Lineker
• Sir Stanley Matthews
• Bobby Moore
• Gary Neville
• Michael Owen
• Stuart Pearce
• Martin Peters
• David Platt
• Bryan Robson
• Wayne Rooney
• David Seaman
• Alan Shearer
• Peter Shilton
• Gareth Southgate
• Chris Waddle
• Billy Wright

See also: List of English footballers

Top England goalscorers

England managers

External links

• Official website at the FA's website (http://www.thefa.com/England/)
• Archive of England national team results 1874- (http://www.englandfootballonline.com/Match.html)
• RSSSF archive of most capped players and highest goalscorers (http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/eng-recintlp.html)
• Planet World Cup archive of results in the World Cup (http://www.planetworldcup.com/NATIONS/eng.html)
• Planet World Cup archive of squads in the World Cup (http://www.planetworldcup.com/NATIONS/eng_qualify.html)
• Planet World Cup archive of results in the World Cup qualifiers (http://www.planetworldcup.com/NATIONS/eng_squads.html)