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, he 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.

List of Captains

Figures include all recognised matches up to and including vs Switzerland in June 2011. The default order for this list is by most appearances as captain, then chronological order of first captaincy. Only confirmed captaincies are counted.

Disputed captaincies

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. However, the following players - who have never officially captained England - have worn the captain's armband...
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