In this article we look at ten players who only received one England cap.
There can be various reasons for this – falling out with the manager, injuries, not good enough but many were just in an era where the position they played had many top players.
Lee Bowyer
He was only capped once against Portugal
a midfielder who featured for Charlton Athletic, Leeds United, West Ham United, Newcastle United, Birmingham City and Ipswich Town in over 18 years as a professional.
He made 397 appearances in the Premier League
I can’t help feel his off the field antics went against him
David Nugent
He was only capped once against Andorra and scored – look up the goal on Youtube its interesting. A real poachers goal.
He was at Preston in the Championship where he won the cap.
Francis Jeffers
He was only capped once against Australia and scored
After scoring 20 goals in 60 appearances for Everton, he signed for Arsenal in 2001. During his time at Arsenal, he won the FA Cup twice in 2002 and 2003.
He only managed 235 appearances in 16 years and never lived up to that initial promise
Chris Sutton
He was only capped once against Cameroon
Sutton scored over 150 career goals in over 400 league appearances spanning 16 years in the English and Scottish Premier Leagues.
He was left out of the World Cup squad after a falling out with Glenn Hoddle. Having been relegated to the England B team Sutton refused to play, and he was never selected for an England squad again
Alan Thompson
He was only capped once against Sweden
He made 550 appearances during his career and was big player in a great Celtic side. Maybe playing in Scotland hampered his chances of more caps when he was at his peak.
Jay Bothroyd
He was only capped once against France which surprised me. I didn’t think he was even capped once.
He played for Blackburn Rovers, Charlton Athletic, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Stoke City, Cardiff City, Queens Park Rangers and Sheffield Wednesday.
He won the cap when at Cardiff.
Lee Hendrie
He was only capped once against the Czech Republic
a midfielder who played in the Premier League for Aston Villa where he spent fourteen years. Always appeared to be a very talented midfielder
He had Scottish and Irish parentage, Hendrie represented England, the country of his birth, at international level. Maybe not the best decision looking back – oh, well.
David Dunn
He was only capped once against Portugal
Dunn played as an attacking midfielder and spent the majority of his playing career representing Blackburn Rovers. 316 appearances and 50 goals.
Another player who suffered in a position where England were England were incredibly strong in at the time
Alex Stepney
He was only capped once against Sweden
He was famously Manchester United’s goalkeeper when they became the first English club to win the European Cup.
A great goalie, again he paid the penalty of being in an era where England had a few good goalies. Who were they.
Gordon Banks was the number one, there was also Peter Bonetti of Chelsea and Gordon West of Everton – tough competition
Tommy Smith
He was only capped once against Wales
a defender at Liverpool for 16 years from 1962 to 1978, he was a tough, uncompromising no nonsense defender.
He played 467 times for Liverpool but just the 1 cap but again in that era England had outstanding defenders such as Jack Charlton and Bobby Moore
