Championship England Players

It isn’t often that the England National Squad decides to hand an international cap to a player in the Championship, but it does happen. Here I will examine some of the cases where the National side has had to dip down a tier in order to fill the squad.

Jay Bothroyd. Caps: 1, Goals: 0

 Bothroyd made his only appearance for the senior team in November 2010 against France as a second half substitute. He was called up whilst playing for Cardiff, for whom he had scored 40 league goals the previous season.

Robert Green. Caps: 12, Goals: 0

Green had already played 11 times for England when he was relegated to the Championship with West Ham at the end of the 2010-11 season. He was recalled to the squad for the first time since the 2010 World Cup in May 2012, whilst still at West Ham, for a friendly versus Norway in which he kept a clean sheet.

David James. Caps: 53, Goals: 0

James managed to garner several England Caps playing in goal, despite playing for West Ham during the 2003-04 season, in which they played in the Championship. He was the only England player to be chosen from outside the top flight for 8 years between 1999 and 2007.

Joe Hart. Caps: 28, Goals: 0

Hart played the second half of each of England’s 2010 World Cup warm up games in goal, despite having been based at Championship side Birmingham for the previous season. He has since cemented his place as England’s number 1.

David Nugent. Caps: 1, Goals: 1

Nugent made his only appearance for England in 2007 against Andorra as a second half substitute, whilst playing for Preston North End. He is one of only 3 players to have a 1 substitute appearance/1 goal record, the others being Francis Jeffers and Paul Goddard.

Wilfried Zaha. Caps: 1, Goals: 0

Zaha is the most recent player from the Championship to make an appearance for England, making his debut in November 2012 against Sweden. At the time he played for Crystal palace, but in January moved to Manchester United, so he looks all but certain to add to his cap tally.

That’s all the times that have happened so far, but with Championship players such as Thomas Ince and Charlie Austin continuing to impress in the second tier, it may not be long before this list is expanded further.

Written by Paddy Milnes

Follow on Twitter: @thepaddy @chapstalkfootball

Sourced from a variety of different websites including but not limited to:

BBC Sport

Transfermarkt.com

Whoscored.com

Football365.com

Footballdatabase.eu