Wales national football team records

This page details Wales national football team records; the most capped players, the players with the most goals, Wales's match record by opponent and decade.

Player records

Most capped players

As of 15 October 2013

#	Name	Clubs	Wales career	Caps	Goals
1	Neville Southall	Everton, Port Vale	1982–1998	92	0
2	Gary Speed	Leeds United, Everton, Newcastle United, Bolton Wanderers	1990–2004	85	7
3	Craig Bellamy	Norwich, Coventry City, Newcastle United, Blackburn, Liverpool, West Ham, Manchester City, Cardiff City	1998–2013	78	19
4	Dean Saunders	Oxford United, Derby County, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Galatasaray, Nottingham Forest, Sheffield United, Benfica, Bradford City	1986–2001	75	22
5	Peter Nicholas	Crystal Palace, Arsenal, Luton Town, Aberdeen, Chelsea	1979–1991	73	2
=	Ian Rush	Liverpool, Juventus	1980–1996	73	28
7	Mark Hughes	Manchester United, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Southampton	1984–1999	72	16
=	Joey Jones	Liverpool, Wrexham, Chelsea, Huddersfield Town	1975–1986	72	1
9	Ivor Allchurch	Swansea Town, Newcastle United, Cardiff City	1950–1966	68	23
10	Brian Flynn	Burnley, Leeds United, Cardiff City	1974–1984	66	7

Highest goalscorers

As of 13 October 2015

#	Name	Wales career	Caps	Goals	Average
1	Ian Rush	1980–1996	73	28	0.38
2	Trevor Ford	1947–1957	38	23	0.60
=	Ivor Allchurch	1951–1966	68	23	0.33
4	Dean Saunders	1986–2001	75	22	0.29
5	Gareth Bale	2006–	54	19	0.35
=	Craig Bellamy	1998–2013	78	19	0.24
7	Robert Earnshaw	2002–2012	58	16	0.28
=	Cliff Jones	1954–1969	59	16	0.27
=	Mark Hughes	1984–1999	72	16	0.22
10	John Charles	1950–1965	38	15	0.39

Age Record

• Youngest player to make debut: Harry Wilson – 16 years and 207 days
• Oldest player to play a game: Billy Meredith – 45 years and 229 days
• Youngest player to play at World Cup finals: Roy Vernon – 21 years and 42 days
• Oldest player to play at World Cup finals: Dave Bowen – 30 years and 1 day

Other

• Longest Serving Player: Billy Meredith – 25 years (1895–1920)

Games and Results

Firsts

• First International: 26 March 1876 vs Scotland
• First home international: 5 March 1877 vs Scotland
• First win: 26 February 1881 vs England
• First overseas opponent: France, 25 May 1933
• First win over an overseas opponent: 23 November 1949 vs Belgium

Biggest

• Biggest Win: 11–0 vs Ireland, 3 March 1888
• Biggest Loss: 0–9 vs Scotland, 23 March 1878

Longest

• Longest winning streak: 6, 2 June 1980 – 16 May 1981
• Longest losing streak: 5, 25 March 1876 – 27 March 1880

Goals

• First Welsh goal: William Davies, 18 January 1879 vs England
• Youngest player to score: Gareth Bale – 17 years and 35 days, 7 October 2006 v Slovakia
• Most goals scored in one game by a player: 4
  • John Price, 12 Feb 1882 vs Ireland
  • Jack Doughty, 3 Mar 1888 vs Ireland
  • Mel Charles, 11 Apr 1962 vs Northern Ireland
  • Ian Edwards, 25 October 1978 vs MALTA

Hat-tricks

Main article: List of Wales national football team hat-tricks

• First hat-trick: John Price, 12 February 1882 vs Ireland

International Tournaments

FIFA World Cup

Main article: Wales at the FIFA World Cup

Qualification

• First match: 15 October 1949 vs England
• First goal: Mal Griffiths vs England, 15 October 1949

Finals

• First finals: Sweden 1958
• Total number of times qualified for the finals: 1 (1958)
• First game: 8 June 1958 vs Hungary
• First goal: John Charles vs Hungary, 8 June 1958
• Most Successful final: 1958 – Quarter finals
• World Cup top goal scorer: 2
  • Ivor Allchurch (1958)

Rankings

• Highest FIFA Rank: 8 (October 2015)
• Lowest FIFA Rank: 117 (August 2011)
• Highest Elo Rank: 3 (1876–1885)
• Lowest Elo Rank: 75 (September 2000)

Team records

Head to head

Opponent	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	%W	%D	%L
Albania	2	1	1	0	3	1	50	50	0
Andorra	2	2	0	0	4	1	100	0	0
Argentina	2	0	1	1	1	2	0	50	50
Armenia	2	0	2	0	2	2	0	100	0
Australia	1	0	0	1	1	2	0	0	100
Austria	8	2	1	5	6	11	25	12.5	62.5
Azerbaijan	6	5	1	0	11	1	83.33	16.67	0
Belarus	4	3	0	1	7	5	75	25	0
Belgium	12	4	3	5	17	16	33.33	25	41.67
Bosnia and Herzegovina	4	0	2	2	2	6	0	50	50
Brazil	10	1	1	8	5	20	10	10	80
Bulgaria	8	3	1	4	4	8	37.5	12.5	50
Canada	3	2	0	1	4	2	66.67	0	33.33
Chile	1	0	0	1	0	2	0	0	100
Costa Rica	2	1	0	1	1	1	50	0	50
Croatia	4	0	1	3	2	7	0	25	75
Cyprus	7	5	0	2	10	6	71.43	0	28.57
Czech Republic	3	0	2	1	1	2	0	66.67	33.33
Czechoslovakia	12	3	3	6	10	15	25	25	50
Denmark	8	4	0	4	8	8	50	0	50
England	101	14	21	66	90	245	14	21	66
Estonia	2	2	0	0	3	1	100	0	0
Faroe Islands	2	2	0	0	9	0	100	0	0
Finland	12	4	4	4	17	12	33.33	33.33	33.33
France	4	1	1	2	4	9	25	25	50
Georgia	3	0	0	3	1	8	0	0	100
Germany	10	2	3	5	6	13	20	30	50
East Germany	4	1	0	3	7	8	25	0	75
West Germany	7	0	3	4	4	13	0	42.86	57.14
Greece	2	1	0	1	4	3	50	0	50
Hungary	10	5	2	3	15	14	50	20	30
Iceland	7	5	1	1	13	5	71.43	14.29	14.29
Iran	1	1	0	0	1	0	100	0	0
Ireland	62	29	12	21	139	102	46.77	19.35	33.87
Israel	6	3	3	0	10	3	50	50	0
Italy	9	2	0	7	5	23	22.22	0	77.78
Jamaica	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	100	0
Japan	1	1	0	0	1	0	100	0	0
Kuwait	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	100	0
Latvia	1	1	0	0	2	0	100	0	0
Liechtenstein	3	3	0	0	8	0	100	0	0
Luxembourg	6	6	0	0	17	2	100	0	0
Macedonia	2	1	0	1	2	2	50	0	50
Malta	4	4	0	0	15	2	100	0	0
Mexico	3	0	1	2	2	5	0	33.33	66.67
Moldova	2	1	0	1	3	3	50	0	50
Montenegro	3	1	0	2	3	4	33.33	0	66.67
Netherlands	8	0	0	8	5	24	0	0	100
New Zealand	1	0	1	0	2	2	0	100	0
Northern Ireland	34	15	12	7	51	31	44.12	35.29	20.59
Norway	11	3	4	4	15	14	27.27	36.36	45.45
Paraguay	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	100	0
Poland	8	1	3	4	5	10	12.5	37.5	50
Portugal	3	1	0	2	4	7	33.33	0	66.67
Qatar	1	1	0	0	1	0	100	0	0
Republic of Ireland	13	5	3	5	13	16	38.46	23.08	38.46
Romania	5	1	1	3	7	9	20	20	60
Russia	4	0	1	3	2	6	0	25	75
San Marino	4	4	0	0	16	1	100	0	0
Saudi Arabia	1	1	0	0	2	1	100	0	0
Scotland	107	23	23	61	124	243	21.5	21.5	57.01
Serbia	4	0	0	4	3	13	0	0	100
Slovakia	2	1	0	1	6	7	50	0	50
Slovenia	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	100	0
Spain	5	1	2	2	6	7	20	40	40
Sweden	6	0	1	5	3	13	0	16.67	83.33
Switzerland	7	2	0	5	6	16	28.57	0	71.43
Trinidad and Tobago	1	1	0	0	2	1	100	0	0
Tunisia	1	0	0	1	0	4	0	0	100
Turkey	6	3	1	2	10	7	50	16.67	33.33
Ukraine	3	0	2	1	2	3	0	66.67	33.33
Uruguay	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	100	0
United States	1	0	0	1	0	2	0	0	100
Soviet Union	5	1	2	2	3	6	20	40	40
Yugoslavia	7	0	3	4	10	18	0	42.86	57.14
Rest of the United Kingdom	2	1	0	1	3	3	50	0	50
Totals	624	191	134	299	781	1059	30.61	21.47	47.92

P – Played; W – Won; D – Drawn; L – Lost
Statistics include official FIFA recognised matches only>
Up to date as 28 March 2016

By decade

Decade	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	%W	%D	%L
1870s	5	0	0	5	1	20	-19	0	0	100
1880s	28	8	3	17	60	82	-22	28.57	10.71	60.71
1890s	30	3	5	22	43	112	-69	10	16.67	73.33
1900s	30	8	8	14	37	60	-23	26.67	26.67	46.67
1910s	15	3	3	9	15	23	-8	20	20	60
1920s	32	9	10	13	42	61	-19	28.13	31.25	40.63
1930s	30	13	5	12	54	60	-6	43.33	16.67	40
1940s	15	5	0	10	20	31	-11	33.33	0	66.67
1950s	49	14	14	21	66	91	-25	28.57	28.57	42.86
1960s	54	12	9	33	74	108	-34	22.22	16.67	61.11
1970s	65	20	18	27	60	67	−7	30.77	27.69	41.54
1980s	68	24	19	25	80	72	8	35.29	27.94	36.76
1990s	67	24	10	33	79	109	-30	35.82	14.93	49.25
2000s	89	32	23	34	101	97	4	35.96	25.84	38.2
2010s	47	17	7	23	48	62	−14	36.17	14.89	48.94
Overall	624	192	134	298	780	1055	-275	30.77	21.47	47.76

P – Played, W – Won, D – Drawn, L – Lost, GF – Goals For, GA – Goals Against, GD – Goal Difference
Statistics include official FIFA recognised matches only
Up to date as 13 October 2015

Notes

1. ^nb1 Only clubs played for while receiving caps are listed.

See also

• British Home Championship
• 1954 FIFA World Cup qualification
• 1958 FIFA World Cup qualification
• 1958 FIFA World Cup

External links

• RSSSF: Wales – International Results
• Football Association of Wales: Results
• Scoreshelf: Wales – International Results