The Quest for the Most International Captains in a Single Squad
A reader named MH Zahid posed an intriguing question: which football club has featured the most international captains in the same lineup? And on the flip side, which national team has had the most club captains in its starting XI?
It turns out, a quick search reveals a lot of buzz about Chelsea’s 2009-10 squad, which boasted six national team captains. The lineup included Michael Ballack (Germany), Petr Cech (Czech Republic), Didier Drogba (Côte d’Ivoire), Branislav Ivanovic (Serbia), Mikel John Obi (Nigeria), and John Terry (England). However, not all of them were captains at that moment, which disqualifies Chelsea from this particular competition. Ivanovic wasn’t appointed Serbia’s captain until 2012, while Mikel was just 22 and hadn’t yet taken the reins for Nigeria.
While that Chelsea team might not clinch the title for the most international captains, they are certainly tied to a noteworthy moment when they were eliminated from the Champions League by José Mourinho’s captain-heavy Inter Milan. Inter triumphed over Bayern Munich 2-0 in the final, featuring Lúcio (Brazil), Cristian Chivu (Romania), Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon), and Goran Pandev (Macedonia) as full-time captains. Dejan Stankovic, Serbia’s captain, also made an appearance off the bench.
The matchday squad included a remarkable seven players who were national captains at kickoff, although none led the club side that day—Javier Zanetti held that honor. Our research hasn’t uncovered another squad that matches this achievement, but there were suggestions of contenders like Tottenham’s 2020-21 team, which had five international captains, and Liverpool's squad from last year with six, though they never played together as active captains.
In other news, we uncovered the fastest former footballer after last week’s installment: Alexei Smertin, who ran the Kazan Marathon in 2020 in a swift 2 hours, 48 minutes, and 17 seconds. However, Richard Askham pointed out that Joe Skarz has since outdone him with a time of 2 hours, 47 minutes, and 33 seconds during the Yorkshire Marathon in 2025.
Next up, we tackle the question of what qualifies someone as a footballer. Stig Lindmark highlighted Andreas Almgren, a former AIK academy player whose dreams were cut short by injury. Shifting to distance running, Almgren made his marathon debut in New York this month, winning in an impressive 2 hours, 6 minutes, and 1 second, even without any senior competitive appearances.
Rupert Sheard wonders if a headed goal has ever won goal of the season, considering that most awards tend to favor striking kicks. Sinan Eccles remembers Robin van Persie’s memorable flying header at the 2014 World Cup, which, while not the official goal of the tournament, earned a spot in the Puskas Award ranks.
Peter Tomlin conducted research on goal of the season awards and found that the only header to win was Keith Houchen’s stunning one in the 1986-87 FA Cup Final. Meanwhile, Alisson’s dramatic last-minute header for Liverpool against West Brom was voted their goal of the season for 2020-21.
Mark Johnson recalls Basile Boli’s incredible header for Marseille against PSG, which would have likely won the Ligue 1 goal of the season if such an award existed back then.
Finally, Martyn Amos responded to last week’s doubts about an Ipswich fan website from 1990, clarifying that the original page was set up by Phil Clarke.
