Rio joins the list

International Friendly
8pm, Wednesday 26 March 2008
Stade de France, Paris
Live on Sky Sports

Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand became England's 44th post-war captain in Paris last night.

Rio was winning his 66th cap, having made his debut as a substitute for Gareth Southgate in a Wembley friendly against Cameroon in 1997. He was only eight days past his 19th birthday then as he contributed to England's 2-0 victory before 46,000 fans.

England's first post-war skipper was Middlesbrough left-back George Hardwick. He featured in 13 consecutive internationals and only finished on the losing side once. Walter Winterbottom's enterprising England side scored ten against Portugal, eight against Holland and seven against Northern Ireland.

In the next 20 years, England captains included legends like Billy Wright, Alf Ramsey, Johnny Haynes, Bobby Moore and Bobby Charlton. Wright and Moore jointly hold the all-time record with 90 England captaincies.

Emlyn Hughes, Kevin Keegan, Mick Mills and Phil Thompson wore the armband in both the '70s and '80s. Gary Lineker captained England 20 times under Graham Taylor and David Platt scored four on his debut as skipper in 1993 and missed a penalty.

The captains from 2000 have been Tony Adams, Alan Shearer, Sol Campbell, Martin Keown, David Beckham, Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard, John Terry - and now Rio Ferdinand.