Contenders: Barry
Wednesday, 24 December, 2008
Gareth Barry was the only outfield player to play in all ten matches during 2008 and also got a goal.
During 2008, Fabio Capello awarded caps to 35 players in ten games as England won eight, drew one and lost one. Today we look at Gareth Barry, who scored his first goal for England in June.
Age 27
Date of Birth 23.02.81
Caps in 2008 10 Goals 1
Career Caps 26 Career Goals 1
Aston Villa
After returning to the England team in 2007 following an absence of four years from the side, Barry has not looked back since.
From the home friendly with Germany in August of last year, Barry has played in 17 consecutive matches for his country and has yet to miss a game under Fabio Capello.
Indeed, Barry was the only outfield player to play in every game of 2008 - a year that saw the Aston Villa midfielder grab his first goal for his country to go with the ten caps he earned.
Barry's goal was the opening strike during England's 3-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago, a match in which Barry also took the armband from David Beckham in the second-half.
The fact that Barry played in every match despite a number of options in the central midfield role shows just how highly he is rated by Fabio Capello. On four occasions when both Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard were in the side, a place was also given to Barry.
The most effective example of that trio of players operating together came against Belarus in Minsk when they combined confidently to power England to a 3-1 win victory.
What he said
"It gives you that confidence before you meet up with the squad, knowing you've been involved for near on two years and played in virtually every game. It's good for myself to be involved like that and it does help when you come to play the games, knowing the others players' games and the manager's ideas as well.
"The more you're involved, the easier it is to learn." Gareth Barry