| File:England crest.png
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| Team colours
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| Nickname
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| The Lions
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| Association
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| The Football Association
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| Current coach
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| Sven-Göran Eriksson, 2001-
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| Most capped player
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| Peter Shilton: 125
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| Highest goalscorer
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| Bobby Charlton: 49
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| First International
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Scotland 0 - 0 England
(Partick, Scotland; 30 November, 1872)
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| Largest win
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Ireland 0 - 13 England
(Belfast, Northern Ireland; 18 February, 1882)
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| Largest defeat
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Hungary 7 - 1 England
(Budapest, Hungary; 23 May, 1954)
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| World Cup
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Finals appearances: 11 (First: 1950)
Best result: Winners, 1966
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| European Championship
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Finals appearances: 7 (First: 1968)
Best result: Third, 1968, Semi-finals, 1996
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The England national football team is organised under the auspices of The Football Association, the governing body for football in England, and represents the country in international football competitions, such as the World Cup and the European Championships.
History
England played in the first ever international football match, a game against Scotland which took place at Hamilton Crescent in the Partick area of Glasgow in 1872; the result was a 0-0 draw.
England are by far the most sucessful of the Home nations, as well as being former World Champions, they won the Home Nations Football Championship 34 times, as many as the other three nations managed combined.
England's moment of greatest triumph came in 1966 when they won the World Cup. They were led to victory by captain Bobby Moore, and managed by Alf Ramsey who was later knighted for the achievement. In the final England beat West Germany by 4 goals to 2, with 3 goals from Geoff Hurst and one from Martin Peters. The victory gave rise to the well known British catchphrase, "They think it's all over... it is now!" following Kenneth Wolstenholme's commentary of the final goal in the dying minutes of the game.
Goalkeeper Peter Shilton has played for England more times than anyone else. He gained his 125th and last cap in the 1990 World Cup. Sir Bobby Charlton is the top scorer with 49, with Gary Linekar second with 48.
In 2001, Sven-Göran Eriksson became the first foreign national (he is Swedish) to become the manager of England. The team qualified for the 2002 World Cup (held in Japan and South Korea) in a tense finale on the 6 October, 2001, with the final goal which gave them the much-needed draw against Greece coming from David Beckham in the dying seconds of the game. This result ensured automatic qualification above Germany on goal difference. In the World Cup itself England reached the quarter-finals before being beaten by eventual tournament winners Brazil 2-1.
So far, the highlights of Eriksson's time in charge of England have been a 5-1 victory over rivals Germany, during the World Cup 2002 qualification campaign — England came from behind, with goals from Emile Heskey, Steven Gerrard and a Michael Owen hat-trick; and a hard-fought 1-0 win over Argentina in the tournament itself.
The first national manager, Walter Winterbottom, died in February 2002.
