Wales national football team records and statistics explained

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

Rank	Player	Clubs	Wales career	Caps	Goals
1	Gareth Bale	Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, Real Madrid, Los Angeles FC	2006–2022	111	41
2	Chris Gunter		2007–2022	109	0
=	Wayne Hennessey	Wolverhampton Wanderers, Crystal Palace, Burnley, Nottingham Forest	2007–	109	0
4	Neville Southall	Everton, Port Vale<	-- on loan from Everton-->	1982–1998	92	0
5	Ben Davies	Swansea City, Tottenham Hotspur	2012–	86	2
=	Ashley Williams	Stockport County, Swansea City, Everton	2008–2019	86	2
7	Gary Speed	Leeds United, Everton, Newcastle United, Bolton Wanderers	1990–2004	85	7
8	Aaron Ramsey	Arsenal, Juventus, Rangers, Nice, Cardiff City	2008–	84	21
9	Craig Bellamy	Norwich City, Coventry City, Newcastle United, Blackburn Rovers, Liverpool, West Ham United, Manchester City, Cardiff City	1998–2013	78	19
10	Joe Ledley	Cardiff City, Celtic, Crystal Palace, Derby County	2006–2018	77	4
11	Dean Saunders	Oxford United, Derby County, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Galatasaray, Nottingham Forest, Sheffield United, Benfica, Bradford City	1986–2001	75	22
12	Joe Allen	Swansea City, Liverpool, Stoke City	2009–2022	74	2
13	Peter Nicholas	Crystal Palace, Arsenal, Luton Town, Aberdeen, Chelsea	1979–1991	73	2
=	Ian Rush	Liverpool, Juventus	1980–1996	73	28
15	Mark Hughes	Manchester United, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Southampton	1984–1999	72	16
=	Joey Jones	Liverpool, Wrexham, Chelsea, Huddersfield Town	1975–1986	72	1

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Wales career	Caps	Goals	Average
1	Gareth Bale (list)	2006–2022	111	41
2	Ian Rush (list)	1980–1996	73	28
3	Trevor Ford	1947–1957	38	23
=	Ivor Allchurch	1951–1966	68	23
5	Dean Saunders	1986–2001	75	22
6	Aaron Ramsey	2008–	84	21
7	Craig Bellamy	1998–2013	78	19
8	Robert Earnshaw	2002–2012	58	16
=	Cliff Jones	1954–1969	59	16
=	Mark Hughes	1984–1999	72	16
11	John Charles	1950–1965	38	15

Age records

• 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
• Youngest player to score a goal: Gareth Bale – 17 years and 83 days

Other

• Longest serving player: Billy Meredith – 25 years (1895–1920)

Games and results

Firsts

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

Biggest

• Biggest Win: 11–0 vs, 3 March 1888
• Biggest Loss: 0–9 vs, 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
• Youngest player to score: Gareth Bale – 17 years and 83 days, 7 October 2006 v
• Most goals scored in one game by a player: 4
  • John Price, 12 Feb 1882 vs
  • Jack Doughty, 3 Mar 1888 vs
  • Mel Charles, 11 Apr 1962 vs
  • Ian Edwards, 25 October 1978 vs

Hat-tricks

See main article: List of Wales national football team hat-tricks.

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

International tournaments

FIFA World Cup

See main article: Wales at the FIFA World Cup.

Qualification

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

Finals

• First finals: Sweden 1958
• Total number of times qualified for the finals: 2 (1958, 2022)
• First game: 8 June 1958 vs
• First goal: John Charles vs, 8 June 1958
• Most successful finals: 1958 – Quarter-finals
• World Cup top goalscorer: 2
  • Ivor Allchurch (1958)

UEFA European Championship

See main article: Wales at the UEFA European Championship.

Finals

• First finals: France 2016
• Total number of times qualified for the finals: 2 (2016, 2020)
• First game: 11 June 2016 vs
• First goal: Gareth Bale vs, 11 June 2016
• Most successful finals: 2016 – Semi-finals
• European Championship top goalscorer: 3
  • Gareth Bale (2016)

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	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	W%	D%	L%
	4	1	2	1	3	2
	2	2	0	0	4	1
	2	0	1	1	1	2
	4	0	3	1	5	7
	1	0	0	1	1	2
	11	4	2	5	11	13
	8	7	1	0	15	2
	7	6	0	1	16	8
	17	5	5	7	24	24
	4	0	2	2	2	6
	10	1	1	8	5	20
	10	5	1	4	6	8
	3	2	0	1	4	2
	1	0	0	1	0	2
	1	1	0	0	6	0
	2	1	0	1	1	1
	8	1	3	4	7	12
	7	5	0	2	10	6
	6	1	4	1	5	5
	12	3	3	6	10	15
	11	4	0	7	9	16
	4	1	0	3	7	8
	104	14	21	69	91	253
	4	3	1	0	4	1
	2	2	0	0	9	0
	17	7	5	5	25	14
	5	1	1	3	4	14
	5	1	1	3	3	9
	10	2	3	5	6	13
	2	1	1	0	4	0
	2	1	0	1	4	3
	12	6	2	4	17	15
	7	5	1	1	13	5
	2	1	0	1	1	2
	62	29	12	21	139	102
	6	3	3	0	10	3
	10	2	0	8	5	24
	1	0	1	0	0	0
	1	1	0	0	1	0
	2	0	2	0	0	0
	3	3	0	0	5	0
	3	3	0	0	8	0
	6	6	0	0	17	2
	4	4	0	0	15	2
	5	1	2	2	3	5
	4	3	0	1	9	3
	3	1	0	2	3	4
	10	0	0	10	8	29
	1	0	1	0	2	2
	2	1	0	1	2	2
	35	16	12	7	52	31
	11	3	4	4	15	14
	1	0	1	0	1	1
	1	0	1	0	0	0
	11	1	3	7	6	13
	4	1	0	3	4	9
	1	1	0	0	1	0
	19	8	5	6	19	18
	2	1	0	1	3	3
	5	1	1	3	7	9
	5	1	1	3	5	6
	4	4	0	0	16	1
	1	1	0	0	2	1
	107	23	23	61	124	243
	6	0	2	4	5	15
	6	3	1	2	10	13
	1	0	1	0	0	0
	1	0	1	0	0	0
	5	1	2	2	3	6
	6	1	2	3	7	11
	7	0	1	6	3	16
	8	2	1	5	7	17
	2	2	0	0	3	1
	1	0	0	1	0	4
	9	4	2	3	13	10
	4	1	2	1	3	3
	2	0	1	1	0	1
	3	0	2	1	1	3
	7	0	3	4	10	18
	7	0	3	4	4	13
Totals	712	226	161	325	884	1147

P – Played; W – Won; D – Drawn; L – Lost
Statistics include official FIFA recognised matches only
Up to date as of 9 June 2024

By decade

Decade	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W%	D%	L%
1870s	5	0	0	5	1	20	−19
1880s	28	8	3	17	60	82	−22
1890s	30	3	5	22	43	112	−69
1900s	30	8	8	14	37	60	−23
1910s	15	3	3	9	15	23	−8
1920s	32	9	10	13	42	61	−19
1930s	30	13	5	12	54	60	−6
1940s	15	5	0	10	20	31	−11
1950s	49	14	14	21	66	91	−25
1960s	54	12	9	33	74	108	−34
1970s	65	20	18	27	60	67	−7
1980s	68	24	19	25	80	72	8
1990s	67	24	10	33	79	109	−30
2000s	89	32	23	34	101	97	4
2010s	85	34	16	35	95	96	−1
2020s	50	18	17	15	54	55	−1
Overall	712	227	160	325	881	1144	−263

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 of 9 June 2024

Notes

1. 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

References

Bibliography

• Book: Hayes, Dean P. . Wales: The Complete Who's Who of Footballers Since 1946 . Sutton Publishing . 1994 . 0-7509-3700-9 .
• Book: Oliver, Guy . The Guinness Record of World Soccer . Guinness . 1992 . 0-85112-954-4 .

Notes

External links

• RSSSF: Wales – International Results