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Expansive groups tend to admire gargantuan defences – and gargantuan defences tend to comprise gargantuan defenders.
And the most spirited British defenders memoir for about a of the most spirited gamers ever produced by the Home Countries, taking in World Cup and European Cup winners alike.
Right here, we’ve picked out the very best of them…
Andy Robertson (Scotland)
Scotland’s captain as they returned to critical tournament football at Euro 2024, Andy Robertson rose from the decrease leagues to save himself as one in every of the best left-backs on the earth.
An exceptionally athletic operator with devastating crossing ability, Robertson acquired all of it with Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp – along with the 2018/19 Champions League and 2019/20 Premier League title.
Billy McNeill (Scotland)
A bona fide Celtic icon who devoted bigger than 60 years of his existence to the club, Billy McNeill captained the legendary Lisbon Lions workers to victory over Inter within the 1967 European Cup closing.
Capped 29 times by his country, for whom he also wore the armband, McNeill used to be a born chief and a gorgeous centre-half of.
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Norman Hunter (England)
Among the best central defenders spherical in his high, Norman Hunter acquired the 1974 PFA Gamers’ Player of the Year award after starring in a 2nd top-flight triumph at Leeds.
A former of larger than 700 appearances for the Whites – with whom he also lifted the FA Cup and reached the European Cup closing – Hunter earned 28 England Caps and used to be fragment of the victorious 1966 World Cup squad.
Jack Charlton (England)
One amongst the game’s gargantuan characters, Jack Charlton used to be an gargantuan presence within the coronary heart of defence for Leeds – the place he spent his complete career – and England alike.
A 1966 World Cup winner alongside brother Bobby, the 1967 FWA Footballer of the Year scored over 100 objectives for club and country – belying his profile of conventional primitive-college centre-half of.
Sol Campbell
Ahead of and after his wrath-provoking pass throughout North London from Tottenham to Arsenal, Sol Campbell stood out amongst the most spirited centre-backs of his generation.
A two-time Premier League champion with the Gunners, along with as an Invincible in 2004, Campbell used to be an England long-established for the best fragment of a decade and featured the least bit six critical tournaments between Euro 96 and the 2006 World Cup.
Tony Adams (England)
Tony Adams’ prominent defensive qualities were obvious from a younger age, and he took over the Arsenal captain’s armband at upright 21 in 1988.
Between then and his retirement 14 years later, Adams – who captained England at Euro 96 – led his handiest club to four top-flight titles and three FA Cups, amongst other honours, impressively adapting his sport from passe centre-half of to an adept ball-participant following the advent of Arsene Wenger as supervisor.
Ray Wilson (England)
England’s left-motivate en path to 1966 World Cup glory, Ray Wilson represented his country with distinction on 63 times.
An FA Cup winner with Everton that identical 300 and sixty five days, the broken-down Huddersfield Metropolis shrimp one boasted unparalleled energy, traipse and positional consciousness. “It used to be a comfort to play alongside him,” said England skipper Bobby Moore.
Kyle Walker (England)
Aloof terrifyingly mercurial well into his 30s, Kyle Walker combined his physical and technical qualities to become one in every of the sector’s best upright-backs of the 2010s and early 2020s.
Integral to Manchester Metropolis’s sustained success under Pep Guardiola, Walker proved his incredible versatility by working at each and every upright-motivate and upright-sided centre-motivate for Gareth Southgate’s England, who he helped to successive Euros finals.
George Cohen (England)
Yet any other pioneering English corpulent-motivate who starred within the Three Lions’ 1966 World Cup triumph, George Cohen introduced massively threatening attacking intent to the upright of Alf Ramsey’s motivate four.
A one-club man at Fulham, Cohen whipped within the disagreeable for Bobby Charlton to procure what proved to be England’s semi-closing winner in opposition to Portugal – and he used to be described by his namesake, George Best, as “the best corpulent-motivate I ever conducted in opposition to”.
John Terry (England)
A standout defender of the 21st century, John Terry’s commanding presence within the midst of Chelsea’s backline spurred the Blues on to a plethora of silverware.
No-nonsense but tactically radiant and a amazing reader of the game, Terry captained each and every Chelsea and England – by whom he used to be capped 78 times – and continually proved his goalscoring prowess from converse-pieces, netting 41 times within the Premier League alone.
Alan Hansen (Scotland)
When a distinctly unimpressed Alan Hansen lamented “diabolical” defending on Match of the Day, he knew better than most what he used to be speaking about.
The technically assured Liverpool and Scotland myth used to be upright up there amongst the most spirited centre-halves of the 80s, helping the Reds to relatively quite loads of critical honours – along with a pair of European Cups and First Division titles – and featuring on the 1982 World Cup.
Ashley Cole (England)
The best-ever British left-motivate – and of the best from wherever, for that matter – Ashley Cole conducted an integral fragment in a pair of critical triumphs at Arsenal and Chelsea for the length of the 2000s and 2010s.
One amongst England’s most-capped gamers, with 107 appearances to his title, Cole basically basically based mostly his sport on that of Roberto Carlos and possessed elite ability within the defensive and offensive aspects of his role.
Rio Ferdinand (England)
At a time when most English centre-backs were composed relatively primitive-college, Rio Ferdinand marked himself out as one in every of the very best spherical with a polished, more continental form of play.
Essentially the most costly defender within the sector on two times, Ferdinand acquired a pair of Premier League titles and the Champions League with Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United and represented England at two World Cups.
John Charles (Wales)
Famously as valid a centre-motivate as he used to be a centre-forward – and never upright valid; he used to be world-class – John Charles could well well presumably upright be the most spirited Welsh footballer of all time.
The Gentle Big enjoyed legendary spells with Leeds and Juventus – the place he starred in three Serie A title-a hit seasons – to boot as to intelligent Wales to the quarter-finals of the 1958 World Cup.
Billy Wright (England)
Billy Wright used to be the first participant within the sector to ranking 100 global caps, racking up 105 in all – and he captained England in 90 of those video games, a Three Lions anecdote.
A centre-half of of unprecedented class who also wore the armband for Wolves – his sole club, who he led to a pair First Division titles and an FA Cup between 1949 and 1959 – Wright executed as runner-up for the 1957 Ballon d’Or, on the motivate of handiest Alfredo Di Stefano.
Bobby Moore (England)
Iconic captain of England’s 1966 World Cup winners, Bobby Moore used to be such an imperious centre-half of that Pele known as him the toughest defender he ever confronted.
An impeccable reader of the game who did everything with the utmost composure, Moore earned 108 Three Lions caps and spent the gargantuan majority of his club career along with his boyhood club West Ham – the place he ensured immortality as skipper of their 1964 FA Cup- and 1965 Cup Winners’ Cup-a hit sides.
