Football Player Record Appearances For Every Club

Number Ten: Dave Beasant

Normally if a footballer had racked up over seven hundred appearances and not scored a goal you’d be asking questions. Obviously things are slightly different for a goalkeeper, whose primary job is to stop the goals going in rather than worrying about scoring them.

Dave Beasant has not only been on the books of sixteen different clubs during his career, but he also holds the record for being the oldest player to be in a match day squad in the history of the football league. He was on the bench for Stevenage at the age of 56 in 2015. Over his career he managed 774 appearances across 25 league campaigns.

Number Nine: Alan Oakes

Any Manchester City fans amongst you will no doubt have heard of Alan Oakes; after-all he is the club’s all-time record appearance holder. Having joined the Citizens as an amateur in 1958 he made his debut the following year and turned professional. It was the first of more than five hundred appearances for City, during which he scored 26 goals.

When his career in Manchester came to an end he was snapped up by nearby Chester City, playing over two hundred games for the Blues and becoming their player-manager. In total he played 777 games for three different clubs, ending his career with a solitary performance for Port Vale.

Number Eight: Robbie James

One of the main ways that players get to rack up a host of appearances is by being very good at their job. Another way is by being good at several jobs, earning a reputation as a ‘utility player’ who can play in different positions when needed.

That’s exactly what Robbie James did, establishing himself as a top player at Swansea City before moving on to the likes of Stoke City, Queens Park Rangers and Leicester City. Interestingly, with the exception of QPR, he didn’t play for an English Football League team without ‘City’ in their name. Over twenty seasons James made 782 appearances, scoring 137 goals.

Number Seven: Neil Redfearn

Towards the latter stages of his career in football Neil Redfearn turned to management; no surprise when you consider that he played over a thousand first-team games during his playing years.

He lined up for teams such as Bolton Wanderers, Lincoln City and Barnsley, with the latter club being where he made the most league appearances (292, if you’re interested). In total he played 790 league games with thirteen different clubs over twenty seasons, scoring 158 times.

Number Six: David James

Given the goalkeeper’s surname is was always likely that newspapers would come up with a cruel pun when he made a mistake, hence no-one should be surprised that years after his retirement he’s still known as ‘Calamity James’.

You don’t make more than two hundred league appearances for Liverpool with our having something about you, however, so the goalkeeper will look back on his career with a sense of pride. The second shot-stopper in the list played 791 league games for eight clubs across 26 seasons. Not bad going, all things considered.

Number Five: Terry Paine

His name might make him sound like a fictional detective but Terry Paine was actually a winger who holds the all-time appearance record for Southampton.

He played over eight hundred games for the South coast club across eighteen seasons, with more than seven hundred of them being league games. An additional hundred+ matches for Hereford United sees him enter the list at number five, boasting a total of 824 appearances and having 168 goals to his name.

He certainly caused the opposition plenty of Paine (not even sorry).

Number Four: Graham Alexander

In 2011 Graham Alexander became the caretaker manager of Preston North End before heading on to the likes of Fleetwood Town and Scunthorpe United. Before that, though, he had made his name at Scunthorpe and racked up more than three hundred and fifty appearances at Preston.

The right-back became a defensive midfielder towards the end of his career and it added some longevity to his footballing life.

Over the course of 22 seasons he made 844 league appearances with four clubs, scoring 110 goals.

Number Three: Tommy Hutchison

Tommy Hutchison was born in Scotland in 1947 and started his career at Alloa Athletic in 1965. He was soon brought South of the border by Blackpool and had an interesting life bouncing around places such as the Seattle Sounders in the United States and Bulova in Hong Kong.

He spent the longest amount of time at Coventry City and racked up 314 appearances with the Sky Blues. In total he played 863 games over 25 seasons. The six clubs that he played for saw him score 55 goals, which isn’t bad for a defender.

Number Two: Tony Ford

From the mid-seventies through to the mid-eighties Tony Ford forged a career as a midfielder at Grimsby Town. He played more than three hundred games for The Mariners before heading to Sunderland on loan and then being bought by Stoke City.

Alongside Graham Alexander he is one of just two players who made more than one thousand outfield appearances in league and cup games. When it came to league games alone he played 931 times and holds the record for league appearances without ever having played in the top-flight.

Number One: Peter Shilton

The number one spot on our list goes to arguably the best-known player. Peter Shilton has numerous records to his name, including the most England caps at 125 and the record for world football’s most competitive appearances. Along with Fabien Barthez he managed a record ten clean sheets at World Cup finals; impressive considering he didn’t make his debut in the competition until he was 32.

Over eight years at Leicester City he played 286 games and even scored a goal! He played for another ten teams and managed 1005 league appearances across 32 seasons.