As football becomes ever more cosmopolitan, I thought I would look back at those International players that have worn the old gold and black of our beloved club, writes Wolves blogger Nathan Lloyd.
After last week’s Wolves English XI, I have put together the ultimate Wolves XI below of players who have won non-English international caps. Next week, I will bring you my greatest-ever Wolves XI.
So let’s kick off between the sticks. Not many Wolves keepers down the years have gained international caps (non-English).
Although Wayne Hennessy is the current Welsh number 1, I would probably go for Paul Jones as the first player on the team sheet.
With 50 Welsh caps to his name, Paul Jones arrived at Molineux in 1991 from Kidderminster Harriers as an understudy to Mike Stowell.
Finding it tough to dispossess Stowell, Jones made just 33 appearances in 5 seasons and moved to Southampton, where he was to play nearly 200 games.
Although he returned for a largely unsuccessful couple of seasons in 2004, I think it’s the great shot stopping and penalty saving Jones of 1991 to 1996 that fans should remember and not the ill time gesturing towards the traveling Cardiff fans.
When it comes to choosing the defensive 4, I would have dearly loved to include the brilliant South African Eddie Stuart.
Although never playing for his country, he is regarded as one of the finest players ever to have come out of South Africa and played in over 300 games for Wolves between 1951 and 1962.
Eddie misses out because I’m being strict and only picking players with international caps.
Therefore my back 4 is Denis Irwin (Ireland), George Berry (Wales), Frank Munro (Scotland) and John De Wolf (Netherlands).
A self confessed Wolves fan and our player of the year for the 1978 to 1979 season, George Berry won 5 Welsh caps whilst with Wolves and was one of the most iconic footballing figures of the Seventies.
The Wolves faithful would sing and rejoice about George’s afro, the likes of which wouldn’t be seen on a football pitch until later in Don Goodman’s career.
One of the pioneering black players of the Seventies, George is now a senior commercial executive at the PFA.
Preceding Berry in the centre of the Wolves defence was Frank Munro.
Turning out 9 times for Scotland, Frank played nearly 300 times for Wolves between 1968 and 1977.
He started his career as an amateur at Chelsea, but played the majority of his career in gold and black.
If every there was a player with a name destined to play for Wolves it was John De Wolf.
Rambo joined us in 1994 after winning the Dutch title with Feyenoord and went on to be part of the 94’ Dutch World Cup squad and ended up winning 6 caps.
He scored a hat-trick away at Port Vale and will be remembered fondly by Wolves fans.
I’ve gone for a midfield 3 of Robbie Dennison (Northern Ireland), Willie Carr (Scotland) and Bryn Jones (Wales).
Robbie Dennison can now be heard commentating on Wolves matches on the radio, but for 11 years he fired in pinpoint crosses from the left flank.
With 18 caps to his name, Robbie was part of the resurgent Wolves team of the late Eighties that dragged the club back up from the brink of extinction.
He scored in our 1988 Sherpa Van Trophy win against Burnley and in an 11 year Wolves career notched up nearly 300 appearances.
A very attacking midfield continues with Willie Carr.
Willie is world famed for the donkey kick goal scored against Everton when playing for Coventry in 1970, when he took a free kick by gripping the ball between his ankles and flicking it up for Ernie Hunt to volley home.
He played in 289 games for Wolves and won a league cup with the club in 1980.
Bryn Jones played for Wolves 177 times between 1933 and 1938. He won 17 caps for his country and there was an outcry around Molineux when he was sold in 1938.
The three pronged gold and black strike-force consists of Derek Dougan (Northern Ireland), Andy Gray (Scotland) and Robbie Keane (Ireland).
The Doog, who died earlier this year, will always be remembered as possibly the most charismatic and out spoken of all Wolves players. He scored a hat-trick on his debut against Hull and topped the Wolves scoring charts for three seasons.
He formed a formidable partnership up front with John Richards and remains the only Wolves player to score a hat-trick in European competition.
He went on to become PFA chairman and heavily involved in politics.
But for most, the Doog will be remembered as one of the most talent players to ever pull on the old gold and black.
Super Sunday commentator Andy Gray joined Wolves from Villa in 1979 for a then British record of £1.5m.
He scored the winning goal in the 1980 league cup final against Forest and played 133 games for Wolves, more than any of his other clubs.
He remained with the club through their relegation and immediate return to the top flight, something not many, if any, top class strikers would do today.
Playing just behind the front 2 (in the hole) is Robbie Keane.
Keano is in my opinion the most gifted footballer to have graced Molineux since the glory days of Steve Bull.
As a 17 year old he scored 2 sublime goals on his debut away at Norwich and played in 2 and a bit seasons at Wolves before being sold for £6 million to Coventry in 1999.
He stopped off at Internazionale and Leeds before making Spurs his footballing home in 2002.
At only 27, he has become the Republic of Ireland’s top goalscorer of all time, with 31 goals in 77 appearances.
He has total transfer fees of nearly £38 million and I, like many Wolves fans, hope that one day he comes back and plays for the club where he started.
So there you have it, my Wolves International XI of Paul Jones, Denis Irwin, George Berry, Frank Munro, John De Wolf, Willie Carr, Robbie Dennison, Bryn Jones, Derek Dougan, Andy Gray and Robbie Keane.
When doing my research I identified nearly 100 players who have played for Wolves and won non-English international caps.
On the subs bench, the 5 players are: - Wayne Hennessey, Colin Cameron, David Kelly, Kenny Miller and Kevin Muscat.
Have I omitted someone from the team who you feel deserves a place?
And I’ll leave you with this one to ponder; can you name the Wolves player who has won the most international caps?
16 Comments
What, no Freddy ???
Wolves Blogs,
Mentions Bryn Jones BUT forgets the England V Wales International match at the Hawthorns where Wolves supplied BOTH goalkeepers. ie. Bert Williams and Cyril Sidlow for England and Wales respectively.
Happy_baggie GROW UP.
.. and how many of these were given away? Shame you missed Lescott and dare I mention Billy Wright?
I guess you have the same ability of picking a good team as MM does these days!
you’re sharp, watch you dont cut yourself.
William Ambrose Wright with 105 me thinks.
NO bully?
Wolves most capped player is Billy Wright with 105 caps. Counting caps won only with Wolves, the most capped non-English player is Derek Dougan with 26 for Northern Ireland.
nagging bargie - that is actually quite funny… Tell you what, if Andy Gray were irish then I reckon MM would try and coax him out of retirement.
An excellent team and , although some of our readers missed the fact that it was a team made up of players not able to represent England ,it shows the depth of the talent that we have had on view at Molineux over the years .
why cant people read the article properley, ITS A TEAM OF PLAYERS WHO HAVE WON NON-ENGLISH INTERNATIONAL CAPS!!! Meaning they cant be english players!!
Just shows how rubbish Wolves have been at signing quality players from outside the UK and Ireland. There’s a strong argument that Olofinjana is our most successful signing in this respect.
u have foregotten malcolm finlayson scotland who also served wolves faithfully during the late fifties as goalkeeper, not briliant but consistantly good.
By the way, it was Al Jaber who had the most international caps with 125.
This blog took me a long time to put together, simply for the fact that we really haven’t had a great wealth of Wolves players who have won non-English international caps and I really struggled to put together a quality 11, hence why De Wolf gets in the team!
Thanks for everyones responses though, always welcome. On Friday I will post my all time Wolves XI for people to discuss.
Cheers.
Nathan Lloyd…
Paul Jones went from Wolves to Stockport… Not wolves to Southampton
Bojangles, for a blog that took me 2 days to write, that is a really useful comment!