The England International Career That Lasted Eleven Minutes
Every England football player dreams of wearing the national football team kit and representing their country at international level, but many players who have had glittering football careers at club level have never played for England, let alone scored.
The backbone of the early Alex Ferguson years at Manchester United, Steve Bruce never played for the first team, only receiving a call-up in 1995 at the age of 34, turning down the opportunity.
The late Kevin Ferguson, Jimmy Bullard and David May also never reached the field, although the latter two at least made it to the bench in 2008 and 1997 respectively.
However, nobody perhaps maximised their minutes on the pitch more than David Nugent, who appeared in just one match, played 11 minutes and managed to score, achieving a perfect “goal a game” record for the Three Lions.
A rising star at the time who was at the time playing for Championship side Preston North End, David Nugent was a player tipped for greatness, although with the benefit of hindsight, it turned out his ceiling was in extremely talented second-tier squads.
Regardless, he became the first Lilywhite since Tom Finney to be called up to the England first team, replacing Charlton’s Darren Bent on 19th March 2007. Nine days later, in the 78th minute of an atrocious Euro 2008 qualifier against Andorra, manager Steve McLaren substituted him on for Andy Johnson.
He set up Kieron Dyer for a scuffed shot that went wide in the 84th, readied Steven Gerrard for a long-distance shot that was parried wide in the 86th minute, and took his own shot in the 87th minute that just went wide.
However, in the 89th minute, the unthinkable happens.
Steven Gerrard works a tremendous long pass to Jermaine Defoe, the Andorran goalkeeper gets one hand to it but an inch away from the net David Nugent powers it home to put himself in the record books.
In the ultimate example of maximising your minutes, that tap-in gives him the best goals-per-90 ratio in the history of the National team, especially since he never got another cap to spoil the record.