The best English XI to have never played in Champions League: Wright, Pickford… | OneFootball

The Champions League is the pinnacle of the European club game, but you’ll be surprised to learn of some players who never once played in it.

While the competition has grown into a gargantuan juggernaut, the lack of places for English clubs up until 2002 meant several talented stars missed out on Champions League football.

We’ve picked out the best English players to have never participated in the Champions League, lining up in a 4-4-2 formation with 385 international caps between them.

GK: Jordan Pickford

We considered David James and Paul Robinson for the goalkeeper’s slot, but Pickford has been better for England than both of them.

Everton did qualify for the Champions League in 2005, but haven’t threatened to do so again since finishing fifth under Roberto Martinez 12 years ago.

Pickford is unlikely to ever play in the competition, but it hasn’t harmed his international prospects one iota.

RB: Luke Young

From Gary Neville to Kyle Walker, England have normally had a thoroughbred right-back during the Champions League era.

This forced us to dig a little deeper and right-back was the final position in this XI we filled.

Young was a solid Premier League player with Tottenham, Charlton, Middlesbrough and Aston Villa. He played UEFA Cup football for Villa and won seven England caps under Sven-Goran Eriksson.

Roy Hodgson did attempt to sign him as Liverpool manager, but the Reds were in the Europa League by this time.

This was the summer Hodgson also bid £12million for Carlton Cole. Let’s move on quickly…

CB: Phil Jagielka

A stalwart at Sheffield United and Everton, Jagielka was probably not quite at Champions League level.

The defender’s limitations were exposed in England’s World Cup losses to Italy and Uruguay in 2014.

While Rio Ferdinand scoffed when David Moyes showed him clips of Jagielka’s defending during his time at Manchester United.

Still, he was a fine Premier League defender and played in several Europa League campaigns at Goodison Park.

CB: Gareth Southgate

Southgate was certainly good enough to play in the Champions League. Alas, Aston Villa were the Premier League’s nearlymen throughout the 1990s.

They did finish fourth in 1996, enough to qualify for the competition these days. But UEFA had yet to wise up to the financial benefits of allowing up to six English teams to participate.

The defender had to make do with 57 England caps, several UEFA Cup campaigns and dreams of being a patron saint of LinkedIn.

LB: Leighton Baines

It would’ve been so different had Manchester United signed Baines from Everton in the summer of 2013.

But one of the coolest footballers in Premier League history was never destined to play in Europe’s elite competition.

He’d just have to make do with several thunderbolt free-kicks, a steady stream of assists and penalty taking you’d stake your life on.

RM: Jarrod Bowen

Bowen would be a fine addition to several Champions League squads if West Ham get relegated this season.

We could’ve seen him as Mohamed Salah’s back-up for Klopp’s Liverpool or signed ahead of Leandro Trossard for Arsenal.

But time is against Bowen now; the England forward will be 30 by the end of 2026 and is likely to slip out of the international picture for younger alternatives.

At least he’ll have the memories of scoring the winner in the Hammers’ Conference League final triumph over Fiorentina in 2023.

CM: David Platt

Surely Platt played in the Champions League during his time in Italy? Or as a late-career impact sub for Arsenal?

The stats say otherwise. Platt played in the UEFA Cup for Juventus and Sampdoria in the 1990s, before appearing in the same competition for Arsenal.

One of English football’s finest ever exports, the goal-scoring midfielder proved his worth for the 1998 double-winning Gunners before being sold to Nottingham Forest.

CM: Matt Le Tissier

Le Tissier famously never left Southampton, despite multiple offers from elsewhere.

“If I had this time again I would make the same choices,” Le Tissier told Sporting Life.

“I put personal happiness above money and trophies and I enjoyed being a big fish in a small pond, I have never been afraid of admitting that.

“I could play football the way I wanted to play football for the majority of the time I was at Southampton.”

Which is lovely, but perhaps broadening his horizons would’ve left him better placed to swerve those YouTube rabbit holes…

LM: Darren Anderton

Not only did Anderton never play in the Champions League, he never played any European football thanks to Tottenham’s hopeless inconsistency in the 1990s.

The former England midfielder told us that Manchester United were interested in signing him, before Alan Sugar put his foot down.

ST: Ian Wright

In the modern era, a goalscorer of Wright’s ability would’ve played in multiple Champions League campaigns and international tournaments.

But the 1990s were a different time. Only the league winners qualified until 1997, while a plethora of forwards were ahead of Wrighty in the England pecking order.

He left Highbury after Arsenal won the title in 1998, spending the following year at Harry Redknapp’s West Ham while his former team-mates were knocked out in the group stages.

ST: Les Ferdinand

Ferdinand scored 149 Premier League goals without taking a single penalty. Whip that out next time the conversation at the pub starts to flag.

‘Sir Les’ played in the UEFA Cup for Newcastle and Besiktas, but never heard the Champions League anthem in all its glory.

He also went to Euro 96 and the 1998 World Cup without making it onto the pitch.

Ferdinand later revealed on the Stick to Football podcast he’d have come on against Argentina in the latter tournament until David Beckham’s red card.

“So I was looking at Glenn and Glenn looks at me, he goes, ‘Les, I’ve got to put someone on that can play midfield and get forward,’ and that was Paul Merson, so I sort of like retreated back.”