The best Welsh XI to never play for Wales

Leon Barton

With two former Welsh under 21 international goalkeepers having retired in the past couple of weeks in Chris Maxwell and Connor Roberts, I thought it an opportune time to look at some of the best Welsh footballers never to have pulled on the red shirt (at senior level).

Both Maxwell and Roberts got close, having been called into the senior squad but, sadly for them, never took to the pitch. Oh well, to paraphrase a famous cliche, it’s better to have been called up and not called upon than never called up at all.

Just to be clear, I’m not talking about people who were born in Wales but played for other teams (Rob Jones – England, Kevin Sheedy – Republic of Ireland, Paul James – Canada) or those with Welsh parents or grandparents who could have played for Wales but didn’t such as Emlyn Hughes or Owen Hargreaves.

This team is a team of people who qualified for and wanted to play for Wales but just fell short.

In a 4-3-3 formation:

Goalkeeper: Chris Maxwell
Goalkeeper is a position in which a few decent players have missed out on playing international football. Only one can play of course which makes the position particularly vunerable to good players not quite making it. Maxwell was an excellent keeper, who made his Wrexham debut at the age of just 18. He left for Fleetwood Town in 2012 but returned to Wrexham on loan the following season following an injury to Joslain Mayebi. This would lead to a career highlight when Wrexham won the FA Trophy via a penalty shoot out against Grimsby Town. The return to Wembley a few weeks later would lead to heartbreak when Newport County won the National League play off final.

Probably the best spell of his career was at Blackpool where he played 114 games and won promotion to the Championship in 2021. Maxwell’s 21 clean sheets saw him picked for the League One PFA Team of the Year.

As for Wales, he won 16 under 21 caps between 2008 and 2011, played in possibly the greatest Welsh under 21 performance of all time (the 2-1 victory over Italy in Swansea in 2009) and came close to the greatest summer in the history of Welsh football when he was called up to the full squad just weeks ahead of the tournament, with injury concerns around Danny Ward. In the event, Ward recovered (and played in the first game following an injury to Wayne Hennessey) and Maxwell never made the senior squad again.

Defender: Mickey Evans
Born in Llanidloes, Powys in 1947, right back Evans joined Wolverhampton Wanderers as a youth but failed to make an appearance for their first team. After moving to Wrexham in 1966 he quickly established himself and was a regular for the next 13 seasons, playing in five Welsh Cup finals, and the run to the quarter final of the 1976 European Cup Winners Cup. He also won two promotions. Sadly, during Wrexham’s very first season in the second tier he sustained a back injury while playing against Fulham which forced premature retirement in his early 30s. In 1983, back in his native Powys, he became manager of Caersws, an association which lasted nearly three decades.

Unlike Wrexham colleagues such as Joey Jones, Mickey Thomas, Gareth Evans, Arfon Griffiths and Brian Lloyd, Evans never won a cap with the likes of Peter Rodrigues and Rod Thomas ahead of him the the pecking order for the right back berth. But at Wrexham, he’s a club legend, his 480 appearances placing him fifth on the club’s all time list.

Defender: Alan Fox
Another Wrexham stalwart. Fox played 412 games for the club at centre half after making his debut in 1954 (11th on the all time list). 198 his 350 league appearances occurred consecutively from 1958 to 1963 as he did not miss a match.

Born in Holywell, Deeside, Fox won caps at u-23 level but couldn’t force his way past the likes of Mel Charles, Derrick Sullivan and later Mike England and Terry Hennessey into the full XI, despite being named in the preliminary squad for the 1958 World Cup.

Fox attracted the interest of Arsenal but remained loyal to Wrexham and stayed at The Racecourse until 1964 when he joined Hartlepools United. He also had short spells at Bradford and Dundalk in Ireland.

Fox died in 2021, at the age of 85.

Defender: Morgan Fox
Another Fox defending the box, Morgan is still only 31 so perhaps still has time to play for Wales, especially considering current first choice keeper Karl Darlow was only just short of his 34th birthday when he made his debut. It appears unlikely though, with Neco Williams (age 24) and Coventry City’s Jay DaSilva (age 27) ahead of him when it comes to the left back/wing back spot.

Still, Fox has had a very decent career with Charlton Athletic, Sheffield Wednesday, Stoke City and Queens Park Rangers, playing ten of the twelve seasons since making his debut in the Championship (and two in League One).

Chelmsford-born with Welsh family, Fox won 7 Welsh under 21 caps and has made the senior squad several times, most recently in 2024 for the Euro play off final defeat to Poland.

Defender: Rhoys Wiggins
There’s a great photo of the Welsh Under 21 team ahead of a game against Romania in Wrexham in 2008. Gareth Bale’s in there, as is Aaron Ramsey. And Chris Gunter, Wayne Hennessey, David Edwards and Sam Vokes. The team was so strong in fact that Joe Allen only made the bench. Every single player played senior interantional football (although Perth-born Rhys Williams jumped ship to Australia a few months later). All except one.

Rhoys Wiggins was one of those players whose performances for Brian Flynn’s outstanding under 21 side of the era were in contrast to the limited impression being made at club level.

In October 2008, just ahead his 21st birthday, Crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock had his hand forced by Wiggins’ under 21 performances, and an injury to regular left back Clint Hill.

‘To be fair he disappointed me on the training ground. It was only when he played for Wales against James Milner twice in the U21s that he showed me what he could do’ Warnock was quoted as saying at the time.

Sent out on loan to Bournemouth not long after, he signed permanently for the Cherries in 2010, although the best spell of his career came with Charlton Athletic between 2011 and 2015. In 2012 they were League One champions and Wiggins was one of four Charlton players named in the PFA League One Team of the Year.

Wiggins was called up to the senior Wales squad in 2006 and 2013 but remained on the bench on both occasions.

His career basically ended in 2016 at the age of 28 when – in his first start on loan at Birmingham City – in the Second City derby against Aston Villa, he was stretchered off in stoppage time with a serious knee injury. Manager Gary Rowett described Wiggins’ final performance as a professional as ‘absolutely brilliant’.

Midfield: Jason Price
Unlike Wiggins, Abadare- born midfielder/attacker Price was part of an absolutely atrocious Wales under 21 team, winning 7 caps in 1998 and 1999 when the side was in the middle of a five and a half year winless run (March 1997 until November 2002…gulp)

According to Wikipedia, Price played for 22 clubs (TWENTY TWO!!!)

The bulk of his appearances came at Swansea City, where he played 136 times before he moved to Brentford in 2001 after failing to agree on terms to stay at the Swans.

Probably his best spells were at Hull City and Doncaster Rovers between 2003 and 2009 (he scored for Donny against Aston Villa in an FA Cup 4th round replay in 2009 – Villa still won the tie 3-1) but at that time manager Wales John Toshack was looking to blood the next generation and was more inclined to pick the youngsters recommended to him by Wales’ youth guru Brian Flynn. Therefore other midfielders such as Mark Bradley and Shaun Macdonald won full Wales caps and he didn’t. A touch unlucky perhaps.

Midfield: John Elsworthy
Elsworthy is – I believe – the only Welshman to have won the league in England (with Ipswich Town in 1962. Manager: Alf Ramsey) yet never win a Wales cap. His success in winning the title was the fourth time Elsworthy had topped the table with Ipswich, following Division Three (South) in 1953–54 and 1956–57 and Division Two in 1960–61. A one-club man, he played over 400 games and score over fifty goals for Ipswich before retiring in 1965. After that he stayed in East Anglia to run a post office branch.

Born in the village of Nant-y-derry, between Abergavenny and Usk, he was at Newport as a youth before heading east.

Elsworthy was part of the Wales squad for the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, but didn’t travel, the FAW considering it more important to send a full compliment of councillers rather than fulfil their player quota. It strikes me as utterly bizarre that his club success in the early Sixties wasn’t rewarded with at least one cap. He’s surely the greatest Welsh footballer never to play international football.

Elsworthy died in 2009, aged 77.

Midfield: Gareth Owen
Owen is a Wrexham legend. That, despite being born in Chester. Still, he has a good excuse; ‘My mum was over 40 when I was born, so the added risk meant she had no other option. The rest of my family were all born in Mancot and I regard myself as nothing but a passionate Welshman’.
Mancot, where Owen was raised, is the same tiny Deeside village that produced Welsh legends Gary Speed and Kevin Ratcliffe.

When Owen’s wife Gemma (head of women’s football at Wrexham) described him in Welcome to Wrexham as ‘one of the best midfielders we’ve ever had’ that’s not bias. With 476, he’s 9th on the list of all-time appearances for the club, and played a key role in the promotion season of 1992/93 and the famous giant killings of the 90s (Lyngby, Arsenal, Ipswich, West Ham, Middlesbrough)

Despite his stellar service in Wrexham red, his manager Brian Flynn describes Owen as ‘the one who disappointed me most’. He expanded on that on an appearance on the Fearless in Devotion podcast; ‘I thought Gareth would go on to bigger and better things but he didn’t have the desire.

He didn’t have that real edge you’ve got to have to play at the top level, he didn’t do enough to play for Wales. He had the ability to dominate games but he never used that ability. I don’t think he realised it, I suppose’. Flynn then sounded a rueful note; ‘it was probably my fault for not getting the best out of him’.

Forward: Carl Griffiths
A striker who once scored for Manchester City away to Athletico Madrid must have won a hatful of Wales caps, right? Wrong.

In a feature about the game, the club’s website describes Griffiths’ goal; ‘The City striker showed tremendous presence of mind by gathering the rebound on the by-line and cutting back inside before fizzing a low shot home to deservedly level affairs’.

And this wasn’t a pre-season friendly either. It was, however, a mid-season friendly (wrap your heads around that one, kids. They did things differently in the Nineties)

Oswestry-born, Griffths made a name for himself by scoring a ton of goals for Shrewsbury Town in the early Nineties. Big clubs had been sniffing around for a while before City swooped in 1993.

‘Carl was a good player. I had seen him a lot playing for Shrewsbury, and it wasn’t a great deal of money to bring him in, so we took a gamble on him and he did OK,’ says then City manager Brian Horton. ‘He got a bad injury when we beat Everton 4-0 which put him out for quite a while, but Carl always had the ability to score goals’.

Despite, Horton’s words, Griffiths only managed to net four times for City before moving on to Portsmouth.

Won under 21 caps but never seemed close to the senior squad.

Forward: Sean McCarthy
As with Griffiths, McCarthy was another striker to score goals in the Premier League, yet never win a Wales cap. Such a scenario would be very difficult to imagine now but back in the early to mid-Nineties Wales had Ian Rush, Mark Hughes and Dean Saunders, with the likes of Malcolm Allen and Iwan Roberts in reserve. Nathan Blake and John Hartson were also coming through.

The sheer amount of money in top flight English football also means clubs will get foreign players in rather than the likes of Griffiths and McCarthy these days.

Born in Bridgend, and after a slow start at Swansea, McCarthy went on to have an excellent career, scoring a hugely impressive 220 goals in 568 games as a professional.

He’s most recent player to score a top flight goal for Oldham Athletic, netting for them in a 1–1 draw against Norwich City at Carrow Road on the final day of the 1993–94 season, a game Oldham needed to win to retain their top flight status. They’ve been nowhere near the EPL since.
McCarthy retired in 2003, following a spell at Exeter City.

Forward: Kurt Nogan
A Cardiffian who enjoyed the best times of his career in Lancashire with Preston North End and Burnley between 1995 and 2000, although he also had an excellent spell at Brighton preceeding the move north.

Whilst at Preston he scored twice to put the club 2-0 up in an FA Cup tie against holders Arsenal and must surely have been in manager Bobby Gould’s (shudder) thoughts at that time but Wales were still well served in the striker positions, so he never so much as made a squad.
Older brother Lee won two caps, in 1992 and 1995.

Nogan moved to his hometown club at the turn of the millennium but only managed one goal at Cardiff before being forced to retire in 2001.
Won two under 21 caps in 1990 and 1991.

Subs:
Connor Roberts – Following the sudden international retirement of California-born keeper Boaz Myhill in 2014, Roberts, then of Cheltenham Town, received a call up for the summer friendly against The Netherlands. It would be the closest he ever got to a cap, although his recent excellent performances for TNS, particularly in Europe, saw murmurings from some fans that he should be considered.

Joe Jacobsen – Yet another left back. Cardiff-born Joe Jacobsen had a very good career with Wycombe Wanderers, for whom he made exactly 400 appearences and was selected in League Two’s PFA Team of the Year in 2016 and League One’s in 2020. Was captain of the Welsh under 21 team that defeated France 4-2 in 2007.

Andrew Hughes – Another Cardiffian defender, Hughes has been a Championship stalwart for Preston North End since joining them in 2018. Never seems to have been close to a Wales cap though and, turning 33 next month, doesn’t appear likely to get one either.

Marc Lloyd Williams – The League of Wales/Welsh Premier League’s all time top goalscorer with 319 goals. Won a B cap in 1999 but his failure to make a strong impression during his short spells in the football league with York City and Halifax Town meant a full Wales call up was to elude the man known as ‘Jiws’.

Paul Mullin – …puts tin hat on. It’s not a hill I’m willing to die on but Mullin, who qualifies due to a Welsh grandparent, is certainly a more skillful footballer than many who’ve turned out for Wales over the years. Now in his thirties, and with massive competition for his place at club level with Wrexham, the chance seems to have passed.