Over the years Nottingham Forest have been responsible for producing some fine footballers to wear the Three Lions upon their chest.
This evening sees England bring up a milestone. The game against Montenegro will see the men’s senior team play their 1000th international fixture.
If England do win their qualifier they will ensure a place at next summer’s Euro 2020 tournament.
__VIDEO__
Gareth Southgate’s men will be hoping to go one further during the European Championships, following England’s exploits at the 2018 World Cup where they achieved a fourth-placed finish.
Forest have had a decent amount of player represent England though. Over the years, 36 players have featured for the Three Lions whilst on the books at Frest.
Nottingham Forest News took a look at five of the top players to have represented England whilst playing for the Reds.
Stuart Pearce
The Forest and England left-back epitomised passion and determination when it came to playing for both club and country.
Pearce made 502 appearances for the Reds in 12 successful years at the City Ground, earning 78 caps for England in the process.
Probably the finest Forest player to represent the Three Lions, Pearce was also the Reds manager during the 2014/15 campaign.
For England, Pearce played his part in runs to the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup and Euro 96 before retiring from international duty in 1999.
Viv Anderson
The right-back during the Nottingham Forest glory days under Brian Clough, Anderson was also a fine England international.
He was the first black player to ever represent England in a full international match at men’s level and would collect 30 caps in total.
During his time at the City Ground, he was adored by the City Ground faithful. He won two European Cups, a league title, two league cups and a European Super Cup under the legendary Clough.
Peter Shilton
Another of Brian Clough’s miracle men, Shilton is currently the man with the most England appearances of all-time.
His 125 caps saw him go to three world cups and one European Championships.
Shilton is one of the finest goalkeepers ever to be produced by England and during his time at Forest he made 202 appearances, winning two European Cups along the way.
A stunning playing career saw him play professionally for almost 30 years and with 1390 appearances he also holds the record for the most competitive appearances in world football.
Nigel Clough
Some supporters of a certain age might be of the belief that Nigel Clough was badly underappreciated by England.
His goalscoring record for Forest was remarkable. He netted 131 goals for the club and sits second behind Greville Morris on the all-time list.
Despite constantly doing the business for the Reds he collected just 14 caps for the England senior team.
He did fail to score for the Three Lions but his work rate and ability to bring others into games still made him a vastly underused player for the national team.
Des Walker
As the song suggests, ‘you’ll never beat Des Walker’.
Ask any striker plying his trade when the centre-back was in his prime who they least liked playing against, the ex-Forest man would have been top of the list.
Walker was fast, good on the ball and ridiculously strong in the tackle. He made 346 appearances for Forest before moving to Sampdoria and was a revelation at the football club.
His form would see him earn 57 England caps and form part of a formidable defence at the 1990 World Cup.
Receive a digest of our best Nottingham Forest content each week direct to your mailbox
