Wales national football team

The Wales national football team's only World Cup appearance was in 1958, but they left an impression by drawing all the matches in their group against Hungary, Mexico, and Sweden before defeating the Hungarians in a tiebreaker match to reach the Quarterfinals. There the Welsh lost 1–0 to eventual champions Brazil.

They have never qualified for the European Championship, last losing in the playoffs for a place in Euro 2004 against Russia. Russia had a player (Egor Titov) test positive for banned drug use after the first qualifying leg, however the sport's governing body decided to take no action against the team other than asking them not to play Titov again.

Former player Mark Hughes served as manager through the 2004 season, but he left to concentrate on his new job as manager of Blackburn Rovers of the English Premiership. John Toshack was appointed manager for the second time on 12 November 2004, ten years after he had resigned from the position after one game in charge.

During the Euro 2004 qualifying tournament Wales became the best supported national team in Europe, with an average attendance in excess of 70,000. The FAW's policy of cheaper tickets helped to contribute, but nonetheless it was a remarkable honour for a small nation, with little international success, and where football is arguably not even the national sport, as rugby union is more ingrained in the Welsh national sporting consciousness.

Stadium

Wales play their home matches at the Millennium Stadium. Prior to its construction they generally played at the grounds of Cardiff City F.C., Swansea City F.C. and Wrexham F.C. In recent seasons several matches have been played away from the Millennium stadium, in Swansea and Wrexham but thus far these have all been friendly matches.

Competition History

World Cup record

1930 to 1938 - Did not enter
1950 - Did not qualify
1954 - Did not qualify
1958 - Quarter-finals
1962 to 2006 - Did not qualify

European Championship record

1960 - Did not enter
1964 to 2004 - Did not qualify

FIFA World Ranking

Date	Ranking
January 1999	74th
January 2000	98th
January 2001	109th
January 2002	100th
January 2003	53rd
January 2004	65th
January 2005	68th
January 2006	72nd
July 2006	58th

Famous players

Current Squad

Goalkeepers

{| class="wikitable" Name Age Club Caps (goals) Debut Jason Brown 24 Blackburn Rovers 1 (0) v Trinidad and Tobago, 27 May 2006 Danny Coyne 32 Burnley 11 (0) v Unknown Glyn Garner 29 Leyton Orient 1 (0) v Trinidad and Tobago, 27 May 2006 Paul Jones 39 Queens Park Rangers 46 (0) v Scotland, 1997 Martyn Margetson 34 Cardiff City 1 (0) v Canada, 2004 Lewis Price 22 Ipswich 2 (0) v Cyprus, 16 November 2005 Darren Ward 32 Norwich City F.C. 0 (0) v n/a

Defenders

{| class="wikitable" Name Age Club Caps (goals) Debut Gareth Bale 17 Southampton 1 (0) v Trinidad and Tobago, 27 May 2006 Danny Collins 25 Sunderland 2 (0) v Cyprus, 16 November 2005 James Collins 22 West Ham 11 (0) v Unknown Mark Delaney 30 Aston Villa 33 (0) v Unknown Richard Duffy 20 Portsmouth 5 (0) v Slovenia, 17 August 2005 Rob Edwards 23 Wolves 10 (0) v Azerbaijan, 29 March 2003 Danny Gabbidon 27 West Ham 26 (0) v Czech Republic, 2002 Lewin Nyatanga 17 Derby 2 (0) v Paraguay, 1 March 2006 Robert Page 31 Coventry 41 (1) v Turkey, 1996 Sam Ricketts 24 Swansea 10 (0) v Hungary, 9 February 2005 Rhys Weston 27 Cardiff 7 (0) v Portugal, 6 February 2000

Midfielders

{| class="wikitable" Name Age Club Caps (goals) Debut Andrew Crofts 22 Gillingham 3 (0) v Azerbaijan, 12 October 2005 Simon Davies 26 Everton 28 (5) v Ukraine, 6 June 2001 Carl Fletcher 26 Westham 11 (0) v Scotland, 18 February 2004 Ryan Giggs (captain) 33 Manchester United 56 (11) v West Germany, June 1991 Jason Koumas 26 West Bromwich Albion F.C. 15 (1) v Ukraine, 6 June 2001 Joe Ledley 19 Cardiff 3 (0) v Poland, October 2005 John Oster 27 Reading 13 (0) v Unknown Paul Parry 25 Cardiff 6 (0) v Scotland, 18 February 2004 Carl Robinson 29 Norwich 29 (1) v Belarus, 1999 Owain Tudor Jones 24 Swansea 0 (0) v n/a David Vaughan 23 Crewe Alexandra 3 (0) v USA, 26 May 2003 Gavin Williams 25 Ipswich 1 (0) v Cyprus, 16 November 2005

Strikers

{| class="wikitable" Name Age Club Caps (goals) Debut Craig Bellamy 26 Liverpool 35 (9) v Jamaica, 23 March 1998 David Cotterill 19 Bristol City 3 (0) v Azerbaijan, 12 October 2005 Robert Earnshaw 25 Norwich 26 (11) v Germany, 14 May 2002

Managers

External links

Wales national football team | European national football teams

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