James Milner played 658 Premier League games across a record 24-year span
James Milner debuted for Leeds in the Premier League at 16 and was still playing in it past 40. Nobody has made more appearances in the competition, 658, or stayed in it for longer, 24 years. His PE teacher at primary school, the future referee Jon Moss, later showed him a red card.
Born in Leeds on 4 January 1986, Milner grew up a Leeds United fan, holding a season ticket with his parents and working as a ball boy. He joined the club's academy at ten, where he came up against a young Wayne Rooney. He was a gifted all-round athlete too, leaving school with 11 GCSEs, playing cricket for Yorkshire Schools and winning his school's cross-country title three years in a row.
His breakthrough was precocious. On 10 November 2002 he came on for the last six minutes against West Ham, then aged 16 years and 309 days. On Boxing Day that year, at 16 years and 356 days, he scored against Sunderland, becoming the youngest player to score in the Premier League until Everton's James Vaughan beat the mark in 2005. When Leeds were relegated in 2004 he turned down Tottenham because London was too far from the family home he still lived in, and moved to Newcastle instead, where he watched how Alan Shearer handled fans and the press.
Versatility defined his career: winger on either flank, central midfielder, even full-back. After spells at Newcastle and Aston Villa, where fellow professionals voted him their best young player in 2010, he joined Manchester City and won two league titles. A free transfer took him to Liverpool in 2015, where as vice-captain he lifted the Champions League in 2019 and a third Premier League title.
He played 61 times for England, scoring once, against Moldova, and made a record 46 appearances for the under-21 side. He went to the 2010 and 2014 World Cups. Only four other outfield players, among them Ryan Giggs and Teddy Sheringham, have appeared in the Premier League at 40 or older.
Source: James Milner
