Meet The Players

David James

David Benjamin James (born 1 August 1970, Welwyn Garden City, England) is an English professional footballer who currently plays for Portsmouth in the Premier League. He has played as a goalkeeper for a number of English clubs, and has won 39 caps^[1] for the England national football team. He won a League Cup medal with Liverpool in 1995, and an FA Cup medal with Portsmouth in 2008 .

After making one England under-21 appearance whilst at Watford, James made his full debut for Glenn Hoddle's England in a friendly against Mexico on 29 March 1997 as a Liverpool player, a game in which he kept his first international clean sheet as England beat Mexico 2–0 with goals from Teddy Sheringham and James' clubmate Robbie Fowler. For several years, however, he had to play understudy to England's regular keeper, David Seaman. When Seaman was dropped after making a mistake against FYR Macedonia in 2002, James became the new England number 1. He retained his place in the England team even after West Ham's relegation to the First Division in 2003, and was the only player from outside the top flight to win an England cap between 1999 (Michael Gray) and 2007 (David Nugent). He went on to play in all of England's matches in Euro 2004.

However, James had not started a competitive match for England since an error in a 2–2 World Cup qualifying draw against Austria in September 2004, his place being taken by Tottenham's Paul Robinson, until the Switzerland international on 6 February 2008.

James came on as a half time substitute and conceded all four goals in the 4–1 drubbing England suffered at the hands of Denmark during a summer friendly on 17 August 2005 — their worst defeat in 25 years. However, James still remained part of the England squad, and was selected as the second-choice goalkeeper behind Robinson for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, though he did not play.

After an outstanding season at Portsmouth, England boss Steve McClaren recalled the former England number 1 for the friendly with Germany at the new Wembley Stadium on 22 August 2007. James subsequently played the whole of the second half of England's 2–1 defeat to Germany, coming on as a substitute for Robinson, and did not concede any goals. In so doing, became the first Portsmouth player to play for the senior England team since Mark Hateley in 1984. However, James was dropped for the inexperienced Scott Carson for the decisive Euro 2008 qualifier against Croatia on 21 November 2007 - whose goalkeeping errors contributed to a 3-2 loss for England and failure to qualify for Euro 2008, costing Steve McClaren his job as manager.

On 31 January 2008, James received an England call-up from new manager Fabio Capello and was the first choice goalkeeper going in the friendly match against Switzerland. Two months later he played for England again against France(with England losing 1-0), and England's friendly against U.S.A (resulting in a 2-0 win) .

On 01 June 2008, James started in an England friendly match against Trinidad and Tobago in Port of Spain. In the 8th minute he made a typical James blunder and caused a horrific injury to striker Kenwyne Jones. England went on to win the game 3-0.