Wes Brown has retired from international football despite being called into Fabio Capello’s first post-World Cup England squad. Brown, overlooked for the World Cup, retires at 30 with 23 caps following a début against Hungary in 1999. The defender told Capello in person following Manchester United’s Community Shield victory.
Brown, who would surely have won more caps bar for injuries over a 12 year career with United and England, said that younger players now deserve to play in the national team.
“After a lot of thought and with a very heavy heart, I have decided the time is right for me to retire from international football,” said Brown in a statement this evening.
“At the age of 30, I feel it is right for me to stand aside and let younger players come through, which allows me to concentrate on my club career.
“I regard it as an honour and a privilege to have represented my country at every level from under-15s upwards. I have always been very proud to play for England and wish them well in future tournaments.”
The defender follows Paul Robinson in retiring from international duty. Shame then that other senior England players such as John Terry and Frank Lampard failed to follow suit.
Brown figured heavily in United’s pre-season programme in Canada, USA, Mexico and Ireland but was overlooked by Sir Alex Ferguson for the club’s Community Shield match win over Chelsea today.
Now, if only Rooney and Carrick would follow suit. I detest international football for many reasons, but the one rising to the top of my list concerns the frequent interruption of the EPL season – especially for useless f*cking friendlies. I know that nationalistic fervor burns too hotly in the breast of most football fans for me to hope that international tournaments will fade into obscurity anytime soon, so how about this for a partial solution: all qualifying matches for the European and World Cups will be played in a tournament held during the off-season; no friendlies or qualifiers to be played during the season?
personally it’s united>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>england all the way for me, but these players love playing for their country so why should they quit if they dont want too?
What’s all this crap about standing aside for other players. He never played anyway! Time for him to retire from United. Considering the amount of time he spends injured, you’d have thought he takes up base jumping in his spare time. We need dedicated sportsmen, not hippies.
United > Base jumping
Thick CUNT
Fuck off Paul. Go take ride in a car with Anderson
test
country is more important than club, id kiss the elland road turf and salute don revie as a genius before id say no to england
lol…best wind up ever knobby…pisser
you or captainfletcher need to change name, theres no value in having two captains even if utd have about six
well, i’m the original one so captain fletcher needs to add some value…if he doesn’t like it, he can always go and support chelsea
E- Fight somebody boot up the old Fight Thread again
also I’m not a fn of the idea his names represents, flethcer as captain is as ludicrous as the idea he’s a good player
Captain hormone. I fucking hit him hard.take that you cunt!
I remember when fergie said that brown was a future England captain lol. Think his tongue was firmly in cheek!
@ captain-fletcher Fergie also said that Welbeck would go to the World Cup… he bigs up his players.
he was good at the start, same as all our young players before they get fergied
@ Ed. Certainly does lol. Wonder how good Brown would have been without all those injuries though. Getting serious injuries so early in his senior united career would have really hindered his development.