Southampton Football Club Southampton Football Club () is an English professional football club based in Southampton, Hampshire, which competes in the . Their home ground since 2001 has been St Mary's Stadium, before which they were based at The Dell. The club play in ...

is an English

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club based in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

. Founded in 1885 as St Mary's YMA, they became a professional club in 1891 and co-founded the

Southern Football League The Southern League is a men's football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from the South and Midlands of England. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the English fo ...

in 1894. Southampton won the Southern League Premier Division championship six times between 1896 and 1904, and were later elected to the

Football League Third Division The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the division become the fourth tier level. In 2004, following the f ...

in 1920. The Saints finished as runners-up in their first Football League season, and the following year received promotion to the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

Third Division South The Third Division South of The Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division North with clubs elected to the League or relegated from Division Two allocated to ...

champions. The club first entered the First Division in 1966, and currently play in its modern-day counterpart, the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

. Southampton won the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

in 1976, reached the final of the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

in 1979 and 2017, and won the

League Trophy The British Basketball League Trophy, often shortened to the BBL Trophy, is an annual cup competition for British basketball teams organised by the United Kingdom's top professional league, the British Basketball League. It is one of two peripher ...

in 2010. Since the club's formation, a total of 219 players have made 100 or more appearances for Southampton. Winger

Terry Paine Terence Lionel Paine (born 23 March 1939) is an English retired footballer. Originally from Winchester, Paine is best known for his career with Southampton, for whom he made over 800 appearances (a club record) in 18 seasons with the club. H ...

holds the record for the highest number of appearances for the Saints, having played 816 times for the club between 1957 and 1974. As of 2008, nine other players have made more than 400 appearances for Southampton. The club's top goalscorer is

Mick Channon Michael Roger Channon (born 28 November 1948) is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward, most notably for Southampton, and went on to represent the England national team in the 1970s. Scoring over 250 goals in his c ...

, who scored 228 goals in all competitions in two spells with the club, between 1966 and 1977, and from 1979 to 1982.

Matt Le Tissier Matthew Paul Le Tissier (; born 14 October 1968) is a former professional footballer. Born in Guernsey, he won eight caps for the England national team. Le Tissier spent his entire professional club career with Southampton before turning to non ...

is the only player to have won the

Southampton F.C. Player of the Season Southampton Football Club is an English association football club based in Southampton, Hampshire. Founded in 1885 as St Mary's YMA, they became a professional club in 1891, and co-founded the Southern League in 1894. Southampton won the Southern ...

award three times, while five other players (

Peter Shilton Peter Leslie Shilton (born 18 September 1949) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. His 30-year career included spells at 11 clubs and he has the distinction of playing over 1,000 league games, including in ...

Tim Flowers Timothy David Flowers (born 3 February 1967) is an English football manager and former player who recently was the manager of Stratford Town. He played as a goalkeeper from 1984 until 2003, notably in the Premier League for Blackburn Rovers w ...

, James Beattie,

Rickie Lambert Rickie Lee Lambert (born 16 February 1982) is an English former professional Association football, footballer. During his career, he played as a Forward (association football)#Striker, striker, before retiring in 2017. He won a number of persona ...

and

José Fonte José Miguel da Rocha Fonte (born 22 December 1983) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Ligue 1 club Lille and the Portugal national team. Fonte started his professional career with Sporting CP B, moving to ...

) have received the accolade twice. Le Tissier is also the only player besides Channon to have scored over 200 goals for Southampton.

Key

*The list is ordered first by date of debut, and then if necessary in alphabetical order by surname. *Appearances as a substitute are included. This feature of the game was introduced in the Football League at the start of the 1965–66 season. *Statistics are correct up to and including the match played on 4 March 2023. Where a player left the club permanently after this date, his statistics are updated to his date of leaving.

Players

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Footnotes

References

* *

External links

Southampton F.C. official websiteSaints Players Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:List of Southampton F.C. players *

Southampton F.C. Southampton Football Club () is an English professional football club based in Southampton, Hampshire, which competes in the . Their home ground since 2001 has been St Mary's Stadium, before which they were based at The Dell. The club play i ...