Sunderland Association Football Club Sunderland Association Football Club (, ) is an English professional football club based in the city of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear. Formed in 1879, Sunderland play in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club has won six ...

was founded in 1879, and turned professional in 1886. This list contains all players that have played 100 or more first-class matches for the club. However, some players who have played fewer matches are also included. This includes players who have set a club playing record, such as goalscoring or transfer fee records.

Jimmy Montgomery Jimmy Montgomery BEM (born 9 October 1943) is an English retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He made a record 627 appearances for his hometown club Sunderland with 537 of these appearances being in the league, after joining the cl ...

holds the record for Sunderland appearances, having played 627 matches between 1960 and 1977, followed by

Len Ashurst Leonard Ashurst (10 March 1939 – 25 September 2021) was an English football player, manager and administrator. He spent most of his playing career with Sunderland, making 458 appearances, the second most in the club's history. He retired a ...

who made 459 appearances. As of 21 March 2009, the player who has won most

international caps In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

while at the club is

Charlie Hurley Charles John Hurley (born 4 October 1936) is an Irish former footballer who played mainly in the Center Back position. Hurley is best known for his long career at Sunderland, where he was named the Black Cats' "Player of the Century" by th ...

with 36 for

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

. Alf Common became the first transfer to reach £1,000 after moving to

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

from Sunderland in 1905. The goalscoring record is held by

Bobby Gurney Bobby Gurney (13 October 1907 – 14 April 1994) was a football forward who is the highest goal scorer in the history of his only senior club as a player, Sunderland. Early years Born in Stewart Street, Silksworth, Sunderland, his father J ...

, with 227 goals in all competitions, in 390 appearances, scored between 1925 and 1950.

Charlie Buchan Charles Murray Buchan (22 September 1891 – 25 June 1960) was an English footballer, sporting journalist and commentator. Buchan started his career in 1909 with Woolwich Arsenal (later renamed Arsenal F.C.). He is known for his career with Su ...

is the next highest goalscorer, closely behind Gurney with 221 goals, in 411 games, from 1911 to 1925. Dave Halliday holds the record for the most goals scored in a season, set in 1928–29, with 43 league goals in 42 games in the First Division. Halliday also holds a high goalscoring ratio while at Sunderland, scoring 175 goals in 164 games, with a goal every 0.94 games. Defender

was voted as Sunderland's "Player of the Century" in the club's centenary season in 1979.

Players

Players are listed according to the date of their first-team debut for the club. Appearances and goals are for first-team competitive matches only; wartime matches are excluded. Substitute appearances are included. Players with name in bold are Sunderland record holders.
Players with nationality in bold won full

for their country while with the club. ''Statistics are correct as of 19 October 2018''

Footnotes

:A. : Club's most capped player with 36 appearances for

. :B. : First player to be transferred for £1000. :C. : All-time top scorer. :D. : Most goals in a season (43) in 1928–29 season. :E. : Named Sunderland's player of the century. :F. : For a full description of positions see

football positions Football positions may refer to: *American football positions *Association football positions *Australian rules football positions *Rugby league positions *Rugby union positions In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comp ...

. :G. : The Date from column includes data of the year the player made his debut for the club, also including data of multiple spells at the club by a player. :H. : The Date to column includes data of the year the player made his last appearances for the club. :I. : All entries in this column are sourced to the player's individual page from The Stat Cat or Soccerbase. :J. : Club's first professional captain. :K. : Most capped player for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

of those playing for both Sunderland and the national side simultaneously. :L. : Top goalscorer for

of those playing for both Sunderland and the national side simultaneously. :M. : Represented England at both

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

. :N. : Only player to have captained

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

and

. :O. : All-time appearance record-holder :P. : Captained 1973 FA Cup winning team. :Q. : Scored 1973 FA Cup winning goal. :R. : Served as Chairman-Manager before appointment of

Roy Keane Roy Maurice Keane (born 10 August 1971) is an Irish football pundit, coach and former professional player. He is the joint most successful Irish footballer of all time, having won 19 major trophies in his club career, 17 of which came during ...

as manager in 2006–07 season. :S. : Post-war leading goalscorer. :T. : Club record transfer sale, £18,000,000, to

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

. :U. : Club record transfer purchase, £13,600,000, from Lorient. :V. : First non-British born player to represent SAFC at Wembley stadium as-well as the first German to play for the club.

References

;General * ;Specific

External links

Player statistics
at Soccerbase {{featured list

Players Players may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''Players'' (1979 film), a film starring Ali MacGraw * ''Players'' (2012 film), a Bollywood film * ''Players'' (Dicks novel), a novel by Terrance Dicks, based on the television series ''Doc ...

Association football player non-biographical articles