List of Manchester United F.C. players
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Manchester United Football Club Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd), or simply United, is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. The club competes in the Premier League, ...
is an English professional association football club based in
Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...
, Greater Manchester. The club was formed in
Newton Heath Newton Heath is an area of Manchester, England, north-east of Manchester city centre and with a population of 9,883. Historically part of Lancashire, Newton was formerly a farming area, but adopted the factory system following the Industrial Re ...
in 1878 as Newton Heath LYR F.C., and played their first competitive match in October 1886, when they entered the First Round of the
1886–87 FA Cup The 1886–87 Football Association Challenge Cup was the 16th FA Cup, England's oldest football tournament. One hundred and twenty-eight teams entered, two fewer than the previous season, in addition to four of the one hundred and twenty-eight ne ...
. The club was renamed Manchester United F.C. in 1902, and moved to
Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...
in 1910. Since playing their first competitive match, 954 players have made a competitive first-team appearance for the club, of whom 221 players have made at least 100 appearances (including substitute appearances). Manchester United's record appearance-maker is
Ryan Giggs Ryan Joseph Giggs (né Wilson; 29 November 1973) is a Welsh association football, football coach and former player. Regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation, Giggs played his List of one-club men in association football, entir ...
, who made a total of 963 appearances over a 23-year playing career; he broke Bobby Charlton's previous appearance record in the
2008 UEFA Champions League Final The 2008 UEFA Champions League Final was a football match that took place on 21 May 2008 at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia, to determine the winner of the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League. It was contested by Manchester United and Chel ...
. Giggs also holds the record for the most starts, having started in 797 matches. Charlton was also the club's top goalscorer with 249 goals in his 17 years with the club. He held the mark for 45 years, until Charlton's mark was overtaken by
Wayne Rooney Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English professional football manager and former player, who is the manager of Major League Soccer club D.C. United in the United States. He spent much of his playing career as a forward while als ...
scoring his 250th goal during the 2016–17 season; Rooney finished his 13-year tenure with Manchester United with 253 goals in 559 appearances. Other than Charlton, Giggs and Rooney, only seven players have made more than 500 appearances for the club, including three members of the 1968 European Cup-winning team (
Tony Dunne Anthony Peter Dunne (24 July 19418 June 2020) was an Irish footballer who played as a left-back. Born in Dublin, he began his career with youth side Stella Maris before signing for Drumcondra-based Shelbourne, with whom he won the FAI Cup in ...
,
Alex Stepney Alexander Cyril Stepney (born 18 September 1942) is an English former footballer who was Manchester United's goalkeeper when they became the first English club to win the European Cup. Early career Born in Mitcham, Surrey, Stepney had unsucce ...
and Bill Foulkes as well as Charlton) and three members of the 1999 Treble-winning team ( Denis Irwin,
Gary Neville Gary Alexander Neville (born 18 February 1975) is an English football pundit and former player. He is also a co-owner of English Football League club Salford City. After retiring from football in 2011, Neville went into punditry and was a comm ...
and
Paul Scholes Paul Scholes (born 16 November 1974) is an English football coach, pundit, former player, and co-owner of Salford City. He spent his entire professional playing career with Manchester United, for whom he scored over 150 goals in more than 700 ...
as well as Giggs); the seventh is Joe Spence, who played for the club during the
interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...
. Other than Charlton and Rooney, only two players (
Denis Law Denis Law (born 24 February 1940) is a Scottish former footballer who played as a forward. His career as a football player began at Second Division Huddersfield Town in 1956. After four years at Huddersfield, he was signed by Manchester City ...
and Jack Rowley) have scored more than 200 goals for the club. The most recent player to reach 100 appearances for the club is
Bruno Fernandes Bruno Miguel Borges Fernandes (; born 8 September 1994) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for club Manchester United and the Portugal national team. Fernandes is known for his goalscoring, playmak ...
, who reached the milestone on 2 December 2021.


List of players

*Appearances and goals are for first-team competitive matches only, including
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 ...
,
Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...
,
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 ...
, League Cup, Charity/Community Shield, European Cup/Champions League, UEFA Cup/Europa League, Cup Winners' Cup,
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, sometimes referred to as the European Fairs Cup, Fairs Cities' Cup, or simply as the Fairs Cup, was a European Association football, football competition played between 1955 and 1971. It is often considered the predecess ...
,
Super Cup A super cup is a competition, usually but not exclusively in association football, which often forms the 'curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competitions during the prev ...
and
Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 200 ...
matches; wartime matches are regarded as unofficial and are excluded, as are matches from the abandoned 1939–40 season. *Players are listed according to the date of their first-team debut for the club. ''Statistics correct as of match played 28 January 2023'' ;Table headers * Nationality – If a player played international football, the country/countries he played for are shown. Otherwise, the player's nationality is given as their country of birth. * Manchester United career – The year of the player's first appearance for Manchester United to the year of his last appearance. * Starts – The number of matches started. * Sub – The number of matches played as a substitute. * Total – The total number of matches played, both as a starter and as a substitute.


Club captains

Since 1882, 46 players have held the position of club captain for Newton Heath LYR F.C., Newton Heath F.C. or Manchester United F.C. The first club captain was E. Thomas, who was captain from 1882 to 1883. The longest-serving captain is
Bryan Robson Bryan Robson OBE (born 11 January 1957) is an English football manager and former player. He began his career with West Bromwich Albion in 1972, where he amassed over 200 appearances and was club captain before moving to Manchester United in ...
, who was club captain from 1982 to 1994, although he held the position jointly with
Steve Bruce Stephen Roger Bruce (born 31 December 1960) is an English professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who played as a centre-back. He most recently managed West Bromwich Albion F.C., West Br ...
for the last two years of his tenure.
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 ...
, who was captain from 1997 to 2005, has the distinction of having won the most trophies as captain; he won four
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 ...
titles, two
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 ...
s, one Community Shield, one
UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...
and one Intercontinental Cup. The current club captain is
Harry Maguire Jacob Harry Maguire (born 5 March 1993) is an English professional Association football, footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Manchester United F.C., Manchester United and the England national football team, England national team. ...
, who took over after Ashley Young departed in 2020.


Notes

* A utility player is one who is considered to play in more than one position.


References

General * * Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Manchester United F.C. Players
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 ...
Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
Association football player non-biographical articles