10 Footballers You Totally Forgot Played For England
9. Alex McCarthy
Despite being employed by Reading between 2007 and 2014, goalkeeper Alex McCarthy has become something of a journeyman throughout his career. For the first two years of this, he was loaned out to Woking, Cambridge United, Team Bath, and Aldershot Town, making just seven appearances between them. After several more loan spells to Yeovil, Brentford Town, Leeds United, and Ipswich Town, McCarthy finally broke into the first team, and enjoyed relative success between 2012 and 2014.
As a young English goalkeeper, it seemed as though a call-up to the first team may have been close behind. However, a move to QPR in 2014 and to Crystal Palace one year later saw him limited to just ten first team appearances. Naturally, his name was no longer mentioned in England squad conversations.
Though he had been called up to the squad in 2012 and again in 2013, he failed to make an appearance on the pitch. This changed when he moved to Southampton in 2016, however. Originally back up for Fraser Forster, McCarthy had solidified his status as the Saints' no. 1 goalkeeper, and despite a wealth of goalkeeping options available, made his debut in England's friendly against USA in December 2018.
As with Solanke, there is a lot of competition for McCarthy's position in the England set-up, and he will have to out-perform the likes of Heaton, Pope, Pickford, Forster, and Butland if he wants to earn his second cap.