One Jules Rimet Trophy after 1,000 games; England's struggles have echoed through the ages

As they play the milestone match, the Three Lions history has been laced with under-achievement and one very bright light

England's triumphant 1966 World Cup final captain Bobby Moore with the Jules Rimet Trophy in 1966. PA

It is 35cm high, weighs 3.8 kilograms and was found by a dog named Pickles in a garden in Upper Norwood. It is the Jules Rimet Trophy and a replica of it is all England have to show for 147 years of international football. There is a reason why, more than half a century later, 1966 remains the most resonant date in the history of the English game.

It is one that has served to inspire, depress confuse and compare. Gareth Southgate, who has brought more perspective and reason to managing England than virtually anyone else, said: “At the moment the win in the World Cup is the outlier whereas historically we looked at it as the benchmark.” Some 1,244 players have represented England ahead of their 1000th game against Montenegro, and 11 of them are immortals.

Perhaps 1966 is an unrealistic yardstick in a global game for a country with less than one percent of the world’s people, yet England have been outperformed by their four immediate peers, western European countries with economic might, strong domestic leagues and a footballing tradition. Germany, Italy and France have won multiple World Cups. Spain also have a lone one, but have three European Championships. Arguably England, who have never reached a continental final, have underachieved more on a European than a worldwide stage.

But the pattern of hype, frustration and recrimination famously led Time Magazine to brand England “the world’s most disappointing team” in 2012. Their setbacks have been laced with schadenfreude, their greatest embarrassments, from the United States in 1950 to Iceland in 2016, echoing through the ages and across the game.

England are currently ranked fourth in the world by Fifa. Apart from briefly, and strangely, breaking into the top three, in 2012, it is the joint highest they have been, along with spells in 1997 and 2006, since the system was introduced. The backdated Elo world rankings suggest England were the planet’s top team for much of the time between 1892 and 1920, again in 1948-49, from 1966-70 and, maybe oddly, in 1987-88, though certainly not after that summer’s disastrous European Championship.

Arrogance and isolationism kept England out of the first three World Cups. It allowed them to preserve the notion they were the international game’s outstanding side until the seismic shock of Hungary’s 6-3 win at Wembley in 1953. Of the last 18 global tournaments, they have underachieved in at least half: failing to qualify in 1974, 1978 and 1994, exiting early in 1950, 1958 and 2014, going out in the last 16 in 1998 and 2010 and departing with their Golden Generation in the quarter-finals in 2006.

Perhaps they have only overachieved three times: winning in 1966, aided by home advantage and several world-class talents, and the semi-finalists of 1990 and 2018, each helped by a favourable draw. Time’s depiction does not reflect Southgate’s side, a group who have benefited from a cultural reset and who have shown a humility some of their predecessors lacked. There is a progressiveness to a generation on an upward curve.

Part of Southgate’s success last year lay in ending England’s quarter-final jinx and penalty-shootout hoodoo. If the test now is to make it sustainable, another is to defeat high-class teams in knockout stages of tournaments.

Perhaps, by the time of the 2022 World Cup, only France and perhaps Brazil will boast more attacking talent, though a resurgent Dutch side possess better defenders, Spain ought to be more precise in possession and Argentina may still have Lionel Messi. It illustrates the problems of triumphing in a global game. For much of the last five decades, even England’s better groups have only really been between the fifth and eighth best sides. Sometimes they were just quarter-final teams.