{"id":707589,"date":"2026-06-01T10:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T10:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/707589\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T10:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T10:34:14","slug":"james-milner-premier-leagues-appearance-record-holder-retires-aged-40-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/707589\/","title":{"rendered":"James Milner, Premier League\u2019s appearance record holder, retires aged 40 | Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">James Milner has announced his retirement. The 40-year-old, who has spent the past three years at Brighton, began his career at Leeds, his boyhood club, and has played 24 seasons in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/premierleague\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Premier League<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Milner broke the record for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/feb\/19\/freak-of-nature-how-james-milner-closed-in-on-premier-league-record\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">most Premier League appearances<\/a> while playing for Brighton against Brentford in February, and ends his career with a total of 658. He played 61 times for England.<\/p>\n<p>Quick GuideHow do I sign up for sport breaking news alerts?Show<\/p>\n<p>In the Guardian app, tap the Profile settings button at the top right, then select Notifications. Turn on sport notifications.<\/p>\n<p>If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you\u2019re on the most recent version.<\/p>\n<p>If you don&#8217;t have the Guardian app, download it from the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/app\/the-guardian\/id409128287?mt=8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">iOS App Store<\/a>\u00a0on iPhone or the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.guardian\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Google Play store<\/a>\u00a0on Android by searching for &#8216;The Guardian&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cAfter 24 seasons in the Premier League, it feels like the right time to bring an end to my playing career,\u201d Milner said on Instagram. \u201cFrom making my debut for Leeds, who I supported growing up, at the age of 16 and becoming the Premier League\u2019s youngest scorer, I could never have dreamed of the journey I\u2019ve been on, right through to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2025\/may\/26\/james-milner-brighton-nine-month-injury-absence-fears-football\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">not being able to lift my foot<\/a> last year and then coming back to be part of Brighton qualifying for Europe for the second time in their history at the age of 40.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Milner began his career with Leeds in 2002, becoming the Premier League\u2019s youngest goalscorer aged 16 years and 356 days. Spells at Newcastle and Aston Villa followed before he joined Manchester City in 2010, where he lifted two Premier League titles, an FA Cup and League Cup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">After a move to Liverpool in 2015, Milner secured another Premier League title along with an FA Cup and League Cup and he was part of their Champions League-winning side in 2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">After eight seasons at Anfield, Milner joined Brighton on a free. He won 61 England caps. He made 964 appearances for club and country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Milner, who also had a loan at Swindon, said: \u201cI\u2019ve been fortunate enough to experience some unforgettable moments, from fighting for survival to winning trophies, playing in Europe, and representing my country, England, at two European Championships and two World Cups. But more than anything, it\u2019s the people and friendships I\u2019ve made throughout the game that I\u2019ll cherish forever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Milner has announced his retirement. The 40-year-old, who has spent the past three years at Brighton, began&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-707589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}