James Milner breaks Premier League record - but has some way to go for his next milestone

James Milner Leeds — James Milner made his Premier League debuty for Leeds United in 2002

On November 10, 2002, a fresh-faced James Milner made his Premier League debut as a 16-year-old for Leeds United when he came off the bench to replace Jason Wilcox in a 4-3 victory over West Ham at Upton Park.

Fast forward 8,504 days - or 23 years, and three months if you prefer - and the 40-year-old from Wortley broke the competition’s all-time appearance record, when he played in his 654th match, to move ahead of Gareth Barry in the all-time standings.

Milner’s former England, Manchester City and Aston Villa team-mate Barry set the record in 2017 and still has bragging rights over the Brighton man when it comes to another of the Premier League’s all-time records.

Where James Milner ranks in all-time Premier League minutes

In terms of total minutes played in the Premier League, Milner is unlikely to catch Barry, who sits comfortably at the top of the pile with a total of 54,434 minutes clocked up over his career.

Barry has more 3,000 minutes more than the second-placed player on the list which is former England goalkeeper David James, with a total of 51,298. Milner, in fact does not even crack the top ten of minutes played, for a couple of reasons.

Gareth Barry — Barry sits alone at the top of the all-time Premier League minutes table (Image credit: Getty Images)

While Milner has played in more Premier League seasons than Barry (24), he has never gone more than three years in a row playing 30-plus games, while Barry did this in 15 consecutive seasons. Milner has also made 218 substitute appearances, well ahead of Barry’s 35.

Milner should get the chance to move up the all-time minutes played standings in the coming weeks. Currently sitting in 13th place with 40,595 minutes played, he needs another half of football to overhaul Sylvian Distin and could find himself moving ahead of Steven Gerrard before the season is out.

Next in his sights would be John Terry (41,969 minutes played), Jamie Carragher (43,267), Sol Campbell (43,321), Rio Ferdinand (43,890), Mark Schwarzer (46,181), Gary Speed (46,319), Ryan Giggs (46,437), Frank Lampard (48,871) and then David James (51,298).

Barry sits comfortably ahead of the pack with 54,434 minutes played, meaning Milner needs to play the equivalent of 154 matches - more than four full seasons - to catch his former team-mate.

Who has played the most games in English top-flight history?

England goalkeeper Peter Shilton at the 1986 World Cup — Peter Shilton broke the 1,000-match mark (Image credit: Getty Images)

And while Milner is sitting pretty on 654 Premier League appearances, he has even further to go if he wants to break English football’s record for the most games in top-flight history.

That honour belongs to former England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, who played in four decades and racked up 1,005 games for the likes of Leicester City Nottingham Forest and Derby County between 1966 and 1997. To put that in context, Milner would need 351 more Premier League games to match England’s record cap winner, which would mean he couldn’t miss another game until he was almost 50.

Behind Shilton in the all-time list is former Grimsby Town, Stoke City and West Brom midfielder Tony Ford with 931 appearances across 27 seasons, with former Scotland defender Graham Alexander third with 833 games between 1990 and 2012.

Who has played the most games in footballing history?

Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates with the Champions League trophy after Real Madrid's win over Atletico Madrid in the 2016 final in Milan. — Cristiano Ronaldo ranked third on the all-time list (Image credit: Getty Images)

This brings us on to the next obvious question - which player has played the most games in footballing history?

This is somewhat harder to answer, given the fact that minor leagues and competitions across the world have not had the likes of Opta keeping tabs over the past century, but the current record books show that Brazilian goalkeeper Fabio has a claim for being the world record holder with 1,408 appearances in total. The 45-year-old, who made his debut in 1997, is still going strong with Brazilian top-flight side Fluminense, having signed a new deal last month which has seen him commit until December 2027.

Shilton is next on the list with 1,387 appearances across all competitions, which puts him just 72 games ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo in third place. With the Portuguese hell-bent on scoring career 1,000 goals (he is currently on 965), he may also have one eye on the former England no.1.

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For more than a decade, Joe Mewis has worked in football journalism as a reporter and editor. Mewis has had stints at Mirror Football and LeedsLive among others and worked at FourFourTwo throughout Euro 2024, reporting on the tournament. In addition to his journalist work, Mewis is also the author of four football history books that include times on Leeds United and the England national team. Now working as a digital marketing coordinator at Harrogate Town, too, Mewis counts some of his best career moments as being in the iconic Spygate press conference under Marcelo Bielsa and seeing his beloved Leeds lift the Championship trophy during lockdown.

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