Editorial

The contents of this website are derived from a football database which has been developed by Michael Joyce over 15 years. It covers the career records of nearly 39,000 players who have appeared in the Football League (and the Premiership) from its beginning in 1888 right up to the present day and, as such, is unique.

The website allows you to search for the details of any player, or for all the players of any club. For recent seasons it allows you to construct your own more detailed queries. For every player who has appeared since 2002 it provides a report of each season's performance as featured in the annual PFA Footballers' Who's Who, of which Michael is assistant editor.

Records for the current season are up to date within a day or so. Over the past few years, Michael has collaborated with the compilers of the Sky Sports Football Yearbook (formerly Rothmans) and the PFA Footballers' Who's Who to ensure that all the appearance and goal totals are accurate.

The database has been used in the production of all the Definitive series of club histories and the SoccerData Match by Match series which has so far covered many seasons from the 1920's to the early 1960's. It was also provided the detailed appendices for "England Their England" and "The Foreign Revolution" by Nick Harris of the Independent, which chart the influx of overseas born players in English football, from the earliest years to date.

Altogether it has assisted in the production of more than 40 books, including Premier and Football League Players' Records 1946-2005, edited by Barry J. Hugman and Michael’s own book, Football League Players' Records 1888-1939, now in its second edition.

This website offers unique access to the database which has provided all this information. If you can't find the answer you're looking for straight away, you can contact us and we'll do our best to come up with a solution.

The next stage is to expand the database to include the line-ups and goalscorers of all the 173,000 League matches ever played as well as the major cup competitions. This work has reached an advanced stage. It cannot answer every question on football of course, but it allows us to have a good try!