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Like Peter Osgood before him, Sunderland's razor-sharp striker Kevin Phillips became earmarked as a great goalscorer at club level whom international managers ultimately couldn't quite trust to get them out of a hole on the biggest stage. It was impossible to ignore Phillips after scoring 52 League goals in hist first two seasons in the north east, so Kevin Keegan gave him his debut in April 1999 as England drew 1-1 with Hungary in a friendly. Fellow debutant Emile Heskey replaced Phillips in the second half, and ultimately his story would be told by the pecking order of international strikers, even though he put more away at club level than the rest.
Keegan gave him four more caps before announcing his squad for the 2000 European Championships, and although Phillips had yet to score at international level, he made the cut as clearly the fifth of five centre forwards, behind Alan Shearer, Michael Owen, Heskey and Robbie Fowler, and there was a niggly feeling that Keegan didn't want Kevin there, but ultimately couldn't ignore his phenomenal scoring achievements at Sunderland. As England lost two of their group matches and went out, Phillips never got a sniff of the action, and Keegan didn't look at him again. The arrival of Sven Goran Eriksson's open mind allowed Kevin three more caps (he is pictured above during his penultimate appearance in an England shirt - a 1-1 draw against Sweden in November 2001), but ultimately his club record could only take him so far as he had failed to find the net in eight games as an England player - four of which he started - and so after replacing the memorably ineffective debutant Michael Ricketts in a 1-1 draw against Holland, Phillips was not required to report for duty again. (Matthew Rudd)
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