Socceroos' return could help Maty Ryan top this Albion list

The goalkeeper is four behind Shane Duffy in terms of full international appearances while playing for the Seagulls, be it permanently or on loan.

Shane Duffy’s tally will remain on 28 for Albion in the stats compiled by club historian Tim Carder while he is on loan at Celtic.

Australia have not played of late due to Covid-19 but reports Down Under suggested they would secure a friendly versus England at Wembley next month.

Those hopes appeared to have been dashed by today's announcement that England will host the Republic of Ireland.

The Socceroos still hope to come to London and would select only from players based in Europe, which would exclude ex-Seagull Aaron Mooy after his move to China.

Ryan has won 24 international caps since joining Albion in the summer of 2017.

Tim has confirmed Duffy was registered with Celtic before playing for the Republic of Ireland in September.

He said: “My definition of the players included is essentially anyone registered to play for us.

“Players loaned out do not count, players in on loan do, for example Ivar Ingermarsson and Craig Conway.

“I think it’s fair that way – fairer than the other way round, or including the lot – but it still throws up occasional anomalies.

“For instance Ali Al-Habsi, who was on loan to us for a month, played one game, then went to the Asian Cup and played five times for Oman while registered with us.

“Kemy Agustien played for Curacao after being released by us but before his contract and registration expired.”

The loan rule explains why Albion’s latest goalscorer Alexis Mac Allister is not on the list.

His two caps for Argentina came last season when he was on loan to Boca Juniors.

Polish duo Jakub Moder and Michal Karbownik come under the same heading.

Gonzalo Jara Reyes is another name you might expect to see on there but he did not win any of his 115 caps for Chile during his two loan periods with the Seagulls during the 2011-12 season.

The full list of 67 internationals comes from throughout the ages but shows a sizeable contingent from the present day.

Leandro Trossard, Aaron Connolly, Steven Alzate, Jayson Molumby, Viktor Gyokeres and Tudor Baluta have all seen their names added to the list in recent times.

Like Al-Habsi, the last three of those have all won more caps for their country than started league games for Albion.

The same can be said of Vitalijs Maksimenko, Leon Balogun, Joel Veltman, Paddy McCourt, Mohse Gariani – and Percy Tau.

Tau is his own special case. Unable to play or train with the club due to a lack of work permit, he has spent most of his time as an Albion player out on loan.

So no problem there in terms of the record-keeping, for reasons explained above.

But he still features on the list with six caps.

Tim explained: “These games were played in summer 2019 when he wasn’t on loan to anyone else but couldn’t actually play for us even if we had some games!”

READ MORE: Roberts explains loan move

Charlie Webb was the club’s first international when he was selected by Ireland to play against Scotland and Wales in 1909.

Peter Ward and Lewis Dunk are among 12 one-cap wonders along with, perhaps most surprisingly, John Byrne, who made just one of his 23 Republic of Ireland appearances while based at the Goldstone.

ALBION’S FULL INTERNATIONALS - THE COMPLETE LIST

28: Shane Duffy (Rep of Ireland 2016-19).

24: Maty Ryan (Australia 2017-19).

17: Gerry Ryan (Rep of Ireland 1978-84), Steve Penney (Northern Ireland 1984-88), Beram Kayal (Israel 2015-19).

14: Mark Lawrenson (Rep of Ireland 1977-81), Tomer Hemed (Israel 2015-18).

13: Michael Robinson (Rep of Ireland 1980-83), Davy Propper (Netherlands 2017-19).

11: Tony Grealish (Rep of Ireland 1981-83), Vitalijs Maksimenko (Latvia 2013-15), Gordon Greer (Scotland 2013-16), Jiri Skalak (Czech Republic 2016).

10: Leon Balogun (Nigeria 2019).

9: Alireza Jahanbakhsh (Iran 2018).

8: Jack Jenkins (Wales 1924-26), Ollie Norwood (Northern Ireland 2016-17).

7: Adam El-Abd (Egypt 2012-13).

6: Craig Mackail-Smith (Scotland 2011-12), Aaron Hughes (Northern Ireland 2014-15), Percy Tau (South Africa 2019).

5: Jimmy Magill (Northern Ireland 1965-66), Mickey Thomas (Wales 1981-82), Dean Saunders (Wales 1986-87), Andrew Crofts (Wales 2010-13), Ali Al-Habsi (Oman 2014), Aaron Connolly (Rep of Ireland 2019-20).

4: Jacob Cohen (Israel 1980-81), Sammy Nelson (Northern Ireland 1982), Kieran O’Regan (Rep of Ireland 1983-85), Chris Burchall (Trinidad and Tobago 2009), Jose Izquierdo (Colombia 2018), Gaetan Bong (Cameroon 2018-19), Aaron Mooy (Australia 2019), Steven Alzate (Colombia 2019-20), Joel Veltman (Netherlands 2020).

3: Charlie Webb (Ireland 1909-11), Jack Doran (Ireland 1920-22), Willie Irvine (Northern Ireland 1972), Peter O’Sullivan (Wales 1973-78), Steve Foster (England 1982), Danny Wilson (Northern Ireland 1986-87), Wayne Henderson (Rep of Ireland 2006), Stephen Ward (Rep of Ireland 2013-14), Kemy Agustien (Curacao 2015), Yves Bissouma (Mali 2018), Jayson Molumby (Rep of Ireland 2020), Leandro Trossard (Belgium 2020).

2: Sammy Morgan (Northern Ireland 1976), Moshe Gariani (Israel 1980), Ivar Ingimarsson (Iceland 2003), Craig Conway (Scotland 2013), Paddy McCourt (Northern Ireland 2014-15), Tudor Baluta (Romania 2019), Viktor Gyokeres (Sweden 2019).

1: Tommy Cook (England 1925), Jimmy Hopkins (Ireland 1925), Joe Kinnear (Rep of Ireland 1975), Peter Ward (England 1980), Gary Howlett (Rep of Ireland 1984), John Byrne (Rep of Ireland 1991), Chris Wood (New Zealand 2011), Tomasz Kuszczak (Poland 2012), Sam Vokes (Wales 2012), Liam Bridcutt (Scotland 2013), Niki Maenpaa (Finland 2016), Lewis Dunk (England 2018).