James Milner equaled a long-standing Premier League report that many thought would by no means be matched when he featured for Brighton & Hove Albion of their conflict with Aston Villa on Wednesday.
His first-half look, getting into as a Twenty second-minute substitute for injured Brighton teammate Carlos Baleba, was his 653rd look within the Premier League, matching a report set by former teammate Gareth Barry.
The pair performed alongside each other for 130 of these Premier League outings having spent a number of seasons with Villa after which with Manchester Metropolis. Barry then ended his 22-year skilled profession in 2020 on the age of 39 — though he got here out of retirement final season to play a handful of video games for native newbie membership Hurstpierpoint, even scoring in a 2-2 draw at Polegate City within the Mid Sussex Soccer League.
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Milner’s 24-year enjoying profession within the Premier League is the longest within the competitors’s historical past, and he’s nonetheless plugging away regardless of turning 40 final month. He has made 15 league appearances for the Seagulls to this point in 2025-26, although the previous handful have all consisted of transient cameos instead within the closing levels of video games.
The veteran midfielder — who has performed in England’s high flight for Leeds United, Newcastle United, Villa, Metropolis, Liverpool and Brighton — now simply wants yet one more Premier League look to maneuver out in entrance because the league’s all-time highest look maker.
Listed below are a number of the unimaginable information and stats that his prolonged — and nonetheless energetic — Premier League profession has produced.
Info supplied by ESPN International Soccer Analysis and Stats Carry out.
Whole objectives: 56
Milner’s first Premier League purpose got here means again in December 2002 when he discovered the online with a deft roller in a 2-1 victory for Leeds towards Sunderland on Boxing Day, sparking a mass pile-on from his senior teammates. On solely his fifth senior look, aged simply 16 years and 356 days on the time, he turned the youngest participant to attain within the Premier League — a report that stood till 2005 when James Vaughan scored for Everton on the age of 16 years and 271 days.
Greatest season for objectives: 7 (2009-10 & 2016-17)
Milner has hit a private better of seven league objectives on two events all through his profession, with the primary occasion coming throughout his ultimate full season at Aston Villa in 2009-10. Villa completed sixth and certified for the Europa League, however Milner’s most important purpose was most likely the profitable penalty he scored within the derby towards native rivals Birmingham Metropolis at Villa Park in April. The midfielder then matched that tally seven seasons later when he scored seven league objectives in Jürgen Klopp’s first full season in cost at Liverpool.
Whole assists: 90
Milner has chipped in with a gradual stream of assists through the years, however maybe his most vital — a minimum of when it comes to trivia — occurred for Brighton in October 2025 when the then-39-year-old assisted Charalambos Kostoulas to grow to be the primary participant in Premier League historical past to arrange a purpose for a teammate who hadn’t but been born once they made their league debut. Milner made his league debut in November 2002 whereas Kostoulas was born in Could 2007.
Greatest season for assists: 12 (2009-10)
Milner was at his productive peak in 2009-10 when he married a joint-high purpose tally with a career-record 12 league assists for Aston Villa. He even contributed a uncommon hat trick of assists in a 5-2 win over Burnley in February 2010 by laying on objectives for Ashley Younger, Stewart Downing and Gabriel Agbonlahor — thus changing into solely the second Villa participant to realize the feat in Premier League competitors on the time.
Whole yellow playing cards: 80
Whole pink playing cards: 3
Pretty disciplined as a rule, Milner has managed to maintain his card depend comparatively low over the course of 24 years enjoying within the Premier League. Nonetheless, one among his pink playing cards did present a second of mirth when the Liverpool midfielder picked up a second reserving towards Crystal Palace in January 2019 and was subsequently despatched off. It simply so occurred that Jon Moss, the referee on obligation that day, was additionally as soon as Milner’s PE trainer at Westbrook Lane Main College in Horsforth.
picture proof Moss as coach and Milner as captain pic.twitter.com/VhhYlRWvwR
— Foz (@chrisfozard) January 20, 2019
Longest run of consecutive begins: 41 (Oct. 18, 2008 to Oct. 31, 2009)
Famend for his consistency, Milner managed to go greater than a full season with out lacking out on a spot in Aston Villa’s beginning XI after signing for the membership from Newcastle United on a everlasting deal in summer season 2008. Certainly, his 41-game run got here to an finish when he wasn’t included within the squad for a 2-1 defeat towards West Ham United in early November 2009 — one among solely two video games he failed to start out for Villa that season.
Longest run of consecutive appearances: 59 (Oct. 22, 2006 to March 8, 2008)
If appearances off the bench are included within the equation, Milner produced a frankly astounding run by that includes in 59 straight Premier League video games throughout his time at Newcastle. Nonetheless, that’s nonetheless a way off the general league report for many consecutive video games performed by an outfield participant, which belongs to former Chelsea star Frank Lampard (164 appearances).
Whole minutes performed: 38,293
Breaking down his 652 Premier League appearances when it comes to sheer time spent on Premier League pitches, Milner has spent a grand whole of 38,293 minutes of his life enjoying top-flight soccer, which is roughly equal to 638 hours or 26.6 days.
Whole distance coated in Premier League profession: 5.4 million meters
Milner is the right embodiment of a midfielder who’s keen to cowl each blade of grass on a pitch. The information for the space run by gamers within the Premier League solely goes again to the 2019-20 season, but when we divide Milner’s whole floor coated by the variety of minutes he has performed over the previous seven campaigns after which multiply that by the entire variety of minutes performed throughout his entire Premier League profession, then we get a ballpark determine for the entire distance he has coated.
By the above calculation, in his Premier League profession Milner has coated a whopping 5,414,326 meters, or 3,364 miles. That is roughly the identical distance between New York Metropolis and London. That whole averages out at 8.29 km (5.15 miles) per match, roughly the identical as working from one finish of a soccer pitch to the opposite 80 occasions.
Variety of completely different teammates he has performed with: 295
Variety of opposition gamers he has performed towards: 2,396
Variety of gamers he has performed with and towards: 184
It goes with out saying that Milner has taken to the sphere alongside a powerful variety of completely different teammates since making his Premier League debut for Leeds on Nov. 10, 2002. The younger winger got here on as an alternative choice to Jason Wilcox — who’s now 54 and dealing as Manchester United‘s director of soccer. In Milner’s most up-to-date, record-equaling Premier League look, he shared the pitch with 17-year-old Harry Howell. A real generation-spanning professional.
Between these two factors, Milner has counted Premier League royalty resembling Patrick Vieira, Sergio Agüero, Frank Lampard, Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Robert Pires, Michael Owen and Alan Shearer amongst his teammates. He has additionally gone up towards greats resembling Thierry Henry, Steven Gerrard, Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Kane.
There was a good bit of overlap too, with properly over 150 gamers enjoying each with and towards Milner up to now. There are additionally 9 gamers that Milner has been reunited with throughout his profession: the likes of Gareth Barry, Adam Lallana, Mark Viduka and Kolo Touré all discovering themselves on the identical roster as Milner at two completely different Premier League golf equipment.
Variety of completely different managers he has performed underneath: 21
Variety of opposition managers he has performed towards: 158
Variety of managers he has performed for and towards: 12
A 3-time Premier League champion, Milner has gained the title underneath Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini at Manchester Metropolis earlier than triumphing as soon as once more underneath Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool in 2019-20. He made most of his Premier League appearances underneath Klopp (222), with Mancini subsequent on the checklist (82) forward of ex-Villa boss Martin O’Neill (72) and Pellegrini (63).
Certainly, the ludicrously numerous checklist of managers within the Premier League (two greater than anybody else) that Milner has performed underneath within the high flight consists of 4 former England bosses — Sir Bobby Robson, Terry Venables, Kevin Keegan, Sam Allardyce — in addition to Brendan Rodgers, Graeme Souness and Roberto De Zerbi to call only a choice. Milner can also be the one skilled participant nonetheless energetic to have performed underneath the tutelage of the late, nice Robson, who died in 2009.
Milner’s present, Fabian Hürzeler, is seven years and 53 days youthful than his most skilled squad member.
Variety of gamers who’ve debuted in Premier League since Milner’s debut: 3,268
A great deal of large names made their Premier League debuts after Milner made his inaugural bow with a six-minute cameo off the bench in November 2002. Luminaries like Xabi Alonso, Mikel Arteta, Cesc Fàbregas, Vincent Kompany and Robin van Persie have all come and gone since then and begun their careers in administration whereas Milner continues to ply his commerce.
Whole objectives scored in Premier League since Milner’s debut: 24,235
Within the time that Milner has been enjoying, 4 of the Premier League’s high six purpose scorers of all time — Harry Kane (2nd, 213), Wayne Rooney (third, 208), Mohamed Salah (4th, 190) and Sergio Agüero (sixth, 184) — amassed their whole profession hauls within the competitors.
Variety of groups to play in Premier League since Milner’s debut: 44
With 25 rounds of promotion and relegation happening since Milner first appeared within the 20-team Premier League, it is no shock that he has witnessed an terrible lot of turnover when it comes to golf equipment within the high flight. There are the six ever-presents (Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur), yo-yo golf equipment resembling Norwich Metropolis, Watford and West Bromwich Albion, and groups like Blackpool and Luton City, who’ve spent only one solitary marketing campaign within the Premier League to this point.
Variety of miles traveled in his Premier League profession: 101,584
In a profession spanning nearly 1 / 4 of a century throughout six golf equipment based mostly in several areas of England, it is no surprise that Milner has clocked up some critical mileage on his travels.
Counting the space of each spherical journey from his residence stadium on the time to every of the opposition grounds the place he performed an away sport over the course of his Premier League profession, Milner has traveled a distance equal to greater than 4 occasions across the globe!
