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Looks like Otis is getting called up for the Pakistan senior team;

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11667/12887215/otis-khan-grimsby-town-attacking-midfielder-and-former-manchester-united-youngster-set-to-play-for-pakistan

Massive congrats to the lad, a huge honour to play for your country, no matter what level their at. Hope he does himself proud.

It did get me thinking though, what other players have we had make full international appearances while playing for us, in recent times? JP Kalala for DR Congo springs to mind, but surely that can’t be the last one?

Answers on a postcard please.

UTM

Darren Barnard for Wales I seem to recall.

Danny Coyne too, in the same team as Barnard.

Didn't we have a New Zealand right back or had he moved on before he got a call up ? David....

Quoted from moosey_club

Didn't we have a New Zealand right back or had he moved on before he got a call up ? David....

Vaguely remember a NZ striker who was with us for a very brief time.

Quoted from ginnywings

Vaguely remember a NZ striker who was with us for a very brief time.

Hamish Watson. However, a wiki search suggests he never got a full cap.

Never really got a chance which makes me strongly suspect he wasn’t good enough.

Well done Otis, a huge achievement!

David Mulligan. On loan from Scunny I believe, Kiwi international most his career but can't recall ever losing him to international duty.

Hamish Watson was the striker, big ol' unit who never really got a chance. Can only remember him coming on late in the 1-0 defeat to Bristol Rovers in the 14/15 season, a game where we got bullied and it seemed the ideal opportunity to chuck a big lad in to ruffle them up.

Well done Otis! Although I hope we don’t lose him for international duty several times during the season.

Great for the club as well, more worldwide media exposure is always welcome

Quite surprised how lowly ranked Pakistan are. I know they've served a few suspensions and both hockey and cricket are by far the dominant sport in Pakistan, but they currently sit 195th in the Fifa rankings, out of a total of 205. I had to Google the nation in 194th 'Timor-Leste'. I'm not a huge subscriber to the Fifa ranking systems but Pakistan's last two results have seen 1-0 defeats to Nepal and Maldives respectively.

Bloody huge country and it looks like a fair bit of appetite for football, albeit, the Premier League - https://www.sportingintelligence.com/2011/11/04/premier-league-%E2%80%93-the-global-game-how-english-football-is-seen-in-%E2%80%A6-pakistan-041104/

Hope we're shipping out containers of Khan 11 shirts from Immingham to Karachi as we speak. ;)

Quoted from diehardmariner

David Mulligan. On loan from Scunny I believe, Kiwi international most his career but can't recall ever losing him to international duty.

Hamish Watson was the striker, big ol' unit who never really got a chance. Can only remember him coming on late in the 1-0 defeat to Bristol Rovers in the 14/15 season, a game where we got bullied and it seemed the ideal opportunity to chuck a big lad in to ruffle them up.

Mulligan...ta....think he played in the world Cup finals a few years after he was here

Quoted Text

He was named as part of the New Zealand squad for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in June 2009.He made two starting appearances at right-back in defeats to Spain and South Africa, as well as a substitute appearance in the 0–0 draw with Iraq.Mulligan was named in New Zealand's final 23-man squad to compete at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa; he had been selected by head coach Ricki Herbert despite Herbert having released him at Wellington Phoenix. However he did not feature in any of the games in the tournament itself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Mulligan

'kin hell! There's hope for us all, still.

Seems not a fan of Alan Buckley either.

Quoted Text

He joined League Two side Grimsby Town on a one-month loan on 30 August 2007. He made his debut for the "Mariners" on 2 September, in a 2–1 defeat at Shrewsbury Town, coming onto the pitch as a 36th-minute substitute only to be taken off after 63 minutes; he said this was typical bizarre management from Alan Buckley, who made players come to Blundell Park for sprint training on days after games.

Not full call ups but obviously HC got the under 21 wales call up but just wondered if we had any players called up to the England C side.

(Input joke about being beside the C side)

Quoted from WOZOFGRIMSBY

Not full call ups but obviously HC got the under 21 wales call up but just wondered if we had any players called up to the England C side.

(Input joke about being beside the C side)

Michael Coulson?

Paul Fairclough's England C side were restricted by the northern national borders that ended about Junction 27 of the M1.

Quoted from diehardmariner

Danny Coyne too, in the same team as Barnard.

We had three players in that team John Oster being the other.

Well done Otis !!

Quoted from WOZOFGRIMSBY

Not full call ups but obviously HC got the under 21 wales call up but just wondered if we had any players called up to the England C side.

(Input joke about being beside the C side)

In our first stint in the conference we had a couple of players called up for England C. Aswad Thomas was one, but I can’t remember the other one.

Thanoj ( if not mentioned)

Bradley Wood too

Craig Clay

Andy Cook

Scott Garner and Rob Atkinson (ah no...both called up but not used)

I'Anson got a call up but think it was a game that got cancelled.

"Ex-Manure player", not "Grimsby player"?

PL biased is toxic (bheem)

Lets go back a bit as we have a long history, Joe got a couple of caps for Ireland or Eire as it was then known, around 1977 I think. Sorry I know the OP said "recent" but as he's a true legend it's worth a shout out.

Khan is brilliant. Congrats Otis.

Famously, this World Cup footballer played for Town:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Enhua

Jack Lewis got an unlikely Welsh cap I seem to remember
UTM

Quoted from TownSNAFU5

Thanoj ( if not mentioned)

I seem to recall he was called up to the Albania squad but never played?

Quoted from Teestogreen

Jack Lewis got an unlikely Welsh cap I seem to remember
UTM

So this came up on a random retro Twitter thing, U23 only which I don’t know whether it’s right but proves people post some obscure stuff on Twitter.

Over age player to be fair - not sure about twitter - heard a boomin bittern a couple of weeks ago 🐧

Kingsley Black got B caps while playing for us for NI, Daryl Clare the same for the Republic, and I thought Stuart Campbell did for Scotland but I must remember that incorrectly as its not on his wiki.

Aidan Davison playing for Northern Ireland against Germany in August 97, shortly after signing for Town. It was his third, and last, appearance (though he did still get a few call-ups after that). Davo was a real coup for a third-tier club at the time; first class 'keeper (first time around at least).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AfhuViJSsk

Quoted from Poojah

Aidan Davison playing for Northern Ireland against Germany in August 97, shortly after signing for Town. It was his third, and last, appearance (though he did still get a few call-ups after that). Davo was a real coup for a third-tier club at the time; first class 'keeper (first time around at least).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AfhuViJSsk

I stayed in a B and B once that turned out to be owned by his mum and dad. Nice couple. They had one of his shirts in a frame on the wall of the dining room.

Terry Donovan, Republic of Ireland?

Theres a large list of players on the GTFC Wikipedia page of players who have played internationally, and for GTFC, but it doesnt state which ones won an international cap whilst a GTFC player

Georges Santos played for Cape Verde. 4 caps between 02 and 04, so possibly when he played for us.

Was dean Henderson playing for the under 20s when he was with us

Quoted from promotion plaice

Terry Donovan, Republic of Ireland?

Isn't he the Father of Keeley Donovan who does the weather on Look North?

Quoted from 123614

Isn't he the Father of Keeley Donovan who does the weather on Look North?

He is, son of Don who played for us back in the late 50's/early 60's. He won Irish caps whilst at Everton, before signing for us.

Terry is a great bloke. Mortgage Advisor these days in Laceby. By chance I was put him touch with him to sort out my first mortgage 15/16 years ago. I had absolutely no idea, naive doesn't even cut it. Terry couldn't have been more helpful and patient. Would recommend him to anyone.

Quoted from Poojah

Aidan Davison playing for Northern Ireland against Germany in August 97, shortly after signing for Town. It was his third, and last, appearance (though he did still get a few call-ups after that). Davo was a real coup for a third-tier club at the time; first class 'keeper (first time around at least).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AfhuViJSsk

Was listening to his UndrTheCosh interview a few weeks back. I completely agree with you that he was a coup for Town at the time, my favourite ever Town 'keeper in that first spell (let's not mention the second). But I didn't realise just how few games he had played before coming here. Just over a 100 as a 29-year-old, in fact looking at his record this is the only place he managed to really make the No 1 shirt consistently his own. Perhaps the exception of Colchester where he went as No 1 with the instruction to mentor Dean Gerken to be first choice.

Back to the original point, Peter Handyside got a fair few Under 21 caps for Scotland. Gary Croft was forever getting called up to the England U-21 squad but I don't think he made an appearance until he moved to Blackburn.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Lets go back a bit as we have a long history, Joe got a couple of caps for Ireland or Eire as it was then known, around 1977 I think. Sorry I know the OP said "recent" but as he's a true legend it's worth a shout out.

If we're going back a bit..... then there's only one Pat Glover, 7 wales caps back when the national teams only played once in a blue moon

Quoted from diehardmariner

Was listening to his UndrTheCosh interview a few weeks back. I completely agree with you that he was a coup for Town at the time, my favourite ever Town 'keeper in that first spell (let's not mention the second). But I didn't realise just how few games he had played before coming here. Just over a 100 as a 29-year-old, in fact looking at his record this is the only place he managed to really make the No 1 shirt consistently his own. Perhaps the exception of Colchester where he went as No 1 with the instruction to mentor Dean Gerken to be first choice.

Back to the original point, Peter Handyside got a fair few Under 21 caps for Scotland. Gary Croft was forever getting called up to the England U-21 squad but I don't think he made an appearance until he moved to Blackburn.

Davison seemed to completely ignore his second spell with us in that UndrTheCosh interview.

Didn't Akheem Rose get called up to the Jamaica U23 setup whilst he was here?

Quoted from jamesgtfc

Davison seemed to completely ignore his second spell with us in that UndrTheCosh interview.

Didn't Akheem Rose get called up to the Jamaica U23 setup whilst he was here?

Is it available on Spotify (like most seem to be), or just on Patreon?

As much as I loved Davo, his first spell didn’t end that well either. His performances failed right off towards the end of the 98/99 season, before he disappeared completely with Andy Love between the sticks for the final few games. No shortage of rumours at the time, either…

I think it was a Patreon epsiode.

Don't remember him particularly going off the boil at the back end of 98/99, just that we seemed to run out of steam quite quickly. Love was bloody awful, that he managed to get a run of so many games before Croudson was brought in still amazes me.

Harry Betmead - full England cap

(a heavenly choir sang over my shoulder as I typed 'Harry Betmead')

Paul Wilkinson and Gary Lund were both called up to England u 21s back in the day. Pretty sure Wilko played, not sure about Lund.

Find it weird that the club haven’t even acknowledged the call up

Quoted from Posh Harry

Paul Wilkinson and Gary Lund were both called up to England u 21s back in the day. Pretty sure Wilko played, not sure about Lund.

Wilko got 4 U21 caps.

Quoted from pontoonlew

Find it weird that the club haven’t even acknowledged the call up

Not sure he's been called up yet mate, think he's just been granted international clearance. Could be wrong though.

Yeah he's been called up it was posted on Twitter by Pakistan FA.

I’d assume everyone at the club are enjoying a well earned holiday, apart from the ticket staff.

George tweedy got an England cap too. Lovely bloke

Keith Alexander got called up by St Lucia during his time at town

That chap who scored the winner against Spurs - Kala…..
Was he a Congo international?

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2005/oct/26/newsstory.grimsby

Wilkinson and Lund did play together for England under 21 in Isreal.

Both scored in a 2 - 1 win.

I was so proud when I read that in the papers the following morning.

Easah Suliman also been signed up for Pakistan team, played a couple of games when Jolley was manager.

Link: https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12883965/easah-suliman-ex-england-youth-captain-set-for-pakistan-debut-against-india-at-south-asian-football-federation-championships

Currently at Vitoria Guimaraes in Portugal, last few seasons been on loan to small clubs in the tier below their top level >> https://uk.soccerway.com/players/easah-suliman/400986/

Joe waters - Republic of Ireland

Quote from the Irish Times - Note the “money raised by supporters” comment. UTM

Club career: Born in Limerick, the 5'5" midfielder left Wembley Rovers for Frank O'Farrell's Leicester City in 1969, where he earned £7-a-week as an apprentice. Made just 13 appearances for the club in seven seasons before joining Grimsby Town in 1976, with much of his £8,000 transfer fee raised by supporters who took to him during a loan spell at the club. Earned legendary status at Blundell Park, captaining the side for seven years (during which time they won promotion from the fourth to the second division and just missed on a place in the top flight) and only missing one game in six seasons.

International career: Won just two senior caps, scoring the winner on his debut against Turkey (October 1976) in a 3-2 victory in Ankara. He had to wait three years for his second and final cap, coming on as a substitute against Northern Ireland at Windsor Park (November 1979, European Championship qualifier). Replaced Gerry Daly and was hardly on the field when Gerry Armstrong scored Northern Ireland's winner.

Quoted from Poojah

No shortage of rumours at the time, either…

Let’s just say he was better at keeping clean sheets than his wife 😉

Quoted from diehardmariner

Quite surprised how lowly ranked Pakistan are. I know they've served a few suspensions and both hockey and cricket are by far the dominant sport in Pakistan, but they currently sit 195th in the Fifa rankings, out of a total of 205. I had to Google the nation in 194th 'Timor-Leste'. I'm not a huge subscriber to the Fifa ranking systems but Pakistan's last two results have seen 1-0 defeats to Nepal and Maldives respectively.

Bloody huge country and it looks like a fair bit of appetite for football, albeit, the Premier League - https://www.sportingintelligence.com/2011/11/04/premier-league-%E2%80%93-the-global-game-how-english-football-is-seen-in-%E2%80%A6-pakistan-041104/

Hope we're shipping out containers of Khan 11 shirts from Immingham to Karachi as we speak. ;)

Friggin' hell at that level Scunny might have a chance of beating them.

Quoted from Jackal

Joe waters - Republic of Ireland

Quote from the Irish Times - Note the “money raised by supporters” comment. UTM

Club career: Born in Limerick, the 5'5" midfielder left Wembley Rovers for Frank O'Farrell's Leicester City in 1969, where he earned £7-a-week as an apprentice. Made just 13 appearances for the club in seven seasons before joining Grimsby Town in 1976, with much of his £8,000 transfer fee raised by supporters who took to him during a loan spell at the club. Earned legendary status at Blundell Park, captaining the side for seven years (during which time they won promotion from the fourth to the second division and just missed on a place in the top flight) and only missing one game in six seasons.

International career: Won just two senior caps, scoring the winner on his debut against Turkey (October 1976) in a 3-2 victory in Ankara. He had to wait three years for his second and final cap, coming on as a substitute against Northern Ireland at Windsor Park (November 1979, European Championship qualifier). Replaced Gerry Daly and was hardly on the field when Gerry Armstrong scored Northern Ireland's winner.

What a player Joe was. I used to play in the back alley and try to emulate what he did. Of course, I never got there otherwise you would be shouting my name followed by. "he's one of our own".

Does the international team pay the players club a fee, maybe to cover wages, for them while they are away from the league club and unavailable?

Quoted from WayneBurnettsJockstrap

Does the international team pay the players club a fee, maybe to cover wages, for them while they are away from the league club and unavailable?

They are the 17th worst team in the world according to the FIFA rankings, below teams such as São Tomé and Príncipe, Mongolia, Lesotho etc. The football infrastructure in Pakistan is not very good at all, so I doubt we will get any recompense. Their official site on the FIFA website takes you to a Facebook page.

The best way these nations can grow is by utilising family links to ensure those that have been through a structured footballing system can bring some of that professionalism and help them win a few games to inspire a generation.

Quoted from jamesgtfc

The best way these nations can grow is by utilising family links to ensure those that have been through a structured footballing system can bring some of that professionalism and help them win a few games to inspire a generation.

Sounds like Ireland circa 1990

Quoted from jamesgtfc

They are the 17th worst team in the world according to the FIFA rankings, below teams such as São Tomé and Príncipe, Mongolia, Lesotho etc. The football infrastructure in Pakistan is not very good at all, so I doubt we will get any recompense. Their official site on the FIFA website takes you to a Facebook page.

The best way these nations can grow is by utilising family links to ensure those that have been through a structured footballing system can bring some of that professionalism and help them win a few games to inspire a generation.

Mildly interestingly, China, India, Indonesia and Pakistan account for over 40% of the world’s population - roughly 3.5 billion people. Amongst those 3.5 billion people there must be a good number born with the genetics capable of becoming world class footballers, but will never get the chance to a total absence of meaningful footballing infrastructure.

Quoted from diehardmariner

Back to the original point, Peter Handyside got a fair few Under 21 caps for Scotland. Gary Croft was forever getting called up to the England U-21 squad but I don't think he made an appearance until he moved to Blackburn.

He was definitely playing for us when he was called up. Played in the same team as David Beckham.

He was bloody good for us, wasn’t he? Wonder if going to Blackburn and perhaps not getting enough game time hampered his career slightly. Can’t remember him on his second spell with us as that was during my wilderness years when I’d checked out for a few seasons.

Oh I think it hampered his career massively.

Wrong club altogether really.  Went to Blackburn at a time when they were only ever going to decline after their '95 peak.  It was at that point that the Sky money really started to filter through, football became cool and the money getting chucked about rocketed.  Jack Walker was a rich bloke, but not rich enough to compete once the money really ramped up.  I think he'd achieved what he wanted too and tightened the purse strings a bit.

He also had a guy in Graeme Le Saux, who was England left-back at that point, in his preferred position which definitely didn't help.

He was good for us, very good.  But he needed to go somewhere where he had a realistic chance of getting more first team football than not.  50 odd games over 3 years wasn't enough for someone of his age and stopped his progress dead in the water.

I seem to think when he came back Russell Slade signed him to be a sort of old head in midfield.  I suppose the calm and composed one in a very high energy, high press side.  Change of formation and injuries meant he ended up covering at right-back quite a bit.

Quoted from Poojah

Mildly interestingly, China, India, IndoneIn the case of Indians for example living in the UK sia and Pakistan account for over 40% of the world’s population - roughly 3.5 billion people. Amongst those 3.5 billion people there must be a good number born with the genetics capable of becoming world class footballers, but will never get the chance to a total absence of meaningful footballing infrastructure.

I remember playing 5 a side in collage with Somali lads down in London and some were absolute quality skillwise. Looked a lot better than a fair few than I have seen playing for Grimsby. Iam sure if they had pursued it they would of made it at some level professionally.

Back to the OP. Not relevant to anything really but I read yesterday that Marlyn Monroe’s father was also called Otis.

Quoted from TownSNAFU5

Back to the OP. Not relevant to anything really but I read yesterday that Marlyn Monroe’s father was also called Otis.

So was that bloke from Reading!

So that's 3 players in our 'Otis XI', who else can we sign up?

Quoted from OddShapedBalls

So that's 3 players in our 'Otis XI', who else can we sign up?

The Otis Elevator Company could give them a lift

Quoted from OddShapedBalls

So that's 3 players in our 'Otis XI', who else can we sign up?

There was Otis the aardvark from kids bbc.
But if that picture is anything to go by, he’ll either be in rehab or have some kind of tabloid exploit to his name

Quoted from Rick12

I remember playing 5 a side in collage with Somali lads down in London and some were absolute quality skillwise. Looked a lot better than a fair few than I have seen playing for Grimsby. Iam sure if they had pursued it they would of made it at some level professionally.

Played some lads in Gambia. Locals v Europeans. Individually, they outclassed us but we were more physical and had more discipline and teamwork. We thrashed them.

Quoted from OddShapedBalls

So that's 3 players in our 'Otis XI', who else can we sign up?

The Frenchman R' Otis Serie. Turns on a sixpence. Cowardly though - often a bit of a chicken.

Quoted from Mayaman

Played some lads in Gambia. Locals v Europeans. Individually, they outclassed us but we were more physical and had more discipline and teamwork. We thrashed them.

That's what I love about football. It doesn't cost much to play and people the world over can play it. I remember in primary school for one some of us were football mad and when we didn't have a football we used a tennis ball for matches.

When I was a kid I used to play with Frank Barton in Baysgarth Park using a tennis ball to play '3 and you're in', the grass tennis court fence being the goal.

Quoted from 123614

When I was a kid I used to play with Frank Barton in Baysgarth Park using a tennis ball to play '3 and you're in', the grass tennis court fence being the goal.

I remember reading professional footballers sometimes used a smaller ball to train with as it helps develop better control eg when it comes to controlling a big ball things are a bit easier if you've trained enough with something smaller. Having said that some are just born gifted . Diego Maradona for one I remember reading in a biography on him use to to do kick ups with a small ball at half time aged roughly 3-4 at one of his family relations who use to run a team . Maradona was that gifted he became the star attraction . Never really trained for it as it all came natural .

Quoted from Mayaman

The Frenchman R' Otis Serie. Turns on a sixpence. Cowardly though - often a bit of a chicken.

The missus says he's tasty

Quoted from OddShapedBalls

The missus says he's tasty

Yeh, but she also says you’re tasty so she can’t be much of a judge…

My Dad lived round the corner from Duncan McKenzie when he was a kid and remembers him endlessly juggling (with his feet, obvs) a tennis ball to improve his touch. Seemed to work out OK for him. Not sure if he also practised jumping over cars or chucking golf balls as a kid!