The first football international, Scotland versus England with the players wearing caps

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Sports Caps

A cap is an appearance for a select team, such as a school, county or international team in sports. more...

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The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap (meaning an item of headgear) to every player in an international match of Association Football; however, the act of awarding a cap is now international and is applied to other sports. The practice was first approved on May 10, 1886 for Association Football, after a proposal made by N. L. Jackson, founder of Corinthians F.C.:

"That all players taking part for England in future international matches be presented with a white silk cap with red rose embroidered on the front. These to be termed International Caps."

Today it might seem an unusual and perhaps even a bizarre practice to present a player with an actual cap but in the early days of football the concept of each team wearing a set of matching shirts had not been universally adopted, with the result that a team's players would often take the field in a variety of different coloured shirts, and each side would distinguish itself from the other by wearing a specific sort of cap or other headgear. An early illustration of the first international football match between England and Scotland in 1872 shows the Scottish players wearing cowls and the English wearing a variety of school caps.

Actual caps are not usually given any more (caps for friendly matches still exist, and each player gets one cap per international competition), but the term "cap" for an international or other appearance has been retained. Thus, a cap is awarded for each game played and so a player who has played x games, for the team, is said to have been capped x times or have won x caps.

Association football (soccer)

The world record holder for the highest number of international caps on January 24, 2006 is American Kristine Lilly, who has over 300 caps in women's association football. In men's association football, the record is held by Mohamed Al-Deayea from Saudi Arabia who has 181 caps. It should be noted, however, that some countries play more international matches than others, presenting their players with the opportunity to win a much larger number of caps.

Records

Some current leading holders of association football caps (Women as of 29 March 2006, Men as of 23 July 2006) are:

Women

310 - Kristine Lilly, United States world record holder (300th set on 18 January 2006)
275 - Mia Hamm, United States
271 - Julie Foudy, United States
239 - Joy Fawcett, United States
202 - Tiffeny Milbrett, United States
192 - Brandi Chastain, United States
186 - Fan Yunjie, China (as of 23 March 2004)
186 - Hege Riise, Norway (as of 23 March 2004)
182 - Zhao Lihong, China (as of 23 March 2004)
175 - Shannon MacMillan, United States
173 - Liu Ailing, China (as of 23 March 2004)

The United States has had the most women with 100 or more caps, with eighteen to date.