Who was the last player to captain England before David Beckham?

Martin Raymond Keown (born 24 July 1966 in Oxford, England) is a former English footballer, who spent much of his career at Arsenal, with stints at Aston Villa and Everton as well. He is now a part-time scout and coach for Arsenal, as well as a pundit for the BBC.

Keown played U16 and U18 for England. When it was learnt that both his parents were Irish, Jack Charlton enquired about his availability to play for the Republic of Ireland but found that he was not eligible due to his underage games. He made his England debut in 1992 against France. With an injury to Mark Wright he was called up into England’s squad for Euro ’92, and played in all three of England’s matches.

Keown’s early ascension to the England team under Graham Taylor did not continue under Terry Venables, who ignored him completely. Keown earned a recall from Glenn Hoddle in 1997, and went to the 1998 World Cup, but did not play. Keown became a regular under Kevin Keegan (captaining the side against Finland) and played in two of England’s Euro 2000 matches. By the time Sven-Göran Eriksson became manager, Keown’s age was starting to count against him, though he went to the 2002 World Cup, again as a non-playing squad member. In all he played 43 times for England, scoring two goals.