Alex McCarthy

Early career

Born in Guildford, Surrey, McCarthy began his career as a schoolboy at Wimbledon and Wycombe Wanderers before joining Reading on a scholarship at 16. He was a regular in the Academy team for two years and was part of a group that included several future first-team players including Jem Karacan, Alex Pearce and Gylfi Sigurðsson. His first experience of senior football came in August 2007 on loan at Woking where he made one appearance cover for the injured Nick Gindre. On 26 March 2008, he joined fellow Conference Premier team Cambridge United on work experience, making his debut two days later in a 3–0 defeat to Kidderminster Harriers. He made no further appearances and returned to Reading before signing his first professional contract in July 2008. McCarthy moved on loan again on 24 October 2008, joining Conference South team Team Bath as injury cover. He made his debut the next day in the FA Cup fourth qualifying round against Salisbury City and also played in the first round defeat to Forest Green Rovers, making four appearances in total. Another short loan spell followed with McCarthy joining League Two club Aldershot Town for one month on 2 February 2009. He made his Football League debut 12 days later in a 3–2 defeat to Exeter City and played three further matches before returning to Reading at the beginning of March. At the start of the 2009–10 season McCarthy joined League One club Yeovil on an initial six-month loan and made his debut on 8 August…

McCarthy trained with the England under-19s before joining the under-21 set-up for the first time in September 2009. He received several further call-ups to the under-21s in 2009–10 and eventually made his debut as a second-half substitute against Uzbekistan in August 2010. In March 2011 he was named in a 31-man squad to face Denmark and Iceland as preparation for the UEFA European Under-21 Championship. He played a full 90 minutes in the first match and 45 in the second as England won 4–0 and lost 2–1 respectively. He travelled with the squad to championships in Denmark but did not play any matches, finishing with three caps at under-21 level. In April 2012, McCarthy was named in the 80-man longlist of potential players for the Great Britain football team at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and in June, he made it down to the shortlist of 35 players provisionally selected for the tournament, although he did not make the final 18. In May 2013 he was called up to the England senior team for the friendlies against Republic of Ireland and Brazil, becoming the first Reading youth team graduate to gain a full England call-up since the academy era began in 1998, although he did not make an appearance. On 1 September 2016, he was called up to the senior squad again by Sam Allardyce to replace the injured Fraser Forster for a 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Slovakia. In August 2018, McCarthy was called up for England's first squad since the 2018 World Cup, for matches against Spain…

Club

As of match played 5 September 2026

International

As of match played 15 November 2018

Southampton

EFL Championship play-offs: 2024 Individual

Southampton Players' Player of the Season: 2017–18 Southampton Fans' Player of the Season: 2017–18