James Collins

Cardiff City

As a youngster, Collins played in the youth teams of local sides Shaftesbury and Pill before joining Cardiff City at the age of 15. He signed as a trainee in August 2000, after playing local football in his native city of Newport. He was one of two first-year apprentices offered a professional contract for the 2000–01 season along with Martyn Giles. He made his debut for Cardiff at the age of 17 in an FA Cup match against Bristol Rovers on 19 November 2000, which Cardiff won 5–1, as a substitute in place of Robert Earnshaw. However, a broken toe suffered soon after limited his appearances during his season. In his early years with the club, Collins played as both a defender and a striker with manager Lennie Lawrence stating that "it wasn't clear whether James was a centre-half or a centre-forward" when he was appointed manager. Collins' broke into the first-team playing as a forward, scoring in his first start for the club during a 1–1 draw with Colchester United in November 2001. Lawrence and his coaching staff would settle on playing Collins as a defender and he went on to make 86 appearances in all competitions for Cardiff, scoring six goals. He won the Welsh Young Player of the Year award in 2005.

West Ham United

Collins joined West Ham United in July 2005, along with his centre-back partner at Cardiff, Danny Gabbidon, in a £3.5 million deal for the pair as Cardiff attempted to cut their wage bill and raise money. West Ham had previously…

Wales

Collins played for the Wales under-21 team on several occasions and captained them in a match against Germany U21. In 2004, Collins accomplished what no other player did; his debut in the Wales team against Norway had him play at every level of football in Wales from youth to senior teams. He scored his debut goal for Wales in a 3–1 defeat to Cyprus on 13 October 2007. Ever present during 2010 World Cup qualifying, he captained Wales in the last qualifier against Liechtenstein and helped keep a clean sheet in a 2–0 win. Collins was given his debut captain's armband for a friendly against Sweden on 3 March 2010. On 7 September 2012, in a 2014 World Cup qualifying game against Belgium, he was given a straight red card for a two-footed lunge on Guillaume Gillet, Wales went on to lose the match 2–0. Collins was included in the Wales 23-man squad for Euro 2016. Having made 51 appearances for Wales, Collins announced his international retirement in November 2017.

Great Britain

Coach Stuart Pearce had Collins included in the Team GB Olympic football provisional 191-man long-list of players for the 2012 London Olympics football tournament. He did not make the final 18-man cut.

Collins was born in Newport and attended St Joseph's Roman Catholic High School as a teenager. He was a schoolmate of Newport County player and manager Michael Flynn, who is two years older than Collins.

Collins is a redhead and is nicknamed "Ginge" and "Ginger Pelé".