Chris Gunter is on course to become the first Welshman to win 100 caps but the Reading defender insists it is the prospect of qualifying for a major tournament, rather than chasing personal landmarks, that fuels his motivation at a time when Chris Coleman’s team stand on the verge of creating history.
Aged only 26 and a near-permanent fixture in the international setup since making his debut against New Zealand in 2007, Gunter is set to win his 62nd and 63rd caps in Bosnia-Herzegovina on Saturday and at home against Andorra three days later, with Wales needing only a point to guarantee their place at next summer’s European Championship finals in France.
Four other players in the current Wales squad have won 50 caps or more, including Gareth Bale, who was born five days before Gunter and played alongside him at schoolboy and youth level. Gunter, however, leads the way and, assuming the former Tottenham Hotspur player steers clear of injury, there is every chance he will go on to surpass Neville Southall, whose 92 appearances make him Wales’s most-capped player.
Not that Gunter, who currently stands 14th on the all-time list, two places and three caps behind Ryan Giggs, is focusing on writing his name into the record books. “We don’t talk about who will be first to 100 caps. I bet a lot of the players couldn’t answer how many caps they have, they just stack up,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate. Since I made my debut I’ve picked up caps at pretty much every game. But every situation is different. Aaron Ramsey has a lot of caps for his age but you’d add 10 or 15 if he hadn’t been injured.
“We’ve not qualified for a tournament for a long time, which is why no Welsh player has got to 100 caps. If you play every two summers, friendlies beforehand and three games in the space of a week to 10 days – you see some of the numbers the England players have racked up and they are on 100, 120, because they can get 10 caps in the space of two months – it makes a difference. It would be fantastic if any of us could get to that.
“It’s one thing getting to 100 caps but it’d be even better saying: ‘Do you remember that night we sealed qualification? Or one of the summers getting fantastic results in major competitions?’ We all want to be part of something that we can look back on when we do eventually finish and reflect on really special occasions.”
The last time Wales reached a major tournament was in 1958, at the World Cup finals in Sweden, and Gunter needs no telling there have been a few agonising near misses since. Paul Bodin struck the bar with a penalty against Romania in the final qualification game for the 1994 World Cup finals and a decade later Mark Hughes’ side lost to Russia in a play-off for a place at Euro 2004.
“I remember Romania and the Russia campaign, the closer we get, over the years, the more these questions seem to come. It’s been a hard time, we aren’t the biggest nation but we’ve probably underachieved,” Gunter said. “It’s nice to be involved in the right sort of scenarios towards the end of the group. We played Belgium [in 2013] when they celebrated getting to the World Cup and that was a night where for a small time you allowed yourself to think what it would be like to be in that position. Hopefully it’s come full circle and we can now do it.”
While Bale has been the driving force behind a remarkable turnaround that has seen Wales climb to eighth in the Fifa rankings, one place behind Brazil, and go through their qualification campaign unbeaten so far – the Real Madrid forward has scored six and assisted two of their nine goals – everything has also come together off the field and there is a sense the relationship between the players and supporters has never been stronger.
Fans have travelled overseas in large numbers and the atmosphere in the home matches at Cardiff City Stadium, in particular for the memorable 1-0 victory over Belgium in June, when there was a spine-tingling rendition of Land of My Fathers in the closing stages, has been something to behold and feels light years away from the John Toshack era, when Gunter would run out at the Millennium Stadium in front of a sprinkling of supporters.
“The fans have had a massive part to play, we had years of struggling to sell tickets, in stadiums three-quarters empty but from the beginning of this campaign it’s been different,” Gunter said. “Andorra was a nightmare to get to, even worse for the fans but they filled the away end and it has snowballed from there. The atmosphere against Belgium was amazing, away in Cyprus the fans were unbelievable and it’s nice to repay that support with good results. It’s important for them to know how much we appreciate them.”
