James Milner: ‘People are always going to doubt you … prove them wrong’

Brighton’s evergreen, yoga-mad, teetotal veteran on the secrets to his longevity after 24 seasons in English football’s top flight

Being teetotal, always asking questions and taking up yoga in his early 30s after a recommendation from Gareth Barry have played their part. But if one thing inspired James Milner to break the Premier League’s appearance mark then it is a trait honed during his formative years in Yorkshire: sheer bloody-mindedness.

“Some things don’t change,” Milner says with a chuckle when asked whether his desire to prove people wrong was as strong as ever after his 40th birthday last month. “There’s people who are always going to doubt you but that’s always something that’s been at my forefront: to prove them wrong.”

Milner credits his father for instilling the fighting spirit that has carried him through a remarkable 24 seasons in English football’s top flight. He started as a 16-year-old with Leeds under the watchful eye of Terry Venables, and has had spells at Newcastle, Aston Villa, Manchester City, Liverpool and now Brighton.

“He knew what I was like and he used to say: ‘You don’t work hard enough, you’re not going to make it,’” he says of his father. “He’d never say it in a horrible way or anything like that. But he’d be like: ‘You got no chance of scoring the goal from there.’ And then [I would] take free-kicks and two shots later it’s in the top corner. He knew how to get the best of me.”

The same desire provided motivation after it seemed Milner’s career was finished in 2024 when he was unable to walk following knee surgery. He spent nine months on the sidelines before returning at the end of last season.

“I think most people – the surgeon, the physio, people who knew what I had, probably every single person – thought I was finished; at my age being a footballer and what I had,” he says. “So it was probably that same thing that meant I’m still playing now: not to finish your career in a way that wasn’t really in your control. That was the drive really. I wanted to try to prove that I could get back from that because I don’t think many people could.”

It has been particularly satisfying for Milner that, having come off the bench more than 200 times in the Premier League, he started on his 654th appearance to break his former Villa teammate Barry’s record when Brighton overcame Brentford last week. “My body doesn’t agree to sitting still, so that’s why I don’t like being on the bench so much,” he says.

He relishes his role as the elder statesman of the Brighton squad and reveals that the teenage striker Charalampos Kostoulas has been joining him for yoga sessions. “I probably started maybe eight or nine years ago now, which I think Gareth put me on to actually,” he says. “We’re passing it down, so I’ve passed it on to Babis [Kostoulas] at this moment. He’s only 18, so he’s starting young.”

Milner, whose rippling muscles bulge as he holds court at Brighton’s training ground in Lancing, recognises he has been fortunate that his career coincided with the rapid growth of sports science. He uses strengthening techniques created by the celebrated German athletics coach Frans Bosch to counteract injuries that have included a fractured ankle at Newcastle and 12 hamstring problems, meticulously tracks his sleep patterns and takes magnesium to boost a natural shortfall in his body. Milner believes the decision to never drink alcohol, made during his schooldays in Horsforth, outside Leeds, is another of the secrets to his longevity.

“I’ve never had a problem with people drinking at all – I think it’s healthy,” he says. “Like if that’s the right time to do it and if that’s your thing to get away from football and go have a blast, then I’ve no problems with it all. But it’s just a decision I made that if it would help me, I wouldn’t do it.

“When I first started playing you had maybe one or two physios, maybe a part-time masseur, one fitness coach. Now you’ve got five or six fitness coaches, you’ve got seven or eight in the medical team. So that’s been to my advantage that I’ve managed to learn from that to ask questions early.

“I always ask questions: ‘Why are we doing this?’ Or: ‘Explain it to me so I understand and then I decide if it is the right thing to do. I’m not just going to do it because you say. Give me the information why. Give me the science behind it.’ It was interesting, a few of the messages I had over the weekend were: ‘You were a nightmare to work with,’ or ‘challenging to work with’. But I take that as a compliment that I push them to be better and ask questions and challenge them. The best people always come out and give you the exact reason why you’re doing it.”

Things have changed from his youth, when Milner recalls “teacups flying and walls being punched” at half-time by irate managers. “You don’t see much of that now,” he says. “I just feel fortunate. I played through two eras; one when I was emerging and now another.”

Milner was presented this week with three Guinness world records: one for the appearances, another for most consecutive Premier League seasons (23) and the third for the longest gap between his first and last Premier League goals (22 years and 248 days). The next milestone on the horizon is surpassing Teddy Sheringham’s record as the Premier League’s oldest outfield player at 40 years 272 days, though Milner has never been inspired by chasing records.

He is yet to open discussions with Brighton about extending his stay beyond this season – a prospect recently welcomed by his 33-year‑old head coach, Fabian Hürzeler – but is keen to stay and he denies fearing what retirement may bring.

“When we have some days off I look forward to that: go and play golf, spend time with the family. So I feel whenever I finish, I’ll probably have a break and a rest because I’ve been so 100% for so long.”

Having worked under Venables, Sir Bobby Robson, Roberto Mancini, Jürgen Klopp and many other of the game’s finest managers, Milner is well placed to judge what makes a good one. He rates his two seasons as a central midfielder at Martin O’Neill’s Villa as his best from an individual perspective, and has especially fond memories of winning City’s and Liverpool’s first league titles for a generation. There are doubts about his prospects of making the transition to the dugout when he hangs up his boots.

“It’s such a hard gig, innit? You see managers getting a new contract and getting sacked in two months. People don’t get the time they deserve now. But the competitive guy in you thinks: ‘Yeah, I wouldn’t mind giving that a go.’

“I’ve got a great array of different managers from different countries and different personalities to lean back on, so in one way I think it’d be a big shame to lose all that knowledge and experience I’ve built up, to not be able to use that.”