Martin Kelly played 62 games for Liverpool and Crystal Palace, but his England career was over before it barely started. The defender experienced the highs and lows typical of any professional footballer at Liverpool, from a title challenge to lengthy injury lay-offs. Yet few could fault him for observing Trevoh Chalobah's inclusion in Thomas Tuchel's England World Cup squad with a pang of bitterness.
For the vast majority of English footballers, pulling on the national team shirt is regarded as the peak of their careers, and Kelly is no exception. He was amongst the fortunate 1,290 to have earned an England cap, though the defender's international experience proved fleeting in the extreme.
The centre-back was given his debut when he replaced Phil Jones in the 88th minute of the 1-0 friendly victory over Norway in Oslo. Officially, he spent just two minutes and 43 seconds on the pitch during regulation time - within the standard 90 minutes. When stoppage time is factored in, his total involvement amounted to merely six minutes and 53 seconds.
That left him just one second short of Nathaniel Chalobah - ironically the older brother of Trevoh. The ex-Chelsea and Watford defender made a fleeting cameo against Spain in a Nations League fixture in 2018.
No player has featured for a briefer period while earning a single cap since, placing Kelly in the unusual position of scarcely being able to savour his time representing England. However, when looking back on the distinction of possessing one of the shortest international careers in England's history, the 36-year-old revealed why he regards it as a treasured moment.
"Apparently the shortest England career in history," he told The Athletic in 2025. "I don't know for sure how accurate that is, but it's what I've been told. I'm absolutely fine with that. Making my international debut was one of the proudest moments of my life."
Kelly, who made 62 appearances for the Reds before leaving for Crystal Palace, represented his nation from Under-19 through to Under-21 level before earning his senior cap in 2012. He received a call-up from Roy Hodgson to face Norway in a friendly fixture ahead of Euro 2012, despite missing out on the initial squad and being placed on standby instead.
As fate would have it, he was subsequently summoned to Hodgson's squad for the Euros as cover for the injured Gary Cahill, who had sustained a fractured jaw. Upon joining up with the squad for the Ukraine/Poland tournament, Kelly became unwell and failed to feature in any match.
He later added: "I came on at right-back, had a few touches, and then it was all over. When Gary Cahill broke his jaw a week later, [England manager] Roy Hodgson called me up as a replacement in the squad for the Euros. It was a shame that I spent the first 10 days of the tournament in bed with a virus and never got the chance to play for England again. But just getting there meant so much after the hurdles I'd had to overcome."
That pattern of bad luck extended to his club career as well. Kelly sustained an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injury on his debut for Wigan Athletic against Blackburn Rovers in the Championship in February 2023, having arrived on loan from West Brom, and never featured professionally again.
In 2023/24, he trained with League Two outfit Salford City under his former Liverpool youth coach Karl Robinson. Kelly aimed for an emotional return, but the club didn't offer him a contract and he chose to retire from the game in March 2025.
"It was March when I sat down with the family and told them I was thinking about it," he said. "Around the same time, I got asked to play for Liverpool in a legends game against Chelsea. One of the stipulations was that you had to be retired, so that just reaffirmed my decision."
Now a football coach with a UEFA B Licence, Kelly gets to enjoy football at its most basic, amateur level: playing on a seven-a-side pitch with other retired Premier League cult heroes, including Danny Drinkwater and Papiss Cisse.
"It was James Chester (formerly of Aston Villa) who got me involved in this WhatsApp group. It's an 11-a-side game on a seven-a-side pitch, so it's pretty tight, and there are usually five or six ex-pros on each side. There's no referee, we play for an hour and the losers pay for the pitch. It's surprising how much the ex-pros really don't want to have to hand a tenner over."
