Sunderland’s team captain Dan Neil stands on the cusp of a remarkable feat not seen for nearly 90 years
Dan neil stands on the verge of writing his name into sunderland folklore, with the chance to achieve something not seen in nearly 90 years.
When the black cats walk out at wembley to face sheffield united in the 2025 championship play-off final, neil will (all being well) become the 11th player to captain sunderland at the national stadium. however, should sunderland win, neil would become the first north east-born homegrown player to lead the club to victory at wembley in 87 years since the legendary raich carter.
Carter, a Sunderland icon and one of English football’s greats, led the club to its first-ever FA Cup triumph in 1937, scoring in a 3-1 win over Preston North End. Since then, only two Black Cats captains with local roots have had the chance to emulate him, and all have unfortunately fallen short.
Barry Venison, another North East product, was just 20 years old when he led Sunderland out at Wembley in the 1985 League Cup final. The occasion proved a step too far, with Len Ashurst’s side losing 1-0 to Norwich City. More recently, George Honeyman, another academy graduate, captained the Black Cats twice at Wembley in 2019. But heartbreak followed on both occasions: first in the Checkatrade Trophy final against Portsmouth (lost on penalties), then in the League One play-off final defeat to Charlton Athletic, settled by a stoppage-time goal.
Now, it’s Dan Neil’s turn. The 23-year-old midfielder, born in South Shields and a product of Sunderland’s youth system, has matured into the captaincy at Sunderland this season after taking the role under Régis Le Bris ahead of the 2024-25 campaign. Neil was part of the squad that won promotion from League One under the captaincy of Corry Evans in 2022, and was around the squad in 2021 when the Black Cats were captained to the Papa John’s Trophy by Max Power
Sunderland’s full list of Wembley captains since the club’s first in 1937:
1937 – Raich Carter (homegrown)
1973 – Bobby Kerr
1985 – Barry Venison (homegrown)
1990 – Gary Bennett
1992 – Paul Bracewell
1998 – Kevin Ball
2014 – John O’Shea
2019 – George Honeyman x2 (homegrown)
2021 – Max Power
2022 – Corry Evans
2025 – Dan Neil (all being well)
What has Dan Neil said about captaining Sunderland at Wembley?
“It means absolutely everything,” he said after the game against Coventry City. “It’s easy to say you dream these things as a kid, but you don’t dream stuff as big as this. You dream you’ll make your debut, you dream you’ll score your first goal. But to skipper the side at Wembley—it’s something I could just never have imagined.”
“Our goal this year was promotion,” Neil added more generally after the clash with Coventry City. “We were disappointed we didn’t push the top two as much as we thought we could, especially with the start we had,” Neil said. “It was just a lack of consistency against the other teams in the league. But we have a massive chance to achieve our aims. Nights like this don’t come along very often. A trip to Wembley—I’m sure the fans will look forward to it—but when it comes to preparation, it’s all eyes on what we want.”
