International career
Between 1988 and 1995 he played 17 matches for the national team, but was often used as bench cover for Thomas Ravelli. He took part in the 1990 FIFA World Cup, 1994 FIFA World Cup and Euro 1992.
“The postman wants an autograph. The cab driver wants a picture. The waitress wants a handshake. Everyone wants a piece of you.” John Lennon
When England manager Glenn Hoddle took the Captain's armband from Adams and gave it to Alan Shearer
it was a bitter pill for Adams to swallow. Speaking at a fans' forum in
2008 Adams remarked "I have some resentment over the way Glenn Hoddle
gave the captaincy to Alan Shearer instead of me but I can let that go. I
reacted positively. I disagreed with him [Hoddle] and he thought Alan
could get more penalties being a centre forward. People know my reaction
to that".
Adams continued to play for the national side, however and he finally appeared in a World Cup finals in 1998. His international swansong was England's largely unsuccessful Euro 2000
campaign. With Shearer retiring from international football after the
tournament, Adams regained the captaincy. However, within months,
England lost a World Cup qualifier to Germany in October 2000, the match being the last to be staged at Wembley Stadium before the stadium was torn down for rebuilding. That match was Adams's 60th Wembley appearance, a record. With Sven-Göran Eriksson eventually taking the helm and under increasing pressure for his place from the emerging and improving Rio Ferdinand,
Adams retired from international football before Eriksson picked his
first squad. He was the last England player to score at the old Wembley
Stadium when he scored England's second goal in a 2–0 friendly win over
Ukraine on 31 May 2000. This was also his first goal since he scored in a
friendly against Saudi Arabia in November 1988, thus making the record
for the longest gap between goals for England.