Ferocious Four
The Ferocious Four, sometimes dubbed Fabulous Four, is a nickname commonly used by the British media to refer to four former England internationals: Sir William Carter, Sir Wayne Rooney, Sir Frank Lampard, and Sir Steven Gerrard, all of whom were consistently present and are generally considered to be the core and unchanging members of the England national football team that famously won three consecutive FIFA World Cups from 2006 to 2014 and also back-to-back UEFA European Championships in 2008 and 2012. However, despite sharing the same national team on the international level, on the domestic level, the four otherwise represent different football clubs in the Premier League, the top flight of English football, with both Carter and Rooney being well-known players for Manchester United while Lampard and Gerrard primarily played for Chelsea and Liverpool respectively. Following their retirement from professional football, all four of them had each pursued a career as a football manager with Gerrard and Rooney currently managing the Saudi Pro League club Al-Ettifaq and EFL Championship club Plymouth Argyle each whereas Carter and Lampard most recently managed the Premier League clubs Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea respectively.
Nonetheless, all four of them have each received a knighthood and various other awards for their collective contribution to English football and are generally recognised as being among England's greatest footballers of all time with Martin Tyler of Sky Sports describing the quartet as "the 21st-century reincarnation of Kevin Keegan, Bobby Charlton, Jimmy Greaves, and Nobby Stiles", the highly decorated members of the legendary 1966 England squad that won their first-ever World Cup title. In 2016, the fiftieth anniversary of England's maiden World Cup triumph, a marble statue depicting the aforementioned eight names was erected in front of St George's Park to commemorate their achievements. Among media outlets, the statue was popularly nicknamed "The Kings of English Football", referencing the eight individuals' revered status in English football.
In terms of titles accumulated, with approximately ninety-three titles to his name, Sir William Carter is the most decorated footballer out of the four. Meanwhile, in terms of physical characteristics, Carter is the tallest of the four at 1.88 metres tall while Rooney is the shortest overall at 1.76 metres tall whereas Lampard, born in 1978, is the oldest of the four while Rooney, born in 1985, is the youngest of them. Meanwhile, as of the last tournament that either of them participated in, both Carter and Rooney are the only two players to win four World Cup titles, both of whom did so consecutively, whereas Gerrard and Lampard, together with compatriots Jordan Henderson and Raheem Sterling, are the only few footballers who currently hold three World Cup titles respectively.
In addition to their most popular nickname, the group of four is also occasionally referred to by other names including "Fabulous Four", "Fantastic Four", and "The Fab 4". The group was documented extensively in The Fables of the Fabulous Four, a four-part documentary by Netflix chronicling the careers of each four players at both club and international levels.