Trailblazer Mel and the major finals Swans

One of the Swansea and Wales greats, Mel Charles, was born on this day in 1935.

Younger brother of the legendary John, the defender made 233 appearances and scored 69 goals for his hometown club.

Mel died in 2016, but he will forever be remembered for gracing the biggest stage as part of the 1958 Wales World Cup side.

When Jimmy Murphy's side travelled to Sweden and reached the quarter-finals, he was one of three Swansea players in the squad - and the first to play at a major finals while at the club.

There he was said to have been described by Pele as the best centre-half at the tournament, with Charles swapping shirts with the then 17-year-old, who broke Welsh hearts with the only goal when Brazil met Wales in the last eight.

Some 66 years on, and a month away from the opening game of Euro 2024, there will not be any players flying the Swansea flag at a major tournament this summer.

Yet there have been some notable appearances in European Championships and World Cups by players who were playing club football at Swansea.

Of course, there have been many more who have played on such a grand stage either before or after their time in south Wales, including striker Fernando Llorente, who won both the World Cup in 2010 and the 2012 Euros prior to joining Swansea in 2016.

But there have been 17 players who have been on Swansea's books while starring for their country at either a World Cup or European Championship.

After the boys of '58 - where Charles was joined by brothers Ivor Allchurch and Len Allchurch - it was not until 2014 that a current Swansea player graced a World Cup.

There were four Swans at that year's tournament - goalkeeper Michel Vorm and midfielder Jonathan de Guzman lined up for the Netherlands team that reached the semi-finals, while striker Wilfried Bony was part of the Ivory Coast side and midfielder Ki Sung-Yeung represented South Korea.

Ki was also at the 2018 tournament in Russia, as were Swedish pair Kristoffer Nordfeldt and Martin Olsson, while Lukasz Fabianski was in the Poland squad.

At Euro 2020, Swansea defenders Connor Roberts and Ben Cabango were in Rob Page's squad - with Roberts a goalscorer against Turkey - while Cabango was joined by Joe Allen at the 2022 World Cup after the latter re-signed for his boyhood club. Midfielder Olivier Ntcham featured for Cameroon.

There had been four Swansea players at Euro 2016 - as many players as Atletico Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain had at that tournament.

Along with goalkeeper Fabianski, Gylfi Sigurdsson was a key man for Iceland while Ashley Williams and Neil Taylor were both among the goals as Wales reached the semi-finals.