Guardiola’s Man City provide most players in Russia

NEW DELHI: A record-breaking season under Pep Guardiola has seen Manchester City players being in high demand ahead of the FIFA World Cup in Russia this summer. As many as 16 players from the Premier League champion side, which constitutes 2.17% of the total 736 players at the World Cup, have been called up by their national teams for football’s showpiece event.

European clubs have continued their dominance in the tournament this year, with nine clubs from Europe’s five biggest leagues contributing 10 or more players each to the 32 World Cup teams. City are followed by Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona, who have 15 (2.04%) and 14 (1.90%) World Cup players, respectively.

Juventus are the only Italian club to be among the nine clubs while Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-germain are the sole representatives in the list from Germany and France, respectively.

Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Manchester United are the other English sides among the nine clubs. These nine clubs have contributed a combined total of 114 players (15.49%).

Outside of Europe, Saudi Arabia-based Al Ahli and Al Hilal have nine players each featuring in the World Cup, making them joint-10th alongside Atletico Madrid in the list of most wellrepresented clubs.

Egypt’s qualification for the World Cup has seen seven Al Ahly players being named in the flight for Russia, making them Africa’s most prominent club.

On the other hand, clubs from Italy will have a significant presence in Russia this summer with as many as 58 players (7.88%) being in the final squads of World Cup teams, despite the four-time world champions themselves missing from the event. Clubs from Turkey, USA and Netherlands, all of whom missed the World Cup bus alongside Italy, will have 22 (2.99%), 18 (2.45%) and 15 (2.04%) players, respectively.

Another country to have made a mark this summer is China. Eight players plying their trade in the country are part of their countries’ World Cup squads.