Foreign imports!
Sports comments By Tony Matthews
Since the start of the 1992-93 Premiership season, almost 2,300 players from 111 nonBritish countries have appeared for top-flight clubs – the latest of them being the Tanzanian forward Mbwana Samatta who came on for Aston Villa in their Premiership game at Bournemouth in February.
Not surprisingly, really, we find that France has ‘supplied’ the most foreigners to PL clubs over the years – total 211. A further 183 have come from the Republic of Ireland, there have been 143 Spaniards, 133 Dutch, 79 Brazilians, 76 Italians, 74 Portuguese, 70 Argentineans, 69 Germans, 68 Norwegians, 63 Danes and Swedes, 57 Belgians, 51 Australians, 45 Nigerians and Americans and 43 Jamaicans.
Seventeen countries have been represented in the Premiership by one player: Albania – Lorik Cana (Sunderland, 2009-10); Angola – Manuch (Manchester Utd, Hull, 2008-09); Armenia – Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Manchester United, Arsenal, 2016-20); Burkina Faso – Bertrand Traore (Chelsea, 2015-16); Central African Republic – Frederic Nimani (Burnley, 2009-10); Cuba – Onel Hernandez (Norwich, 2019-20); the Faroe Islands – Gunnar Nielsen (Manchester City, 2009-10); Gambia – Modu
Barrow (Swansea, 2014-17); Gibralter – Danny Higginbottom (Manchester United, Derby, Southampton, Sunderland, Stoke, 1999-2012); Guinea-Bissau – Mesca (Fulham, 2013-14); Kenya – Victor Wanyama (Southampton, Tottenham, 2013-20); Malta – Dylan Kerr (Leeds, 1992-93); Oman – Ali AlHabsi (Bolton, Wigan, 2007-13); Pakistan – Zesh Rehman (Fulham, 2003-06); the Philippines – Neil Ethridge (Cardiff, 201819); The Syechelles – Kevin Betsy (Fulham, 2001-02) and the aforementioned Tanzanian Samatta.
Ten countries who’ve had two players appear in the PL are Belarus, Bolivia, Burundi, Cyprus, Equitorial Guinea, Estonia, Grenada, Kosovo, Lithuania and Venezuela.
The four main Scandinavian countries have been represented by 228 players; China and Japan have supplied 15 overall; 57 players have come from Australia and New Zealand; over 300 have been born in South American and Caribbean countries; 100 or so have ventured over from both Africa and Asia… and there have also been nine Bulgarians, 10 Canadians, 24 Croatians, 26 Czechs, 25 from Greece, 10 Hungarians, 17 from Iceland, 16 Israelis, 13 Koreans, 10 Mexicans, 17 Moroccans, 17 Poles, 14 Romanians, eight Russians, 37 from Senegal, 29 Serbians, 17 Slovakians, 29 Swiss, 16 Turks, 21 Uruguayans and four Zimbabweans.
All I can say is that many more will follow in these players’ footsteps in the years to come.
Foreign Fact… On Boxing Day 1999, Chelsea’s starting line-up against Southampton in the Premiership did not contain a single British-born player.
The team was goalkeeper Ed De Goy (Holland); a back four of David Ferrer (Spain), Celestine Babayaro (Nigeria), Frank Leboeuf (France) and Emerson Thome (Brazil); midfielders Dan Petrescu (Romania), Didier Deschamps (France) and Roberto Di Matteo (Italy); strikers Tore André Flo (Norway) and Gus Poyet (Uruguay) and winger Gabriele Ambrosetti (Italy). And Chelsea’s manager at the time was the Italian Gianluca Vialli.