Thursday, March 13, 2008

African Players in the Top European Leagues

These days, it seems like almost every club match in Europe features African players playing in key roles. It's obvious that Africa is a hotbed of soccer talent in the modern game and I wanted to find out more about the players that are currently playing in the top leagues in Europe. Here's what I found:


African Players in Each League:

114 - France Ligue 1
51 - English Premier League
31 - Portuguese Liga
28 - German Bundesliga
27 - Dutch Eredevisie
16 - Spain La Liga
10 - Italy Serie A


African Countries with 10 or more Players in Top European Leagues:

34 - Senegal
32 - Cameroon
29 - Morocco
28 - Nigeria
26 - Ivory Coast
23 - Ghana
19 - Mali
13 - Algeria
10 - Tunisia


African Countries with 2 or less players in Top European Leagues:

2 - Togo, Zambia, Kenya, Equitorial Guinea, Benin
1 - Burundi, Gabon, Namibia, Zimbabwe


Clubs With the Most African Players by League:

11 - France: Nice and Metz
6 - Germany: Hamburg
5 - England: Newcastle and Portsmouth
5 - Portugal: Académica and Boavista
4 - Holland: Heracles Almelo
3 - Spain: Sevilla
2 - Italy: Parma and Udinese


Most Represented Nations in each League:

France - 20 from Senegal
Holland - 13 from Morocco
England - 8 from Nigeria
Portugal - 6 from Angola and Cape Verde
Germany - 5 from South Africa
Spain - 4 from Cameroon
Italy - 2 from Ghana and Nigeria


By Position:

MF - 106 - 38%
FW - 90 - 32%
DF - 75 - 27%
GK - 8 - 3%

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