F365 Decides: Which country is the best for exporting players to the Premier League?

Ian Watson
Thierry Henry, Peter Schmeichel, David Silva, Eden Hazard.
France, Denmark, Spain, Belgium... which nation is the best exporter to the Premier League?

The Mailbox did a dangerous thing this week. It made us think: which country is the best exporter to the Premier League?

Amid the flak flying around Florian Wirtz right now, and while musing over the success of the Portuguese lads at Manchester United, Mailbox stalwart Badwolf pondered which nation produces the best imports into Our League.

Immediately, all hope of any work being done for the following hour vanished. Down the rabbit hole we went…

Wistfully, we reminisced over our personal favourites. Winty went for David Silva because, well, he’s magic. Continuing the theme of pint-sized sorcerers, Joe Williams opted for Juninho. Some other names thrown around the desk: Cantona, Klinsmann, Hazard, Henry, Aguero…

So no consensus there over the best nation to import from. Come to think of it, how do we answer that question?

We could build an algorithm to mine the data… f*** that. Spelling ‘algorithm’ is arduous enough for a Friday, we’re definitely not building one.

Like the rest of the nation’s workforce, we hoped AI might help us get an early dart to the pub. ChatGPT’s answer: ‘France for quantity and consistency; Portugal and Spain for elite influence.’ Thanks for f*** all.

No, instead of digging deep ourselves to answer this question, we’re mining our greatest resource: the knowledgeable and devilishly-handsome F365 readers. You started it, so you can finish it.

So get involved, first by giving a simple answer to a complex question in the poll below.

Then head Below The Line to state your case, and offer up your favourite individual imports. We’ve given you some stats and numbers below if that’s your thing.

Be warned: discussing your personal foreign hero can quickly descend into a game of ‘name the most random foreign player you can think of’ and, instantly, productivity plummets to zero. So you might as well get off now and do it in the pub anyway…

🚨 The Famous F365 Friday Quiz: Premier League foreign imports edition

Premier League imports by the numbers

  • 122 of the 211 foreign FIFA-affiliated nations have been represented in the Premier League since the inaugural season in 1992/93.
  • Players from 105 nations have scored Premier League goals.
  • Players from 58 nations have played in this season’s Premier League, with five more nations represented in squads. A total of 30 nations were represented in 1992/93.
  • After England, Netherlands have accumulated most minutes so far this season, followed by France, Brazil, Spain and Portugal.

Top 10 nations for Premier League players

  1. France – 266 players
  2. Spain – 191 players
  3. Netherlands – 178 players
  4. Brazil – 138 players
  5. Portugal – 111 players
  6. Italy – 98 players
  7. Denmark – 96 players
  8. Germany – 96 players
  9. Argentina – 93 players
  10. Norway – 84 players

Top 10 nations for Premier League appearances

  1. France – 16,805 appearances
  2. Spain – 10,686 appearances
  3. Netherlands – 10,085 appearances
  4. Brazil – 8,554 appearances
  5. Norway – 5,506 appearances
  6. Denmark – 5,473 appearances
  7. Belgium – 5,428 appearances
  8. Argentina – 5,381 appearances
  9. Portugal – 5,371 appearances
  10. Germany – 4,743 appearances

Top 10 nations for Premier League goals

  1. France – 1,790 goals
  2. Netherlands – 1088 goals
  3. Spain – 965 goals
  4. Brazil – 954 goals
  5. Belgium – 739 goals
  6. Norway – 690 goals
  7. Argentina – 637 goals
  8. Nigeria – 608 goals
  9. Portugal – 521 goals
  10. Italy – 473 goals

Top 10 nations for Premier League assists

  1. France – 1,283 assists
  2. Spain – 977 assists
  3. Brazil – 712 assists
  4. Netherlands – 686 assists
  5. Portugal – 497 assists
  6. Belgium – 495 assists
  7. Germany – 404 assists
  8. Argentina – 359 assists
  9. Norway – 351 assists
  10. Nigeria – 322 assists
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