CIES Observatory research group have released countries with the highest number of foreign-based players as Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Senegal make the top 20 rankings.
According to the statistic, Brazil is the main exporter of footballers. On the 1st of May 2022, 1,219 footballers were originating from Brazil playing abroad in the championships analysed.
France (978) is the second main exporter of players, followed by Argentina (815). The percentage of players active abroad within leagues of the same confederation varies greatly between these three origins: 90.0% for the French, 46.1% for the Argentinians and just 3.5% for the Brazilians.
England’fourth-place is explained essentially by the strong presence of players having grown up in this country in teams of other United Kingdom associations, as well as in Ireland: about 57% of the total number of English expatriates. Among the twenty principle expatriate origins, the highest concentration of players within the premier destination was recorded for the Belgians (29.6% in the Netherlands), while the lowest was measured for the Nigerians (6.8% in Turkey).
According to the statistics, Most of Nigeria’s foreign-based players are based in Turkey, Ghana in the USA, Ivory Coast in Belgium while Senegal and Cameroon have more players in France than any other country.
Below are the top 15 countries with the highest foreign-based players.
1.Nigeria (339 players)
2. Ghana (293 players)
3. Ivory Coast (208 players)
4. Senegal (192 players)
5. Cameroon (131 players)
6. Mali (83 players)
7. Gambia (55 players)
8. Algeria (55 players)
9.Guinea (53 players)
10. Morocco (47 players)
11. Zimbabwe (36 players)
12. Burkina Faso (28 players)
13. DRC (28 players)
14. South Africa (28 players)
15. Zambia (25 players)
CIES Observatory is a research group within the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES). The research team gathers experts specialising in the n statistical analysis of sports. It aims to provide top-level services for sports governing bodies in the areas of questionnaire surveys, databases, data mining, business intelligence, and reporting.