By Mark Baber
January 21 – A new survey shows the percentage of players in European leagues imported from abroad is now at a record high. In the top 31 division leagues of UEFA, 36.1% of all squad members grew up in a different national association to that of their employer club.
The survey from the CIES Football Observatory shows that expatriate footballers represent more than one quarter of players in all positions, with a high of 44.3% among forwards. The percentage of expatriates is above 50% in six championships: Cyprus, England, Portugal, Belgium, Italy and Turkey. The level observed in the top Cypriot league is the highest ever recorded (74.2%).
Brazil remains by far the top exporting country although the overall number of Brazilians has fallen slightly since last year, from 524 to 515. Players from France, the second biggest exporter increased from 245 to 269. The highest increase was for Spanish (+34 to 148) and Portuguese players (+41 to 171).
During the last year, the highest growth in number of expatriate players was recorded in Bulgaria (+6.9%) and the Ukraine (+6.2%). Meanwhile in troubled Greece there has been a fall in the percentage of expatriates (-14.9%). Only in the Slovenia, Serbia and Croatian leagues are less than 20% of players from abroad.
The percentage of players trained at their own club has fallen to a new low of 21.1% and is now lower than 10% in Portugal, Turkey and Italy.
Other interesting data to come out of the survey includes the fact that the Barcelona squad is the shortest on average in Europe, as well as being made up of the players who have been together in the first team for longest.
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