sport news The Premier League of Nations! The English top-flight has featured players from ... trends now
The Premier League is considered the greatest division in the world and for good reason, but one the most impressive things about the English top-tier is the level of diversity.
Some 126 nations from around the world have been represented at one point during the 31 years that the league has been running, showcasing some of the best talent the game has to offer.
This season alone, there are 63 nations represented in the Premier League aside from England, with France leading the way with 31 players while the likes of Estonia and Gabon have just one representative in 2023-24.
From World Cup winners to national heroes the Premier League has been home to 65 per cent of the sovereign states, and the data shows that number is continuing to grow, much to the benefit of the domestic game.
Here, Mail Sport takes you through the data, supplied by Transfermarkt, to have a look at how different nations have contributed to the Premier League over the years.
One of the best aspects of the Premier League is the fact that it sees so many nations represented by football players
Estonia's sole Premier League representative is Arsenal back-up goalkeeper Karl Jakob Hein
Arsenal's William Saliba is one of 31 French players in the division - the leading country outside of England for the Premier League
It perhaps comes as no surprise that the likes of France, Spain and Ireland have had the most players represented in the Premier League.
Ireland, of course, has a geographical advantage over many other nations given the proximity to England, but has also seen a number of players born in England to Irish heritage represent the The Boys In Green over the years.
France has long been one of the great European powerhouses with a rich tradition of world beaters, from Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira to Paul Pogba and N'Golo Kante to grace the Premier League.
Similarly with the Spanish tiki-taka style of play growing enormously popular over the last 15 years, a number of those trained in such a way from their first steps have been snapped up by Premier League clubs.
In the first ever Premier League season, however, it was Scotland who contributed the most players (43) to the division, closely followed by Republic of Ireland and Wales (33).
The inaugural champions Manchester United boasted two Scots in their ranks in Brian McClair and Darren Ferguson, Welsh trio of Mark Hughes, Ryan Giggs and Clayton Blackmore and Irish legend Dennis Irwin.
In fact, those three nations shared the podium for every season until 1998-99 when France came in third (26), and even then Scotland and Ireland shared the top two spots until 2001-02 when Les Bleus finally knocked them off their perch.
Interestingly, Ireland remained in the top three for the first 21 years of the competition, falling to fourth place in 2013-14 as France and Spain really took a grip on the division.
The inaugural Premier League winners Manchester United utilised a number of British and Irish talents from outside England including Dennis Irwin, Ryan Giggs and Brian McClair
Arsenal's side of the Arsene Wenger era featured a number of French stars including Patrick Vieira (left), Robert Pires (second left) and Thierry Henry (third left)
During the early 2000s there was a wealth of Irish talent in the Premier League behind the obvious contenders Roy and Robbie Keane. Damien Duff's prominence at Chelsea, as well as Steve Finnan at Liverpool and Shay Given at a number of clubs throughout the 200s and 2010s saw Ireland represented at the highest level of the game.
