Why the ever-popular Premier League is truly the real League of Nations
LUKAKU, Kane, Aguero, fair enough. But what’s this, an Egyptian heading the Premier League leading scorers? What is the world coming to?
Well, the world is coming to realise our league is the most cosmopolitan on the planet, no fewer than 108 countries having been represented and three more if you count Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
As far as football is considered, the British Empire strikes back.
Possibly, Mohamed Salah would not wish to be reminded Egypt was in that empire.
Now like so many foreigners he’s over here, adorning our game and earning chunks of money as a reward for his skittering brilliance with Liverpool.
Even with Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling playing with such sting for Manchester City, Salah is this quarter-season’s star winger.
CLAIM YOUR FREE £30 BET Check out this new sign up offer from Sun Bets
Leroy Sane is another foreigner truly lighting up the Premier League
TOP STORIES FROM THE WORLD CUP DRAW
The goals pour out of him — two more on Wednesday against Stoke — and he, Sane, Sterling and Wilfried Zaha at Crystal Palace are as lethal in space as Han Solo.
Salah is one of a number of destructive players set free from Chelsea’s gilded cage in the last few years.
HATS A RESULT England land plum draw against Panama, Tunisia and Belgium
Whether hair is being torn out at Stamford Bridge, I don’t know, but each of them thought they had waited too long for first-team opportunities and were loaned to ease their frustration and later sold.
Meanwhile, Chelsea were winning titles and making a profit on players so it could be critics of the eventual transfers of Kevin De Bruyne and Salah from foreign clubs to Premier League rivals are being wise after the event.
Romelu Lukaku’s £90million move to Manchester United was different as Chelsea had loaned him to West Brom and then Everton before the Toffees bought him.
Yet I think we shouldn’t be too miserable about this picture of prosperity for foreign players.
One of the Premier League’s great attractions to its worldwide addicts is the mix of nations and the variety and styles their players bring.
They may owe us for founding the sport but they are paying us back many times by the changes they have wrought in the old mud-fest.
We first witnessed the promise of impending revolution when Spurs brought Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa from Argentina nearly 40 years ago.
EU membership along with the start of the Premier League in 1992 accelerated the process.
In 2005, the revolution was largely French. Arsenal’s innovator Arsene Wenger selected the first all-foreign squad, the French bias including Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira and Robert Pires.
Their supporters didn’t seem to mind.
💰How to claim your FREE £30 bet💰
And they still don’t, although there are constant grumbles about the attitude of major clubs towards recruitment and it is true the influx of nationalities sometimes delays the progress of our best youngsters.
MOST READ IN FOOTBALL
We will all be watching how well the current bunch of English world-beating kids will do.
But in terms of entertainment, quality of football, value for money and improvement in behaviour on and off the field, we have a lot to thank foreign players for.
It is why our leagues continues to increase in popularity home and abroad. Vive le football!