Foreign Premier League Players – Part 1

The first part of probably many of a series I will be doing about foreign players who’ve played in the Premier League, many amazing players outside the UK have graced the Premier League and my series here will look at some of those players, the impact they’ve had in the league and what countries they’ve represented, basically bringing my main interests of football and geography together.

The first country we’ll look at is Albania, only two Albanian footballers have graced the Premier League, Lorik Cana was the first , Cana joined Sunderland from Marseille. At Marseille Cana had played in both the Champions League and UEFA Cup and had represented the club in both competitions as captain. Cana joined Sunderland in 2009 and was quickly appointed as club captain, Steve Bruce was certainly aware of the influence he had, however Cana only lasted one season in the North East and moved on from Sunderland after only 35 games. In July 2010, Cana left the Premier League to join Turkish side Galatasaray. Armando Broja was the second Albanian to appear in the Premier League, Broja was born in Slough to Albanian parents, having signed his first professional contract for Chelsea in February 2020, he made his debut in March 2020, coming on as a substitute in a convincing win against Everton. Broja hasn’t made any further appearances for Chelsea in the Premier League but hopefully we’ll see a lot more of him.

16 Algerians have played in the Premier League, but as we all know without doubt Riyad Mahrez is the most successful, having won the league with Leicester City and Manchester City, Mahrez is a truly wonderful player and has represented his country amazingly in the Premier League. Islam Slimani was another Algerian touted for success in the Premier League however after spells with Leicester City and Newcastle United, it did not materialise. Nabil Bentaleb started off with Tottenham Hotspur and during the 2019/20 season represented Newcastle United, Adlene Guedioura has represented four different clubs in the Premier League but his best work came with Nottingham Forest in the Championship. Except for Riyad Mahrez, Algerians have not been successful in the Premier League, but Mahrez does carry the torch very high for Algerians in the Premier League having won the title twice.

Only one Angolan has played in the Premier League and he played for two different teams in Manchester United & Hull City, however Manucho wasn’t a success at either, unfortunately for Manucho, he left the Premier League after one season without making any impact at all.

The next country we’re visiting is Antigua and Barbuda where three players from the Caribbean Island have played in the Premier League, Dexter Blackstock and Mikele Leigertwood were the first to represent the island when playing for Southampton & Crystal Palace respectively in the 2004/05 season. Leigertwood went on to represent Sheffield United and Reading without making much impact, the same story as Moses Ashikodi who played for Watford in the 2006/07 season which got relegated.

Next we go to Argentina, who have possibly produced the best foreign player in Premier League history, of course that would be Sergio Aguero who is currently sitting third it the all time top Premier League goalscorers. Aguero has been wonderful for Manchester City since he arrived from Atletico Madrid in 2011, winning the title four time with City. However, with the good comes the bad, and Argentina have certainly seen players in the league which haven’t quite hit the mark like Aguero has, Santiago Vergini is one who has possibly scored one of the best own goals in the league’s history, check out his superb volley which went in the wrong net when Southampton beat Sunderland 8-0. Much more was expected of Hernan Crespo during his two spells with Chelsea, however things didn’t quite work out as well for him as they did at Inter Milan. A few clubs have had cult heroes who’ve arrived from Argentina, Jonas Gutierrez who is still loved by the fans on Tyneside, he came to the Premier League wearing a Spiderman mask and left it a Newcastle United legend after overcoming testicular cancer to keep the Magpies up on the last day of the season. Another Argentine who made his mark in the North East was Julio Arca who played for Sunderland and Middlesbrough and had an eye for goal from long range. On the other hand, you had players from Argentina who came into the Premier League with a lot of expectation but sadly never lived up to it, we only got to see glimpses of the quality Angel Di Maria possesses, his goal at Leicester City showed what he could do but that moment was rare for a player who had cost so much. Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez came into the league under a cloud of confusion after they both signed for West Ham United after agent Kia Joorabchian orchestrated what many thought what was a dodgy deal. However their careers at West Ham United were short lived and both went on to much bigger things after leaving the Hammers. Sir Alex Ferguson didn’t make many bad signings during his tenure at Manchester United, but Juan Sebastian Veron was certainly not one of his best deals, a lot was expected of the tough tackling midfielder however he was shipped off to Chelse after a couple of poor seasons at Old Trafford. You don’t sign many club legends for £5 million, but that’s exactly what Manchester City did when they signed Pablo Zabaleta from Espanyol in 2008, the right back became one of the best defenders in the league during his time at the Etihad Stadium and won the league and it’s mostly forgotten that it was Zabaleta who scored the first goal in that unforgettable 3-2 victory against Queen Park Rangers that clinched City the league title in 2012. Exactly 70 Argentines have played in the Premier League, some have been absolutely brilliant and captured the imagination during their time in England, while others have sadly not, however an Argentine is responsible for the most dramatic moment in the competition’s history, as Martin Tyler said ”Balotelli to Aguero”, the rest is history.

One Armenian has played in the Premier League, and that man played for Manchester United and Arsenal so that shows what Henrikh Mkhitaryan is capable of on his day, sadly his best days came at Borussia Dortmund before he came to the Premier League and the playmaker didn’t fit in, into United’s nor Arsenal’s sides. However he is capable of moments of genius on his day, such as that scorpion kick he scored during his time at Manchester United, an amazing moment of improvisation and quality from the Armenian, sadly that goal didn’t live long in the memory as Olivier Giroud usurped it with his own scorpion kick a few weeks later. Sadly Mkhitaryan’s best didn’t come in the Premier League leaving fans of the both teams he played for, wondering what could’ve been.

That concludes the first part of my series looking at the impact foreign players have had in the Premier League, in the next part I’ll be looking at players from Australia, Austria and Belgium and a few other countries to discuss the impact they had during their time in the Premier League.