While watching bits and pieces of the four international friendlies that were televised here in the US yesterday afternoon (Argentina defeating Brazil 1-0 in Doha, USA beating South Africa 1-0 in Cape Town, France over England 2-0 in Wembley, and Portugal embarrassing Spain 4-0 in Lisbon), we got to thinking about the compositions of these squads: how many of the players on each national team play for domestic clubs, versus clubs abroad?
A couple different things led us to this question: looking thru the USMNT squad for this match, which seemed to us surprisingly MLS-heavy, and studying this guide to the current Seleção, which also seemed to have a larger-than-expected domestic contingent.
So we thought it might be interesting to take a quick look at the data for these eight national teams. According to the Current Squad lists pulled from Wikipedia (and reproduced for reference below, after the bump), here are the numbers–the percentage of each squad that is currently playing club ball domestically:
A Global Game
Argentina: 0% (0/21)
Brazil: 40% (8/20)
England: 96% (26/27)
France: 65% (15/23)
Portugal: 28% (5/18)
Spain: 82% (18/22)
South Africa: 61% (14/23)
USA: 56% (10/18)
Some observations:
It is remarkable that Argentina brought called up no domestically based players for this match–though they did take a handful to the World Cup. Somewhat ironically, one Argentine plays for a Brazilian club; the other 20 are scattered in various European leagues (multiple players in Spain, Portugal, and Italy; a single player in each of Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, England and Russia)
40% does seem like a surprisingly high number for Brazil–though that’s skewed by the fact that all 3 goalkeepers play domestically.
That England didn’t achieve total purity/insularity is a bit of a fluke: that single outlier (Jay Bothroyd) doesn’t lie that far outside England (Wales), and wouldn’t have gotten his first (and probably last) call-up to the national team had Rooney, Bent and Dafoe not been out with injuries.
That nearly 2/3 of France’s squad play for French clubs is somewhat surprising–perhaps because one tends to focus on the players that play abroad for “big” clubs (Nasri, Clichy, and Sagna for Arsenal; Malouda for Chelsea, Kaboul for Spurs, Abidal for Barcelona, Benzema for Real Madrid).
The four outliers on the Spanish squad are all in England (Reina, Torres, Fabregas, Silva). Not only is Spain’s squad pulled mostly from La Liga–it’s pulled mostly from Barcelona (8 players) and Real Madrid (5), with only two other clubs even represented: Villareal (3) and Athletic Bilbao (2).
Of the nine members of Bafana Bafana that play outside South Africa, four are in England, three are in Belgium, one is in Holland–and two are in Israel.
The full squad lists for these friendlies, pulled from Wikipedia:
The following players were named for the friendly against South Africa on November 17th, 2010. The caps and goals are current as of the November 17th, 2010 friendly against South Africa, and the club affiliation is current as of November 17th, 2010.
In regards to the makeup of the US squad, it should be noted that this match was used as a ‘look see’ for young players and does not come close to the first team.
Unlike Euro teams that are fine tuning for the Euro 2012 qualifiers, or Argentina and Brasil playing a massive rivalry match, the US has some time before it prepares seriously for the Gold Cup(winner qualifies for Confederations Cup).
Regular starters not called for the South Africa friendly include, Dempsey(EPL), Holden(EPL), Bradley(Bundesliga), Cherundolo(Bundesliga), Jones(Bundesliga), Clark(Bundesliga), Bocanegra(Ligue 1), Onyewu(Serie A), Edu(SPL), to name a few.
Portugal
One comment
Peter C
November 18, 2010 at 11:23 AM
In regards to the makeup of the US squad, it should be noted that this match was used as a ‘look see’ for young players and does not come close to the first team.
Unlike Euro teams that are fine tuning for the Euro 2012 qualifiers, or Argentina and Brasil playing a massive rivalry match, the US has some time before it prepares seriously for the Gold Cup(winner qualifies for Confederations Cup).
Regular starters not called for the South Africa friendly include, Dempsey(EPL), Holden(EPL), Bradley(Bundesliga), Cherundolo(Bundesliga), Jones(Bundesliga), Clark(Bundesliga), Bocanegra(Ligue 1), Onyewu(Serie A), Edu(SPL), to name a few.
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