Talk:List of foreign Premier League players

Terry Dunfield
I added Terry Dunfield for Canada and someone took him off, why? Canuck85 08:31, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Did he play for any national team at any level? If not, he surely can be considered Canadian. --necronudist 08:46, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
 * edit: Seems he played for Canadian U-20 squad. If he didn't played for any England national team he can be added.  —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Necronudist (talk • contribs).

I added him back in. Here's his profile over at the Canadian FA Website. ChrisG76 15:22, 20 January 2008

http://www.canadasoccer.com/eng/nationals/profile.asp?playerid=32&sub=3

I made some other minor adjustments. Bruno Assou-Ekotto has been moved from France to Cameroon. I have re-sorted the Dutch players so that those with 'van' 'ten' & 'de' prefixes are sorted alphabetically by the prefix, as you would in a Phone Book.

Pakistan also needs to be moved above Paraguay.


 * Not in a Dutch Phone Book. --necronudist (talk) 19:44, 20 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Personally I've always found this sorting without "van" and "de" kind of inconvenient. 99% of people who visit English wikipedia do not follow the Dutch convention, and they're most likely going to look for those players under 'V' and 'D'. So I actually like this better. Chanheigeorge (talk) 23:14, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

Non-English?
Certainly the list only includes players not from England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, so the introduction is currently not correct. Chanheigeorge 20:40, 29 August 2007 (UTC)


 * You're right, I've tried a fix. --necronudist 21:44, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

I agree because there's also a page about Scottish footballers abroad, including those who are playing in England. So, players who represent Scotland, Wales, Ireland & N.Ireland, can be listed here. Ario_ManUtd 00:29, 2 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Rep. Of Ireland is foreign, N. Ireland isn't. Clyde1998 15:44, 4 September 2007 (UTC)


 * If you wanna add British or Irish player, do it. I won't, cause it would be an Herculean labour. I used that criteria just to avoid tracing thousands of British/Irish footballers. However I won't add'em and I won't update'em. --necronudist 17:07, 4 September 2007 (UTC)


 * This is an encyclopedia. If you can't be bothered to trace Irish players, you have no right posting here. It's not a blog. Ireland is foreign to the UK. Happy Necro-Nudism, whatever that is--Laurencedunne November 1st 2009, 13:00:00 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.223.135.176 (talk)


 * I've put my own lists together, using The Rothman's Football Annual (Now the Sky Sports Annual) from the inception of the Premier League since 1992/93. It makes for painful reading, in the context of the "too many foreign players" debate. Before tonight's matches kicked off, just over 1500 UK qulaified players have played in the Premier League, and over 1000 can be considered as foreign. More French players have played than Welsh & Northern Irish put together. There's some scope to make an article out of the lists at a more complete stage (End of the season, perhaps). ChrisG76 (talk) 21:35, 30 January 2008 (UTC)


 * While adding non-English players actually do not add that much to the list, the correct answer of why we shouldn't do this is: Scottish, Welsh and Irish players are not considered foreign players in English football. Chanheigeorge (talk) 22:42, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Whether or not they are considered by most people as foreign, the Republic of Ireland is a foreign country. That is simply a fact. Therefore players from the Republic of Ireland are foreign players. There is no difference between them and other foreign players. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.56.101.234 (talk) 00:55, 17 December 2009 (UTC)

Rep of Ireland is foreign. Learn your geography and your history. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.251.210.25 (talk) 22:29, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

I too am curious as to why The Republic of Ireland is considered non-foreign. Any satisfactory explanation for that? PopOwl (talk) 12:43, 19 August 2012 (UTC)

Orpheo Keizerweerd
I added him today. He was a Dutch striker who made a single substitute appearance for Oldham Athletic in the closing months of the 1992-93 season. ChrisG76 (talk) 09:43, 26 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Good catch! --necronudist (talk) 10:41, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

George Ndah
I'm undecided as to whether he should be put in. He was called up by Nigeria in 1999, but never actually played for the Super Eagles. What do we reckon? ChrisG76 (talk) 09:43, 26 January 2008 (UTC)


 * For me, he's 100% English. --necronudist (talk) 10:40, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

You see, I'm not sure where to draw the line on this. We have players with Dual Nationality listed under the senior squad they were eventually called up to (Djimi Traore, Freddie Kanoute, Tim Cahill et al), and a whole plethora of English-Nigerians who eventually represented Nigeria. Ndah was called up, but was unable to compete because of injury, so I guess it will be as contentious as half the decisions made by the Dubious Goals Committee! Personally, I'd put him in, with an asterisk and a footnote, and perhaps try to cover all the players on the list who have represented other nationalities at youth level? ChrisG76 (talk) 16:16, 28 January 2008 (UTC)


 * He has never played a game with Nigeria, injured or not, and he was born in England. So he's English. We need to apply criteria based on facts, not guesses. --necronudist (talk) 18:00, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

I guess that depends on where we draw the line. I would lean towards no, since he's most commonly regarded as English in the media. And merely being called up by other national teams does not prevent somebody from representing England in the future, so he's still very much English in FIFA's eyes. But then that would also disqualify Nyron Nosworthy, who hasn't actually played for Jamaica yet, and also Benoît Assou-Ekotto should be French instead of Cameroonian since he hasn't played for Cameroon either. But then we also have Sean Dundee as German, even though he didn't play for German, but then it'd be awkward to put him as South African since he flat out pursued German citizenship (without any parental ties?) in order to represent Germany. Chanheigeorge (talk) 22:07, 28 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm not trying to make a wild swing in the dark with a guess - just putting the idea out there. The point in case is he got the call up, he accepted it, and if selected in the starting line-up, would presumably have played fro Nigeria. As I stated with the Kanoute example - a French player, who had represented them at U21 level. If he had been selected by Mali, and pulled out of the squad, he'd still be French. We have numerous players that are sensibly listed on this list who were born in other countries, yet have not represented the nation they are listed under. That's why I hung the asterisk / footnote suggestion out there. ChrisG76 (talk) 16:59, 29 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I don't particularly like asterisks or footnotes. It's trouble enough to decide on one set of criteria. Now we have to decide on two sets of criteria: who is a "true" foreign player, and who is a "marginal" foreign player. Chanheigeorge (talk) 22:40, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Jordao
I'm thinking whether we should put Jordao, the West Brom player, as Angolan or Portuguese. Here's some information I gather: He appears a similar case to many Dutch footballers born in Suriname, such as Fabian de Freitas, Ken Monkou, Clyde Wijnhard and Fabian Wilnis, who are commonly regarded as Dutch. Any thoughts? Chanheigeorge (talk) 23:51, 28 January 2008 (UTC)
 * He's born in Angola in 1971, when Angola was still part of the Portuguese empire (they achieved independence in 1975).
 * He spent almost all of his career playing in Portugal. Does not appear to have played for any Angolan clubs.
 * Does not appear to have represented either Angola or Portugal on any levels.
 * Stated much more commonly as Portuguese in the media (for example, ). Also stated as Portuguese in this old Wikipedia page . But did get stated as Angolan in a few reports (for example, ).


 * Just another of numerous instances designed to give you a headache! I'll say one thing about Soccerbase, though - they've got the listed nationalities for numerous players incorrect. It seems not to take 100% accuracy all that important - something this page has the chance to do by covering all the bases. That's why this sort of debate is so important IMHO ChrisG76 (talk) 17:01, 29 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I tell you all again: it's impossible to cover every particular case. We need two or three criteria (not a hundred thousand) that will make the list not perfect but complete. I created (and I'm mantaining) La Liga and Serie A lists and there's no problem. Criteria make some controversies (e.g. Margiotta played 8 matches with Italy at youth level and played for Venezuela at A level, but he's not in the list) but draw a deep line between what's admitted and what is not. If you're going to cover every case...good luck. --necronudist (talk) 17:30, 29 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Yes, it's quite difficult to assign just ONE nationality to a player in many cases. For him, and Sean Dundee, I think I'll put them as Portuguese and German respectively, mainly because without the "new" citizenship, they have zero chance of playing in the EPL given the work permit requirements. Compared him to Manucho, who is truly Angolan, and needs a work permit in order to sign for Man Utd. Chanheigeorge (talk) 19:14, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Foreign criteria
In light of the recent discussions, I will use the following clear-cut criteria for whether a player is considered foreign or not:
 * A player is considered foreign if he is not eligible to play for the national teams of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland.

This is actually a good summary of the current criteria, with the following implications: Of course, the above criteria will be applied within reasonable context. For example, if a foreign player decides to stay at UK after retirement and obtain British citizenship, we're not going to consider him a domestic player. Chanheigeorge (talk) 23:33, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
 * If a player is capped by a foreign national team, he is considered foreign since he's no longer eligible (unless FIFA grants him a change of nationality later). However, if a player is merely called up, this has no effect as eligibility is not changed.
 * If a player has British/Irish parents, or move to UK/Ireland at a young age and obtain citizenship, he is considered domestic due to the eligibility.
 * If a player obtains British/Irish citizenship for the purpose of playing for the national teams of England etc. (say Manuel Almunia in the future), he is considered domestic as soon as he obtains the citizenship, regardless of whether he is eventually capped or not. This also applies if FIFA grants him a change of nationality.

Here are some of the "marginal" cases that I'll exclude from this list: Please feel free to add more players here. Chanheigeorge (talk) 23:58, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
 * George Ndah (Nigeria) – As discussed above.
 * Nyron Nosworthy (Jamaica) – He hasn't won a cap yet, but that may change in the future.
 * Victor Anichebe (Nigeria) – Nigerian born, but raised in UK so he is eligible to play for England, as he hasn't won a cap on any level yet, but that may change in the future.
 * Bruce Dyer (Montserrat) – He played an unofficial match against a league side, so that doesn't count, but that may change in the future.
 * Delroy Facey (Grenada) – His page suggest he's Grenada international. I've done a Google search, which says that Grenada intended to call him up in 2004 for the WCQ against USA, but eventually he's never in the squad and of course didn't play. There's no evidence I found that suggests he's actually been capped by Grenada. This section in Wikipedia (Gillingham_F.C.) also implies that he's never won a cap. So he's not included, but that may change in the future.
 * Emmanuel Omoyinmi (Nigeria) – He represented England at the schoolboys level. While this is technically not FIFA-regulated, this implies he has some sort of UK citizenship, and his career arc also seems to imply that.


 * I've also removed Kazenga LuaLua and Kelvin Etuhu, since they both grew up in England. Chanheigeorge (talk) 01:54, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Two more: Matty Pattison and Jemal Johnson. Chanheigeorge (talk) 02:38, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I think they're good criteria. --necronudist (talk) 09:31, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Looking pretty robust to me. Good stuff. ChrisG76 (talk) 21:26, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

David Sommeil
Has played full international football for Guadeloupe. There are a considerable number of International match reports around the net to support this. ChrisG76 (talk) 17:39, 14 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I know, and if I remember well I originally put him under Guadeloupe. --necronudist (talk) 18:08, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

How was I supposed to know that, other than sit here and tip through every last edit made to the article? You have a rotten attitude toward people, Necronudist. You've shot me down brusquely a few times here, and some of your comments to individuals in the Serie A & La Liga discussions leaves much to be desired. Sort yourself out, it's a Wikipedia article - not politics. ChrisG76 (talk) 18:53, 14 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Cool down. I don't know what arguments you've gotten into at other pages, but be more civil. Anyway, I was the one who moved him back to France, because my opinion is that Guadeloupe isn't really a country, and their national team is not a FIFA-member. For example, Jocelyn Angloma has played for both France and Guadeloupe without the need of FIFA approval. Chanheigeorge (talk) 19:13, 14 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Yeah, I think it was a good move Chanheigeorge. It was my fault, indeed. Guadeloupe isn't a country and its national team isn't a FIFA-member (althought it's a CONCACAF one). --necronudist (talk) 19:42, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Mauricio Taricco
Played Premiership football for Ipswich Town in 94/95, however every time this is added to the list, it is always deleted. Answers on a postcard! --Footballgy (talk) 23:24, 26 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Read the criteria before editing... --necronudist (talk) 09:12, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Alphabetical versus by Continent

 * alphabetical
 * listed by continent

I recently rearranged this list from being alphabetical by country to listed by continent and then country. The page creator rejected this change immediately, with the edit summary "what a mess". Aside from the fact that this is quite insulting, I actually don't think it is much of a mess at all, and offers distinct advantages to being purely alphabetical. Opinions? MickMacNee (talk) 20:59, 16 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Sorry, I'm not English mothertongue... for me "a mess" is something difficult to understand...all screwed up. I didn't know it was insulting. However, I think an alphabetical order would be better, 'cause I don't have to think if Georgia or Turkey is an Asian or an European country. My experience says that I was forced to re-sort by continent the Italian version of Serie A foreign players' list and many people complained. --necronudist (talk) 21:23, 16 December 2008 (UTC)


 * You don't have that many places to look for Georgia in the TOC, which is still alphabetical under continent (or you can directly search the article). However, compare that inconvenicence to a user trying to determine how many players from South America were in the PL, and they also have the same difficulty you describe in remembering where different countries are. It would be impossible for them to find out from an alphabetical list. The advantages outweigh the disadvantages in this respect. MickMacNee (talk) 21:35, 16 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, if I can search the article, then is useless to sort players in any way. However, it's a matter of priorities... a good compromise between our different views would be to add between brackets the number of players, next to every nation name (e.g.: Algeria 🇩🇿 (6) or something like that), and at the bottom of the page a table with the number of players by continent. --necronudist (talk) 10:15, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Punctuation consistency
Hey everyone -- this is super minor but the size of the dashes seem to be inconsistent in places, particularly between the clubs played for and years played listings for the most recent players (e.g. Andre Bikey, Hassan Yebda, Stefan Maierhofer). anyone know how to/care to fix this? 76.126.182.121 (talk) 20:51, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

'''Irish [[Players - [liberated zone, sorry republic.]] The Republic of Ireland is an independent country. We fought a war of independence to achieve this. Please do not recolonise us.

Shelton Martis
Just added him in. Netherlands Antilles international, played a few games in the second half of the 2008–09 season for West Brom. Hope you like that catch, Ը२ձւե๓ձռ17 20:09, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Irishmen
To refuse to acknowledge Ireland (somnetimes described as the Republic of Ireland) as a country foreign to the United Kingdom is to apply an extra-ordinary POV or piece of OR to this article. If a list of foreign players is desired, one cannot redefine Foreign simply because one nationality will be large. If you have any confidence at all in the definition of the terms, they can be applied just as accurately to a country "donating" many players to the Premier League as those who provide fewer. Kevin McE (talk) 18:14, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

This is a really bizarre issue. Why is Ireland not considered foreign? I can understand Wales for example, as they have teams competing in the premier league. I can vaguely understand Scotland&N. Ireland as they are part of the UK. Ireland is a completely separate country. No reason at all for it not to be considered foreign. --SuperJew (talk) 11:00, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

Map to locate players.
Hi everyone, I created a map that locates players on this list. I used the information of 10th november of 2014. The quality isn't perfect but maybe it could be useful. Feel free to add the maps if you want. Here is the link: http://imgur.com/a/AB2a2 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Whysocomplacent (talk • contribs) 18:17, 10 November 2014 (UTC)

Gibraltar
Previoulsy there was a debate about Guadeloupe players, but Gibraltar is not a country, not a FIFA member but is listed as well. It would be nice to have a standard of only FIFA members or confederation ones. I don't see why to have Gibraltar but not having Guadeloupe or French Guyana — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:12F0:614:300:569:F9C3:402C:B364 (talk) 12:56, 4 December 2015 (UTC)

Belgian Players in the Premier League
I've added 2 players, who were missing.
 * Nico Claesen: Tottenham Hotspur 1986-1988
 * Roger Van Gool: Coventry City 1979-1981 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Koenarnold (talk • contribs) 12:02, 18 March 2017 (UTC)
 * François Van der Elst: West Ham United 1981-1983 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Koenarnold (talk • contribs) 12:31, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

Could someone who understands the basics of this list
...please explain the inclusion criteria to a poor confused soul who can't understand why a list of "foreign PL players" doesn't mean list of "people who were foreign when they played in the PL".

An example: Neil Danns, who was born a British citizen in England, played in the PL as an Englishman relatively early in his career, and seven years later, long after his PL career finished, played internationally for another country for which he qualified by descent so promptly becomes a foreigner for the purposes of this list. When he played in the PL, he was English, not foreign.

I don't get it, I'm afraid. cheers, Struway2 (talk) 15:27, 25 October 2017 (UTC)


 * It's the criteria used by the Premier League itself. Carl Cort fits exactly in the same example you gave, with a higher reputation. He played from 1996 to 2004 as an Englishman in the PL and played for Guyana in 2011, but even in the Premier League official website he is considered a Guyanese player (and also the nation's top goalscorer in the league) - https://www.premierleague.com/players/1284/Carl-Cort/overview 2001:12F0:614:300:B49D:BFEF:A199:AB7F (talk) 11:37, 31 October 2017 (UTC)

Nationality of Onel Hernández
Following the fixture between Liverpool and Norwich City, in which Onel Hernández played, he was subsequently added under the list for German players. Whilst Hernández has represented Germany at Under-20 level, he has made his intentions clear that he wishes to play for the Cuban national team, which he cannot as it only allows for Cuban based players to play, despite accepting a call up to play for Cuba.

Whilst I appreciate that under the technical rules for this page, he would only be listed under the German heading, Hernandez considers himself Cuban, is listed by the Premier League as a Cuban player and has been widely cited as being the first Cuban player in the Premier League.

As noted in previous responses on this talk page, this list is supposed to be a reflection on the Premier League's nationality, with the rules listed at the header of the list clarifying for the casual reader, not as a set list of rules for determining nationality. In football, that is done through national team representation, and here we have a situation in which a player, who is from Cuba, has been called up for Cuba, has repeatedly expressed a desire to play for Cuba and is viewed by his club, the league and the media as being Cuban, is arbitrarily being included on this list as a German due to the fact he played an under-20 match for Germany nine years ago entirely due to stringent rule following to rules that are set out to be an explainer for the casual reader, not to be used as law in judgement of player's nationality. That resides with the footballing authorities, who clearly view Hernandez as being Cuban.

This is a rare case, and do not think that listing Hernandez as Cuban would threaten the rules of the article. (Apologies for putting references in the talk space, but I did wish to provide evidence for my claims and I'm not super familiar with the talk page protocol) BarnabyJoe (talk) 11:13, 10 August 2019 (UTC)