Listed players at clubs abroad

What this map measures

Club-roster coverage is a dated sample from nine published league directories; World Cup cohorts separately cover 2022 (831 players) and 2026 (1,248 players). Each league source and club roster revision is recorded. Listed nationality on a club roster does not establish national-team eligibility. Choose a cohort before comparing counts. Birthplaces are enriched from CC0 Wikidata records. Unknown coordinates stay in the player table; birthplace is distinct from the represented national team.

Exports count listed players at clubs in another football association. World Cup rosters use the represented team and club-country flag; club rosters use their listed nationality and club country. This sample does not count every professional abroad. Club-roster leagues come from dated membership tables; World Cup league filters use Wikidata affiliations and may be historical. Duplicate players within a club cohort are counted once, with overlapping source memberships disclosed.

Players per million divides known birthplace counts in the selected roster cohort by Natural Earth’s national population reference (generally 2019); the UK home nations use their separate map-unit population estimates. Regions that share a country ID use the national denominator, not the first regional population. It is a cohort comparison across different source years, not a measured national talent-production rate.

Club-roster coverage

184 clubs across 9 leagues, captured 2026-10-03. 5040 unique player records; 3353 with birthplace coordinates. Each player is counted once within this cohort.

• Premier League · 2026–27 Premier League — 20 club rosters
• Bundesliga · 2026–27 Bundesliga — 18 club rosters
• La Liga · 2026–27 La Liga — 20 club rosters
• Serie A · 2026–27 Serie A — 20 club rosters
• Ligue 1 · 2026–27 Ligue 1 — 18 club rosters
• Major League Soccer · 2026 Major League Soccer season — 30 club rosters
• Brasileirão · 2026 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A — 20 club rosters
• Liga MX · 2026–27 Liga MX season — 18 club rosters
• J1 League · 2026–27 J1 League — 20 club rosters

Club-roster revisions and checksums; Birthplace source archive.

Sources and downloads

These are frozen snapshots, retrieved 2026-10-02. Source versions and checksums; Wikidata enrichment archive; complete football dataset.

Historical data attribution: © 2023 Joshua C. Fjelstul, Ph.D.. Roster facts: 2022 Wikipedia contributors and 2026 Wikipedia contributors. Derived data is published under CC BY-SA 4.0; fields have been selected, joined, normalized and aggregated. International match results, Wikidata structured facts, and Natural Earth geography retain their source licenses.