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By Nick Harris
SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year
29 May 2012
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With 10 days to go until the start of Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine, the 16 competing nations confirmed their 23-man squads to Uefa on Tuesday. Links to those squads on the Uefa website are here.
Sportingintelligence has analysed the make-up of the 16 squads to ascertain the leagues and clubs where the participants currently play their football.
Of the 368 players, 79 of them (21.4 per cent) play their club football in melting-pot England.
Countries where the Euro 2012 players earn a living
England: 79 players including all 23 England players and 20 of the Republic of Ireland players make their livings in England, most but not all in the Premier League.
14 of the 16 competing nations have at least one England-based player. The only exceptions are Ukraine and Greece.
Seven of the France team are based in England, and three of the Sweden team, three of the Croatian team, one Italian, four Spaniards, two Portuguese, one German, four Danes, seven Dutchmen (actually six plus Swansea’s Worm for pedants), two Czechs, one Russian and a Pole.
Germany: 48 players including 19 of the Germany players and 7 each of the Croatia and Poland players make a living in Germany. 10 of the 16 competing nations have at least one German-based player.
On that basis, here is the breakdown of all 24 ‘contributing nations’ for Euro 2012, with *denoting nations not at Euro 2012.
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As the table shows, England is the only nation with all 23 players based in their ‘home’ leagues. Russia and Ukraine have next most players based at ‘home’, with 21 each, followed by Italy on 20 and Spain and Germany on 19 each.
At the other end of the scale, no Irish players at all play their club football in Ireland. Only three of the Sweden team play in Sweden, only four of the Croatia team play in Croatia and only six of the Poland team play in Poland.
Sweden’s 23 players play in a remarkable 13 different leagues: in England, Germany, Italy, Russia, France, Greece, Netherlands, Turkey, Denmark, Scotland, Belgium, Sweden and Saudi Arabia. (Christian Wilhelmsson with Al-Hilal for those asking).
Poland’s players are spread across nine leagues, and Croatia’s, Denmark’s and the Czech Republic’s across eight.
England’s players all play in one country: England.
Spain’s all play in two: Spain and England.
Ukraine, Italy and Russia have players in three different countries; Germany and Ireland in four; France in five; Greece and the Netherlands in six; and Portugal’s players are spread across nine countries.
The club with the most players at Euro 2012 will be Bayern Munich, with 13 players across five competing nations, eight of them with Germany.
All the other clubs with at least five players at the tournament are in the graphic below.
Note that Arsenal have players with more different participating nations (seven) than anyone, although Chelsea have more players (nine with five).
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NB: Players’ clubs are defined by who they technically ‘belonged to’ on 29 May. So Olic at Bayern, is a Bayern player because he spent the 11-12 season there and does not technically become a Wolfsburg player until 1 July, when transfer window open. Podolski is a Koln player until 1 July. Loan dates vary. Uefa technically list Arshavin with Zenit (not Arsenal) but Bendtner with Arsenal (not Sunderland). Such details make only the most minor impact on the numbers but technical registration dates used. In any case, this can be seen as 29 May snapshot – perhaps dozens of these players will move in the next few months.
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