Spain had 82 players appear in the Champions League this week... how many did England have?

England fielded just one more player than Belarus and fewer than Sweden

Tom Sheen
Thursday 18 September 2014 12:34 EDT
Comments
Joe Hart
Joe Hart (Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Roy Hodgson must have been watching from behind the sofa as just 17 Englishman played in the Champions League this week - fewer than Turkey, Russia and Sweden.

In fact, 11 other nations managed to have more players step onto pitches across Europe on Tuesday and Wednesday, with Manchester City's only Englishman Joe Hart and Chelsea having only Gary Cahill and John Terry - who no longer plays for the Three Lions, of course.

The Blues even had three Brazilians, Filipe Luis, Willian and Ramires, in the side that drew to Schalke, while Oscar came off the bench.

Liverpool had four and Arsenal had three Englishman in their starting line-ups, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain coming off the bench for Arsenal; James Milner did the same in City's defeat to Bayern Munich.

(Roll over the chart to view the number)

Hodgson's lack of options at the highest level is in stark contrast to other nations considered among the elite of international football, according to figures published by Spanish newspaper AS.

World Cup winning manager Joachim Low could choose to watch any one of 56 players in the tournament, good enough for third place, but Spain (82) and Brazil (76) led the way.

The other World Cup semi-finalists the Netherlands had 22 players in action, while England's 17 was only one player better than Belarus.

Chelsea had more Brazilians in their team than Englishmen
Chelsea had more Brazilians in their team than Englishmen (Getty Images)

Athletic Bilbao had the most players from a single nation with 10 Spaniards in their side - the club only allows players from the Basque region to play and centre-back Aymeric Laporte is a French Under-21 international.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in