The latest monthly report from the Football Observatory of the Center International d’Etude du Sport covers the presence of expatriate footballers in 145 leagues from 96 national associations around the world, expatriate players being those who grew up outside the association. national employment club and having gone abroad for sporting reasons. Unsurprisingly, Brazil leads the ranking of exporting countries, with a total of 1,287 Brazilian players who played on May 1, 2021 in the leagues covered in this report. Behind the untouchable Brazil, France (946 expatriates) and Argentina (780) stand out, England (494), Germany (442), Serbia (440), Spain ( 432), Nigeria (394), Colombia (379) and Croatia (375), completing the Top 10. In total, more than a fifth of expatriate players are from Brazil, France or Argentina (21 , 4%). But these numbers don’t tell the whole story.
Thus, compared to 2020, the largest increase in the number of expatriates was recorded by France: +124 players left the country, while the number of Brazilians (-14) and Argentines (-13) expatriates slightly decreased. According to the CIES, the narrowness of employment opportunities in France relative to the large number of players trained in French training centers, as well as the worldwide recognition of the quality of French footballers, further reinforced following the victory of the Blues in the 2018 World Cup, explain this sharp increase which should continue in the years to come. In contrast, the rating of Latin Americans seems to be on the decline. In any case, France is clearly emerging as a serious competitor of Brazil in the football export market. International mobility which, despite the pandemic, continues to grow: the total number of expatriate players in the leagues has increased by 639 units during the last year, from 13,025 to 13,664, expatriates representing for example a quarter of active players in UEFA member countries.
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