Our friends at Grosvenor Casinos have analysed all the players taking part in Euro 2016 to find out which country’s elite league is the most sort after by players in Europe. They have visualised the data on an interactive map which can be found click (here).
Analysing the table below shows you that 25% of the players at Euro 2016 are from the Premier League! That’s double the amount of players that play in the Bundesliga and nearly four times as many as those from La Liga.
| Top Ten Countries/Leagues by players attending Euro 2016 | |
| Country/League | No. of players |
| England (& Wales*) | 138 (25%) |
| Germany | 65 (12%) |
| Italy | 57 (10%) |
| Turkey | 36 (6.5%) |
| Spain | 35 (6.3%) |
| Russia | 31 (5.6%) |
| Ukraine | 21 (3.8%) |
| France | 17 (3.1%) |
| Czech Republic | 16 (2.9%) |
| Switzerland | 15 (2.7%) |
*England & Wales are combined to represent the Premier League.
How did the Premier League do?
- Liverpool comes out on top ranking a joint first place with Juventus with the most players competing in the Euro championship with 12 players each
- Despite a poor season, Man United ranks third with 10 players competing, while Man City ranks seventh place with 6
| Team | No. of players going to Euro 2016 | Ranking |
| Juventus | 12 | =1st |
| Liverpool | 12 | =1st |
| Tottenham Hotspur | 11 | =2nd |
| Real Madrid | 11 | =2nd |
| Manchester United | 10 | 3rd |
| Barcelona | 9 | =4th |
| Bayern Munich | 9 | =4th |
| Basel | 9 | =4th |
| Fenerbahce | 9 | =4th |
| CSKA Moscow | 8 | =5th |
| Roma | 8 | =5th |
| Dynamo Kiev | 7 | =6th |
| Dinamo Zagreb | 7 | =6th |
| Shakhtar Donetsk | 7 | =6th |
| Southampton | 7 | =6th |
| Besiktas | 7 | =6th |
| Arsenal | 7 | =6th |
| Viktoria Plzen | 6 | =7th |
| Chelsea | 6 | =7th |
| Manchester City | 6 | =7th |
Whilst many will now use these numbers to claim that the Premier League is the elite league in the world what it can also show is that the foreign leagues have more players from outside of Europe playing for them.
The fact of the matter is that the Premier League attracts many players, especially from Europe, what these stats won’t tell is what the quality of the players from the league is like!
