Champions League of Nations

Links (3)

Stop the Robbery!
Published 10/31/2007 by Inara at The Offside
... this morning, I just can’t help myself. Reuters published an article about the nationalities of the players in the Champions League. It’s not that unexpected that Brazil has the most nationals in the CL, with 98 of the 770 registered players in the tournament. But guess what country is second, with 64 ? If you guessed France, you’re absolutely right. But don’t you wish you could be wrong? At first, it would almost seem like a good thing, but then you realize that France has only two teams in the Champions League this year. And then you have England, with only 26 nationals ...

So now the foreign quota debate is a Manchester United versus Arsenal thing
Published 11/6/2007 by Bob at The Offside
... | November 6th, 2007 It is another week of Champions League football which means little work will get done during the middle of the week and we will once again have an opportunity to see many of the best players in the world playing for clubs that aren’t in their home countries . That is a troubling and unsettling thing for some, like FIFA head honcho Sepp Blatter, who continues to push for a limit on the number of foreign players on each club even though the law is against him. Today, Blatter received the backing of Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson. The Scotsman ...

Youth Development: Emulating Brazil’s “Mass Production of Players”
Published 12/12/2007 by Laurie at The Offside
... , where he talks about how England could learn from Brazil’s approach to the development of young players. Brazil is an interesting case, because the country is busy populating the best teams in the world with their players. A number of the top European sides boast at least one Brazilian on their rosters, and there are more Brazilians players in the Champions League than any other nationality. (France, which also has a strong youth development system, is second.)“We have a mass production of players,” Parreira said. “I call it the factory. When a player is nine, he is ...