Sunday 30 August 2020, 07:00

Football’s expat communities

  • Five French players helped Bayern Munich conquer last Sunday

  • A look at clubs who have benefitted from having foreigners from the same country

  • Belgians, Brazilians and Dutch feature

With the Bundesliga and German Cup trophies already safely secured, Bayern Munich won their sixth European Cup/UEFA Champions League title a week ago to complete an outstanding treble. They did so with a squad made up of nine Germans players and others from countries such as Poland, Austria, Brazil, Croatia and Canada.

Yet perhaps the most striking aspect of Bayern’s class of 2020 is the sizeable number of Frenchmen it contains. As a look back through the years reveals, however, Bayern’s Bleus are far from the first group of players from one country to excel with a major foreign club.

Bayern Munich with 4 French

Bayern Munich’s French contingent

When Tanguy Kouassi joined the German giants on 1 July this year, their fans could have been forgiven for thinking they were now supporting a Ligue 1 team, with his signing taking the Bavarian club’s contingent of French players to six. Kingsley Coman was the first of them to arrive, in 2015, followed by Corentin Tolisso in 2017, Benjamin Pavard, Lucas Hernandez and Michael Cuisance in 2019 and then Kouassi. The first four of those players are all France internationals, with Pavard, Hernandez and Tolisso forming part of the squad that won the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™. Having a group of players who know each other so well and have achieved big things together is undoubtedly an advantage for Bayern, even if most of their French contingent have struggled with injuries this season. One man who has not is Coman, whose goal secured the German side’s latest Champions League title, at the expense of Paris Saint-Germain, the French club where both he and Kouassi started out.

Paris Saint-Germain’s band of Brazilians

Paris Saint-Germain have always had a very special relationship with Brazilian players. Back in the 1990s, the club enjoyed one of their most glorious eras thanks to Rai, Ricardo and Valdo, while Ronaldinho made his breakthrough with the Parisians before reaching his peak with Barcelona. It is no surprise, then, that they have continued to turn to Brazil for inspiration. In 2017, for example, they lined up with five of the country’s leading players: captain Thiago Silva, regarded as one of the finest centre-backs in the world; Marquinhos, an Olympic gold-medallist and Copa America winner in 2016 and 2019; Dani Alves, the most decorated player in the history of the game; Lucas Moura, who went on to make 229 appearances for the club; and Neymar, newly arrived from Barcelona and already a Champions League winner. Together, the five won 22 French league winners’ medals between them and also helped the club land a Ligue 1, Coupe de France and League Cup treble in 2017/18.

The Brazilians of PSG

Tottenham Hotspur’s boys from Belgium

Belgian football was riding high in 2015. Les Diables Rouges had made their return to the World Cup the previous year after a 12-year absence and boasted a young but talented squad that was full of promise. Little wonder, then, that their players were in demand with some of Europe’s biggest clubs, among them Tottenham, who lured Nacer Chadli, Mousa Dembele, Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen to north London. Under coach Mauricio Pochettino, they excelled across several seasons and each made more than 200 appearances for Spurs, with the exception of Chadli. The central-defensive duo of Alderweireld and Vertonghen were also the cornerstone of the side that reached last season’s Champions League final.

Tottenham with 3 Belgian players

Lyon's samba stars

Brazil’s squad for Germany 2006 featured three Lyon players: Cris, Juninho Pernambucano and Fred. While they enjoyed contrasting fortunes with A Seleção, they were all vital cogs in an OL side that brought unprecedented success to the club. In the 2000s, Les Gones won seven consecutive Ligue 1 titles, one Coupe de France, one League Cup and reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League four times. The inspirational Juninho Pernambucano became a club legend in the process, while Fred was twice the league’s leading scorer and Cris was a commanding presence in the centre of defence. The three were joined by compatriots Claudio Cacapa, who captained the side between 2004 and 2007, and defensive midfielder Fabio Santos, who spent two seasons with the club.

Lyon with 4 Brazilian players

Arsenal’s French legion

Quite possibly the best-known footballing colony of all time. When Frenchman Arsene Wenger took charge of the Gunners in 1996, he wasted little time in recruiting some of his fellow countrymen. In came Remi Garde, Patrick Vieira, Gilles Grimandi and Emmanuel Petit as the north London club embarked on its own Gallic revolution. By 2003/04, there were no fewer than seven Frenchmen in Wenger’s squad, with Jeremie Aliadiere, Gael Clichy, Pascal Cygan, Sylvain Wiltord, Thierry Henry and Robert Pires having joined Vieira. The last three of that select band were joint World Cup/UEFA EURO champions, while Wiltord joined Arsenal just after UEFA EURO 2000. Between them they played 1,652 matches for the club (with Aliadiere and Cygan playing fewer than 100 in total) and scored 402 goals. They were instrumental in one of the Gunners’ greatest achievements of all time, as Wenger’s side won the Premier League title that season without losing a single match. His Invincibles went down in history and the French players who helped make that feat possible are all Gunners legends.

Arsenal with 5 French players

Barcelona go Dutch

Netherlands went unbeaten at France 1998 before going out on penalties to Brazil in the semi-finals. They suffered exactly the same fate at EURO 2000, when Italy edged them in another semi shootout. That Oranje side featured Michael Reiziger, Frank de Boer, Phillip Cocu, Boudewijn Zenden, Marc Overmars and Patrick Kluivert, all of whom had one thing in common: they all played together for Barcelona in the 2000/01 season, maintaining the club’s long-established Dutch links. Before them, Johan Cruyff, Ronald Koeman and Frank’s brother Ronald de Boer had all worn the Blaugrana jersey with distinction. The Dutch sextet did not quite gel that season, however, as Barça finished fourth in La Liga.

FC Barcelona with 5 Dutch players

AC Milan’s Dutch trinity

Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten are three more Netherlands legends. Though smaller in number than the famous groups above, this fantastic trio are a match for any of them in terms of stature and silverware. As well as helping the Dutch win their only UEFA EURO title in 1988, they brought glory to AC Milan in their six-year association with the club, inspiring them to two European Cups (1989 and 1990), two Serie A titles (1992 and 1993) and two Intercontinental Cups (1989 and 1990). When it comes to football trios, few have ever been as good as Rijkaard, Gullit and Van Basten.

The 3 Dutch legends of Milan AC