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Football expatriates: 100th report!

Issue number 505 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the top 100 of associations having exported the greatest number of footballers to 135 leagues around the world between 2020 and 2025.

With no fewer than 3,020 distinct expatriates, Brazil is ahead of the last two World Cup winners: France (2,293) and Argentina (2,171).

In the top ten is a third South American country, Colombia, an African nation, Nigeria, and five additional European ones : England (notably due to the strong presence of English players in other British associations), Spain, Germany, Serbia and Croatia.

The biggest increase between 2020 and 2025 in absolute terms was recorded for France (+372 expatriates), followed by Argentina (+216) and Nigeria (+181).

The 100th Monthly Report presents in greater detail the trends in the number of expatriates for the main exporting nations, as well as the main destinations and changes observed.

Also available free of charge, the Migration Atlas is a valuable tool for understanding the global geography of footballer flows.

For all these studies, the origin of the players was established on the basis of the association where they grew up.

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About the CIES Football Observatory

The CIES Football Observatory is a research group created in 2005 within the Swiss-based Centre International d’Étude du Sport (CIES). It specialises in the statistical analysis of football, in particular in the areas of demographics, transfer values and performance (technical, tactical, physical).

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About the CIES

The International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) is an independent study centre located in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. It was created in 1995 as a joint venture between the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the University of Neuchâtel, the City and State of Neuchatel. 

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CIES – Centre International d’Étude du Sport

Avenue DuPeyrou 1, 2000 Neuchâtel
Switzerland
Email:
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Phone +41 32 718 39 00
Fax +41 32 718 39 01

 



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