from which countries the players most often leave
The research structure of Cies Football Observatori has published a rating of national football associations on the number of players grown in their system, but went to play abroad. The first place was predictably taken by Brazil, traditionally acting as the most important supplier of labor to the football market. For the reporting period from 2020 to 2025, more than 3 thousand Brazilian players went to work in other countries. Of these, a little over 2 thousand fell into European teams. But in Europe, oddly enough, not Brazilians at all, but the French lead the ratings of « migrant workers. » Russia with more than 450 players who have tried their forces abroad occupies the 21st place in the list of CIES.
The Center for Football Research Cies Football Observatori conducted a study, the purpose of which was to find out what national associations most of all players are leaving for playing abroad. In total, 135 leagues were included in the field of view of the authors of the study. CIES explains that he considers the football expets of players grown in the structure of one association, but who went to play teams for another for purely football reasons (the player was sold to another club or he himself transferred to it as a free agent). That is, situations when the football player was forced to change the club, for example, because his family moved to another country is not taken into account.
The rating of labor exporters predictably headed by Brazil.
For six years that covers the study (from 2020 to 2025 inclusive), the South American country put 3020 players on the football market. The import of Brazilian players are actively engaged in Russian clubs. At the moment, in the applications of the teams of the Russian Premier League there are 23 Brazilians, this is much more than representatives of any other country.
But in second place – and this is interesting – not Argentina (another large factory of football talents) or Portugal, the clubs of which have established a profitable business on naturalization and further resale of Brazilians many years ago, and France.
One of the leading football powers of the world, whose championship is traditionally included in the so -called large five (it also includes England, Spain, Italy, Germany), 2293 players left at once at six years. Moreover, except for the Brazilians who went to conquer the football open spaces of the far and near the East, North America and neighboring South American countries, and narrow the studied football geography to the most prestigious market, Europe, it turns out that the main supplier is just France. Immediately 2080 pupils of the French system went to play precisely in the European (excluding French) teams. Brazil has a little, but more modest – 2009 football players. In third place with a noticeable lag in England – 1323 players.
In fact, in the ranking, covering the whole world, the British are only fourth, followed by Argentina.
The latter sent 2171 players for export (only a little more than 500 players got to Europe). The British indicator is more modest – 1510 players. At the same time, English history has its own specifics. Recall that in the framework of one country, Great Britain, there are at once four national federations – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Obviously, not a single football player who moves, say, from Glasgow to Manchester, will perceive it as a change in the country of residence. But formally, based on the CIES methodology, it can be considered an expert. Well, from the indicated 1510 British, who replaced the football residence permit, 510 – moved to Scotland, 349 to Wales, 55 to Northern Ireland. And in the leading European leagues, with the exception of the English Premier League, they have not played so many in six years: 40 people in Germany, 34-in Italy, 33 in Spain, 30 in France.
The top 5 of the rating of Spain is closed-1106 Spanish football players went to look for good luck outside their homeland. The second five rating was compiled by the national associations of Germany (1095), Colombia (1077), Nigeria (926), Serbia (915) and Croatia (855).
As for Russia, domestic football players for the most part are not very in demand in leading leagues. Nevertheless, the export indicators of Russian football turned out to be good. From 2020 to 2025, 456 Russians played in foreign clubs. This is the 21st place in the overall ranking. At about the same level with Denmark, the USA and even Italy (Italians are less than other representatives of the Big Five Championships are ready to change the country). Another thing is the quality of Russian players. For the most part, they do not appear in the top leagues. At the moment, only four Russians play the “Big Five” championships – Alexander Golovin in “Monaco” (France), Matvey Safonov in PSG (France), Daler Kuzyaev in “Gavra” (France), Arsen Zakharyan in Real Sosedad (Spain).
