About

English football – renowned for the mighty clubs, Sky TV and their hordes of cash and the multitude of players from every major footballing nation on earth. But, as Fabio Capello has pointed out, there is a dearth of English players plying their trade at the top level. As the BBC have pointed out in the past, there were just 170 English players who turned out for a top flight club in 2007/08 season – just 34% of all players who started a Premier league match. You would have thought that, looking further down the pyramid, there would be a wealth of English talent turning out in the Championship and League 1. However there are still a number of international players participating, thereby limiting the prospects of local home-grown talent playing regularly.

This isn’t a blog lambasting the state of the English game though. There are enough hacks and tabloid-loving ‘experts’ out there who like to take that fight on.

This is a blog intent on finding, tracking and making known the efforts of all of the English players and coaches who are currently bucking the trend and playing the game outside of the four English walls. For every David Beckham or Tyrone Mears, there are another 50 players from England who are working hard for a living, playing the game they love in an environment alien to what they are used to. These are players who are trying their best to integrate into a different culture – both social and footballing – all in the hope of continuing or restarting their careers.

Over the coming months, the emphasis will be on finding those Englishmen playing abroad and building a network of sources to track their progress, week-by-week. There will also be features exploring those who have, in the past, taken their game, upped and left these shores to play overseas. In some cases, there will be well-known players and coaches, some long forgotten except by those who still hold them in high regard. The majority of players, though will be unknown. Now is the time to give them a little respect.