According to the CIES Football Observatory monthly report, Nigeria is the fifth biggest exporter of footballers in the world. The first 4 on the CIES list are Brazil, Argentina, France and Serbia.
Nigeria also emerged the biggest supplier of football talent in Africa as they have 596 players scattered across the world.
“Other African countries mentioned in this report are Senegal (10th in the world, 377), Cote d’Ivoire (11th, 370), Cameroon (12th, 366) and Ghana (13th, 365).”In total, 18,660 foreign players of 194 origins were recorded in the leagues taken into account in the analysis.
“Footballers playing outside of their country of origin make up about 13% of squads.“Five-time world champions Brazil remain the biggest exporters of footballers in the world as the report say they have 1,784 players plying their trade outside their country.
“Brazilians are clearly ahead of Argentinians (929 players) and the French (758). These three nationalities alone account for almost 20% of foreigners present on a global level. Among the 15 countries exporting the most players are six European, five African and four South American nations.”