5 clubs renowned for fielding foreign players

#5 Manchester City

Even back in the mid-1990's, Man City was fielding foreign talent like Georgi Kinkladze

Since the 2008 buyout by the Abu Dhabi Group, it’s hardly a surprise that Manchester City has become a preferred destination for some of the world’s best players.

Since the buyout the likes of Yaya Toure, Sergio Aguero, David Silva and now Gabriel Jesus and Bernardo Silva have arrived at the Etihad, making the club truly cosmopolitan.

Prior to the buyout though, City were no strangers to using foreign talent – although a lot of the time, the players they signed were far more obscure than today’s household names.

1995/96, for instance, saw them feature three Germans (Michael Frontzeck, Eike Immel and Uwe Rosler) as well as two Georgians (Georgi Kinkladze and Mikhail Kavelashvili), and even in the club’s darkest days – the 1998/99 season that saw them languishing in the second division – they fielded two Georgians, an Australian, a Dutchman and a Bermudian.

The season prior to the buyout saw their most often-used XI featuring six British players, but by October 2017 – a decade later – 78.4% of their minutes to that point in 2017/18 were taken up by foreign talent. That statistic is perhaps why one of their finest homegrown talents – Jadon Sancho – has now moved to Borussia Dortmund in Germany to look for first-team football.