The incredible starting XI of players sold by Basel

Midfielders - Mohamed Elneny (Arsenal), Granit Xhaka (Arsenal) and Ivan Rakitic (Barcelona)

Xhaka and Elneny are now teammates at Arsenal

Mohamed Elneny is one of two Arsenal players in this XI and also one of two Egyptian internationals.

Elneny played 142 games for Basel winning four league titles before joining Arsenal in January 2016. The Egyptian has been a fringe player at Arsenal and has played just 72 games in two and a half seasons. However, he has won the FA Cup and the Community Shield in 2017.

His Arsenal teammate, Granit Xhaka, is another famed product of the Basel academy, but unlike Elneny, Xhaka didn’t move from Basel to Arsenal directly.

It has been already mentioned that many Swiss internationals move to the Bundesliga and many of them join Borussia Monchengladbach. Xhaka is one of those players.

He joined Gladbach in 2012 and played there for four seasons before joining Arsenal in 2016. Xhaka has split opinion since his move to Arsenal, but he’s only 25 and has the potential to be a world class midfielder.

Rakitic is also a product of the Basel Academy

The final midfielder in this XI, Ivan Rakitic, is one that may come as a surprise to many.

Rakitic was born and raised in Switzerland as his Croatian family migrated there. In fact, he played for the Switzerland Under-21 team after coming through the ranks of Basel. However, in 2007, he opted to play for Croatia and made his debut for them in the same year.

As a teenager, he impressed for the Basel first team and in the 2006/07 season, he scored 11 goals in 33 league games.

The following summer, he moved to Schalke, played four seasons for them before joining Sevilla and spending another four years there. He has been a crucial member of the Barcelona team for the last four seasons and is still contracted to the club.