The latest report from the CIES Football Observatory shows France has "now overtaken Brazil (112 players) to become the country with the most expatriate players," according to LE MAG EUROSPORT. 113 French players are currently playing outside France in one of the four Europeans leagues. Argentina (112) is tied with Brazil for second place. These figures are consistent with the figures on development, which "already revealed that France is one of the principal breeding grounds in football today." Spain is in fourth place, with 58 players playing outside its borders. In ’09, only 17 Spaniards were expatriates, which is the largest increase over this period. Even though French players are being exported, "it makes little difference in Ligue 1." With only 31.6% foreigners, Ligue 1 has the "least amount of expatriates across the European continent, far behind the Premier League," with 59.3% of its players from other countries (LE MAG EUROSPORT, 11/12). INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL's Paul Nicholson reported the figures from the CIES Football Observatory revealed "a subtle shift in the balance of expatriate players in the big-5 leagues in Europe with a marked increase in the numbers of Europeans moving to leagues outside their home country, with the balance moving away from the exporting South American markets." The overall percentage of "foreign" players in the big-5 leagues continues to rise, hitting a record 45.9% (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 11/11).
