The World Cup pits nation against nation in a quest to find the world's most accomplished footballing country. However, the sport known as the 'world game' definitely lives up to it's name as we look at the trends relating the country a player represents with the country they live in and play in week by week.
Here are some interesting stats based on the preliminary squads list on Wikipedia as of May 27, 2014, to which I applied some basic python scripting.
Home Grown
These teams in the round of 32 have the highest number of players based in their country of origin.
Squad Size
Home Grown
%
Russia
24
24
100
England
23
22
95.65
Italy
30
27
90
Germany
27
20
74.07
Mexico
23
16
69.57
Iran
30
19
63.33
Spain
29
17
58.62
Netherlands
30
16
53.33
Home Away From Home
On the other end of the scale, these countries' national teams have the lowest number of locally based players.
Squad Size
Home Grown
%
Ghana
26
1
3.85
Uruguay
25
1
4
Cameroon
28
2
7.14
Ivory Coast
28
2
7.14
Bosnia and Herzegovina
30
3
10
Columbia
30
3
10
Belgium
24
3
12.5
Argentina
26
4
15.38
Algeria
30
5
16.67
Nigeria
30
5
16.67
Brazil
23
4
17.39
Cashed Up Clubs
These clubs are home to the most number of Brazil bound players.
Bayern Munich
15
Manchester United
14
Barcelona
13
Real Madrid
13
Napoli
13
Juventus
13
Chelsea
12
Manchester City
12
Liverpool
10
Arsenal
10
Atlético Madrid
10
Paris Saint-Germain
10
Best Places to Play
These countries are the ones whose national leagues contain the most number of Brazil-bound players.
England
121
Italy
96
Germany
87
Spain
70
France
54
Russia
38
Mexico
31
Netherlands
28
Turkey
28
USA
25
Portugal
22
Biggest Losers
These are the countries whose national leagues have the most players in the world cup, without the country making it to Brazil.
Turkey
28
Ukraine
10
Scotland
7
China
6
Norway
6
Wales
5
Austria
3
Canada
3
Qatar
3
Saudi Arabia
3
Sweden
3
United Arab Emirates
3
Lone Star
Some countries are not so attractive to the big names. These countries' leagues have just one single player representing Brazil.
Having just arrived back in Amsterdam after 2 weeks travelling over Christmas, we were pretty tired but still excited to be spending new years (or Oud en Nieuw as it is called in Dutch) with our friends in Almere. It was a really nice evening spent in their newly purchased and renovated house.
One of the highlights of the night was the fireworks. In Australia it is illegal to have fireworks so it is not something I have grown up with, but in the Netherlands it is legal to buy them in the few days leading up to New Year's Eve, and to set them of from 2pm to 2am on New Year's itself. We were on a flight back from Switzerland at around 4pm and as the plane was approaching Amsterdam, we could see flashes from the fireworks across the country.
The loud explosions grew increasingly close together as we approached midnight. At around 11:30, we went outside to let a few of ourselves that Roeland had got for us. We then went back up to the top floor of their house where we had an incredible view of the fireworks which were going off constantly in every direction, even from the street just a few metres below us. While the display was much smaller and not choreographed like the major displays put on by Australian cities, it made up for this with sheer persistence as the fireworks continued well past 1am.
Aftermath of the fireworks on the street the next morning
