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.
| Denmark | 1 |
| Paraguay | 1 |
| Ghana | 1 |
| Bulgaria | 1 |
| New Zealand | 1 |
| Uruguay | 1 |
| Hungary | 1 |
| Kuwait | 1 |
