The Offside Fantasy League: Keeping an Eye on Johnny Foreigner

By: Daryl | November 15th, 2007

Keeping an Eye on Johnny Foreigner It’s international break time once again, with top Premiership players heading off for international duty and the not so good Premiership players getting a paid vacation. So no action in The Offside Fantasy League until next weekend. But with Sepp Blatter emerging from his underground lair to start a debate about quotas on foreign players, Fergie and Wenger using it as excuse for another verbal dust-up and the England national team in a spot of bother what better time to look at this whole foreign players business through the prism of fantasy football?

Which nation is performing best in the Premiership? And are too many foreigners causing the English national team to suffer? Below are the top 20 highest scoring players, along with their nationality.

Player	Country	Points
Cesc Fabregas	Spain	284
Rio Ferdinand	England	205
Jose Reina	Spain	202
Gael Clichy	France	198
Frank Lampard	England	198
Robbie Keane	Ireland	192
Elano Blumer	Brazil	192
Emmanuel Adebayor	Togo	190
Martin Laursen	Denmark	189
Nemanja Vidic	Serbia	185
Mwaruwari Benjani	Zimbabwe	185
Sulley Muntari	Ghana	184
Patrice Evra	France	177
Glen Johnson	England	173
Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	172
Petr Cech	Czech Republic	169
Edwin Van der Sar	Holland	166
Jermaine Jenas	England	165
Christopher Samba	Congo	161
Robert Green	England	160

Here’s how each nation is represented in the fantasy football top 20:

5 – England
2 – France
2 – Spain
1 – Ireland, Brazil, Togo, Denmark, Serbia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Portugal, Czech Republic, Holland, Congo

Spain have two players in the top three, but the semi-surprising result is that English players are pretty well represented, making up 25% of the top 20 performing Premiership players. Even more surprising are the names. Ferdinand and Lampard are to be expected, but the appearance of Glen Johnson, Jermaine Jenas and Robert Green may shock a few people.

This may also shed some light on the problems with the England team. Johnson, Jenas and Green aren’t exactly England regulars, with Johnson and Green not even in the squad recently. So maybe the problem isn’t too many foreigners. Seems English players are in form and available, they’re just not being selected.

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Category: English Premier League, World Football

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Daryl

I was surprised to see Jenas in the top 20 too. Looks like the main reason he's there is his massive points haul from last weekend, when he score two and made one during Spurs 4-0 win over Wigan. 65 of his 165 points came in that one game so it's probably not a good indication of consistent form.
J

As a Spurs fan, I'm actually surprised that Jenas cracked this list. I still think he could be good, but he has not been successful managing our attack this season. Maybe Ramos will be able to bring out the best in him.
Brian

Interesting. But somehow it's hard for me to imagine that the solution for England is more Jermaine Jenas.
Ian

Glen Johnson at least deserves the call for England. He has had a fantastic start to the season, and been a huge part of Portsmouth's great start. I think you're right that there are quality players in England, but they just aren't getting the call when they deserve it, and that comes down to McClaren. I know there's more support for him these days, but I still say he needs to go, even though as a Scotland supporter, there is certainly a part of me that likes to see the Three Lions taken down a notch.