The vast majority of foreign players in the English league are from countries who's leagues are piss poor. Not many Spaniards, Italians OR Germans, indeed NONE of the stars of these national teams. South Americans, where there is no money, Africans where there is no profiles to the leagues, and Scandinavians & eastern Europeans, they come to England for the combination of money and profile. They also go to Spain, France, Italy and Germany. Facts are, why does a German need to come here? Bigger crowds. Decent pay, if not on a par. Close to family and friends. Fantastic cities. No great mystery in it really, the same as any walk of life, in developed countries, the majority of people remain where they were born.
I think the word German in the OP could be substituted for Spanish or Italian. Along with the prem these are 4 strongest leagues in Europe and in the main the top players from all 4 countries ply there trade at home. There are plenty of foreign players in all 4 leagues, South Americans, Africans, and Eastern Europeans in the main, with the cream of Dutch and French players also playing abroad though I feel that the French league is catching up with the others so they maybe start to attract/keep some of their best players to stay home too. I would suggest that we have had a few successful exports - David Platt, Ray Wilkins, Kevin Keegan, Steve McManaman, Liam Brady, Steve Archibald, Glenn Hoddle, Chris Waddle, David Beckham as players who moved from top flight english clubs overseas, who have enjoyed club success after moving abroad and Bobby Robson and Terry Venables both did alright coaching abroad.
'Why leave a league where mediocrity is rewarded so handsomely?' Croydon, I think you have nailed it with this comment. Whilst we certainly have some entertaining players in the EPL, most aren't British and there are an awful lot who would struggle to earn a fraction of their current wages in other European leagues. It would be interesting to know how the average salaries in the Italian, German, French and Spanish top leagues compare with our own?
Careful now. Germany didn't manage to beat England for the first time until 1968 but since then they have played 20, won 13, drawn 2! With a record like that they certainly don't need to see it as a step upwards for a challenge in their careers. From my experience there I can tell you that they don't get to wound up about the result whichever way it goes and get over it at the final whistle. They actually consider there main rival to be the Netherlands. England is certainly more concerned with Germany than the other way around. Money & arrogance that it brings is my guess for English players not travelling abroad. Too many foreigners as some ex-players might say
The reason Germans don't come over here is Thomas Helmer told them "it's ****....and you're not given a fair crack of the whip"
Plenty of players that were successful in their native(ish) English league have flopped elsewhere - such as Ian Rush at Juventus or Mark Hughes at Barca, whilst Jay Bothroyd at Perugia and Danny Dichio at Sampdoria were utter failures. For a long time many of the top foreign players in the Premier League were only there because they couldn't get a game, or had outlived their usefulness, in Serie A - Klinsmann at Sampdoria, Bergkamp at Inter, Zola at Parma, Henry at Juventus, Ziege at Milan - rather than any legitimate pull of playing in England. There's also the fact English clubs can offer youngsters a contract at 16, whilst on the continent it's 17 or 18 (cases in point: Fabregas, Kakuta, Macheda, Pogba) - earning a professional salary a year early is a great motivator for agents...sorry, I mean players' ambitions. As for salaries, off the top of my head I know Marko Marin is on £50k per week at Werder Bremen, and Edison Cavani is on about £60k per week at Napoli (both have been mentioned when Spurs were linked to the pair), although for the higher ups in the Bundesliga and Serie A (Bayern for the former, Juventus, the Milan clubs, possibly Roma as well) would be higher than that. It's also worth noting Real made up 60% of Adebayor's £170k p/w wages when he was on loan last season, even though Real (and Barca) have much higher wage bills than the rest of La Liga.
To be brutally honest its because I believe most of the players who ply their trade in the champions league challenging teams in the Bundesliga aren't good enough to be starters for the top 4 PL teams. Why give up playing infront of 40/50k a week in the CL to play for a team like Aston Villa? Sure there are some great players scattered around in the Bundesliga in the teams outside of Bayern Munich, but because of their great financial state of the teams in the Bundesliga it would take a massive offer to prise someone that's of sufficient quality (say Subotic) to the PL. That usually makes PL teams look elsewhere because they know there'll be someone cheaper that's available from somewhere like Spain, France or England. When the quality bargains appear, then people snap them up (Ozil, Sahin, Khedira, Mertesacker etc) but the Bundesliga rarely throws up such bargains because of their financial state and how brilliantly clubs are managed over there.
The reason British clubs almost always buy abroad is simple - price. When you consider Hutton (a Scottish international full back) was priced at £9m and Angeleri (an Argentine international full back) was priced at £2m it's a no-brainer. O.k., a recurring injury screwed that particular deal up, but you can see why Bruce chose Angeleri at the time. I don't think there's another league in the world that would pay £51m for the technical skills of Carroll and Henderson. Today, even some of our Conference sides have foreign players, because they're often technically better and are willing to play for wages our lads wouldn't accept.
Another advantage is that a lot of players based on the continent are at least bi-lingual, so have at least a rudimentary understanding of English should they move to the Premier League and therefore no problems with understanding instructions. British players don't bother - unless they grew up in a Welsh-speaking household - so them moving to the continent will cause all manner of problems. Why sign someone who would just stare at you blankly during the half-time team talk, then turn to the player next to them and ask "What did he say?"
I don't think British players are a particularly attractive prospect, and this is the difference with Germany. Germans stay at home because they can get the same pay and get to stay in the country they love. Money and top sides would be the only reason to leave. Given they are well paid, as someone has noted, why and go to sit on the bench at a top 4 club in England? They are very proud people, this is not in keeping with that mentality. British stay at home because only our very best players would have the technical level to perform in other countries. The very top players are at massive clubs earning vast amounts of money. The band of british players underneath that who would be a success abroad, would be very small I'd imagine. This might change heading forward because we are producing a lot more technical players at youth level since Brooking started to make progress with coaching etc.
Not actually true. The clubs are only allowed to spend what they earn, so big wages are only available at Bayern. This is why Bayern are able to cream off the best players from every other club, as well as hold onto Ribery and Robben.
It's probably true when you are talking about 'average' players, if ou took someone like Goijko Kacar, a decent but not special holding midfielder, he's on say 30k a week, in England he'd lose half of that. But, if you took, for example, someone like John Terry, on around 100k a week, only Bayern, and possibly at a push Dortmund, could dream of paying anyone 50k a week, Terry's effective 'take home pay'. There'll be a line around the 40k a week mark, when most German clubs simply cannot compete, and stay within the financial regulations.
but terry whouldnt go to most german club also the best of germany do come over to england but the reason more germans are not here is because of the reasons highlghted above
Just my two pennorth as it's a few years since I was abroad so am not really up to date on the situation. While the financial situation in mainland Europe may not quite be on the verge of collapse, is't it in a whole pile of dog doo? Greece have been bailed out three time, Portugal & Spain economies very dicey, Ireland the same? I work for a German company & when I talk to the German lads they say that since joining the Euro inflation has gone through the roof so the cost of living has rocketed. People used to go to Greece, Spain etc for the weather & cheap booze but the booze is no longer cheaper is it? I have a cousin in Portugal who is selling up & coming home. If the cost of living in Germany is rising as quickley as they say then maybe taxes will have to go up? More questions than answers, maybe some of you Europe based lads could enlighten me.
