The next destination of our alphabetical world tour is Spain. Sitting atop the World for much of the last 15 years, Spain has been a conveyor belt of world-class footballing talent, much of which has come to the Premier League.
According to the Premier League website, 144 players have represented Spain in the Premier League, including one in the inaugural Premier League season.
First Player – Nayim (Tottenham Hotspur; 1992-1993).
A popular figure at White Hart Lane, Nayim featured regularly in his five years in England and helped Spurs win the FA Cup in 1991, famously replacing Paul Gascoigne in the first half after the mercurial midfielder had torn his cruciate ligaments.
Nayim left Spurs in 1993 after making just 18 appearances in the revamped Premier League. He joined the Spanish side Real Zaragoza and adorned himself to Spurs fans even more when he scored an unbelievable goal in the dying moments of extra time in Zaragoza’s victory over Arsenal in the 1995 UEFA Cup Winners Cup Final.
After Nayim, no other Spanish player would play in the Premier League until 1998, when Albert Ferrer joined Chelsea.
Most Appearances: Cesc Fabregas – 350 (Arsenal, Chelsea; 2003-11, 2014-19)
An assist king of the Premier League era, Cesc Fabregas spent 13 years in England over spells with London clubs Arsenal and Chelsea.
Fabregas moved to the Gunners aged just 16 in September 2003. He did not make an appearance in the Gunners invincible campaign but broke through spectacularly with 33 league appearances the following term.
He left Arsenal in 2011 to return to boyhood club Barcelona but returned to England with Chelsea in 2014. Under Jose Mourinho, Fabregas returned to his assisting best, winning the Premier League in his first season with the Blues and again in 2016/17 under Antonio Conte.
Fabregas departed Chelsea in 2019, by which time he had risen to second in the list of the top assist-makers in Premier League history with 111, behind only Ryan Giggs (162).
Top Scorer: Fernando Torres – 85 (Liverpool, Chelsea; 2007-15)
Though a radical loss of form following his move to Chelsea in 2011 tainted many Premier League fans’ memories of him, at his peak in the late 2000s, Fernando Torres was arguably the best striker in the world.
Torres was virtually unplayable in his first three seasons in England with Liverpool, scoring 56 goals in 79 league matches. Though he seemingly forgot how to score during his four years at Chelsea, his goal in the last minute of the second leg of Chelsea’s 2012 Champions League semi-final against Barcelona remains one of the most iconic moments in the tournament’s history.
While playing in the Premier League, he won Euro 2008 and 2012 and the 2010 World Cup with Spain. He won a total of 110 caps, in a glittering international career.
Current Players
An impressive 32 Spaniards have appeared in the Premier League so far in 2019/20. Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea is the only one to have appeared in all of his team’s fixtures so far, though 12 others have made over 20 appearances.
Trivia
- 14 Spanish players have won the Premier League. Of those, David Silva has won it the most, on four occasions.
- Former Bolton defender Fernando Hierro is the fifth top scorer in the history of the Spain national team (29 goals).
- Since the Premier League began recording free-kick statistics in 2006/07, only Cristiano Ronaldo (9) and Sebastian Larsson (11) have scored more free-kicks in the Premier League than Juan Mata (8).
- Seven Spaniards have scored a Premier League hat-trick. Only Fernando Torres (4) and Ayoze Perez (2) have scored more than one.
