[Football] From Bergkamp to Zola: British Football’s Best Foreign Imports

Who’s the greatest foreign player ever to have played for a British club? Fifteen years ago, such a question would have probably been laughed at, as foreign players were still view with distrust by most English clubs. Exceptions were occasionally made for Scandinavians, who were considered easily adaptable to the English game, but few bothered to experiment beyond that.

Nowadays, those inhibitions have been blown away. In the next transfer window, it is a safe bet that the majority of signings will be foreign. There’s no reason debating whether this is good or bad for the game: that is the current situation. Still there’s no doubting that many of the imports have passed through the game without making any reasonable contribution.

Some players, however, have become legends at the clubs and icons of the game. In reply to the opening question, here’s my (very) personal list of the best foreign players to have played in Britain in recent years.

10. Juninho (Middlesborough, Celtic)
When Middlesborough made a move for Juninho he was considered Brazil’s rising star – the Robinho of his time if you want – and had just put on a man of the match performance in a friendly against England.

Still however, there was plenty of scpepticism about his ability to adapt to the colder climate. But adapt he did. Surrounded by team-mates who either weren’t good enough or else couldn’t be bothered, his trickery and passion didn’t rub-off on those around him but wasn’t lost on the Boro faithful.

Quickly the bond between the two and the player many had claimed wouldn’t handle the English football combined sensational ability with an appetite for English football rarely matched by overseas players.

Flair, technique, passion and a huge heart were always on show when Juninho played for Middlesborough. Sadly, as a team they couldn’t deal with the expectations and were relegated in 1997, having also lost two cup finals. It was a heartbreaking moment for the club, and Juninho shared the fans’ pain as he openly wept when relegation was confirmed.

Eager to make it into the Brazil squad for the World Cup, Juninho moved on to Atletico Madrid where a broken leg ruined his chances of making an impact and he was never really the same player again.

Eventually, he enjoyed two further spells with Middlesborough and a stint at Celtic without ever really hitting the heights of his first experience in England.

9. Jurgen Klinsmann (Tottenham)
Few players have made such an impact in such a short space of time. Tottenham’s capture of Jurgen Klinsmann was major news in 1994 as the German was very much considered an established star and one of the world’s best strikers.

He also had a reputation of being something of a diver, an accusation he quickly replied to by performing ironic dives in celebration after a debut goal against Sheffield Wednesday.

That goal proved to be the first of many as he scored 20 Premiership goals in his first season.

Then, suddenly, he announced that he would be leaving to join Sampdoria. It was a shock decision, which prompted Alan Sugar to say that he wouldn’t wash his car with Klinsmann’s shirt.

Two years later, however, all was forgotten as Klinsmann returned to successfully help Tottenham avoid relegation.

8. Sami Hyppia (Liverpool)
If Gerard Houllier had been as astute in his other transfers as he was in signing Sami Hyppia, he would surely still be the manager at Anfield. The Finn was a complete unknown when he joined Liverpool in 1999 for £2 million from Dutch side Willem II and there was plenty of scepticism around his arrival. But he quickly formed an excellent partnership with Stephane Henchoz proving to be the bedrock of Houllier’s side.

Despite not being the fastest player around, he is rarely caught out of position or allows a striker to outrun him. Even rarer are those occasions in which he is beaten in the air.

In 2001, he played a leading role in the treble success of the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup where Liverpool’s defensive credentials were often tested to the limits. Hyppia’s performances remained as good as ever even as Houllier’s overly cautious tactics started to unravel.

With the arrival of Rafael Benitez, some anticipated that Hyppia would be sold on particularly when his former defensive partner Henchoz struggled to get a game before being freed. And at first, Hyppia truly seemed to struggle to get to terms with Benitez’s zonal marking system.

Eventually, however, he formed an excellent partnership with Jamie Carragher both of whom starred in the club’s Champions’ League success.

7. Peter Schmeichel (Manchester United, Aston Villa, Manchester City)
Over six years after Schmeichel left Old Trafford, Alex Ferguson is still searching for a suitable replacement. More than anything else that shows just how uniquely talented Schmeichel really was, probably the best keeper in the club’s history.

Signed from Brondby for a mere £500,000, he promptly solved one of United’s long-standing problem quickly ousting the erratic Jim Leighton and Les Sealey to make the number one spot his own.

The huge expectations at the club had played heavily on the confidence of his predecessors but rather than breaking Schemeicel, they seemed to motivate him. An excellent shot stopper, perhaps his biggest strength was the way with which he dominated his penalty area.

Innumerable honours were won at United, culminating with the European Cup triumph in 1999. He subsequently went to Sporting Lisbon to get away from the heavy demands of English football. In Portugal he won the league title before sensationally returning to England to play for Aston Villa. Even more astonishingly, he joined Manchester City a year later and, at 39, proved that he was still one of the best keepers around.

6. Dennis Bergkamp (Arsenal)
Alongside Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry, Bergkamp is the third player to find success at Highbury following a failed experience in Italy. It is over ten years that he arrived following an abortive spell at Inter Milan and the Dutchman has undoubtedly proven to be one of the best buys of the decade.

Extremely intelligent on the field of play, he has played alongside a succession of different strikers ensuring that each one had plenty of service whilst at the same time keeping a decent scoring rate himself.

Now in his last season with Arsenal, Highbury won’t be the same place without him.

5. Patrick Vieira (Arsenal)
When Arsenal signed this lanky French kid who had failed miserably at AC Milan, no one really expected him to develop into one of the best midfielders in world football. Yet develop he did, allaying tremendous ball winning qualities to impeccable passing which made him the fulcrum of Arsenal’s dominant midfield.

Initially overshadowed by Emanuel Petit, the fellow Frenchman’s departure to Barcelona allowed Vieira to mature even more as player, becoming the team’s heart-beat and eventually taking over as captain following the retirement of Tony Adams.

Rumours of transfers abroad persisted throughout the latter half of his nine years at Arsenal, yet when he eventually moved to Juventus this summer it was still something of a shock.

4. Henrik Larsson (Celtic)
Not only the only foreign based player in Scotland to make it into this list, but also the only ‘star’ of Scottish football who would have been good enough to play for a top English side.

A largely unknown player when he joined from Feyenoord for a paltry £650,000 who was labelled as another cheap foreign import, Larsson quickly started proving people wrong. Scoring goals in the Scottish Premiership is perhaps insolently considered an easy task South of the border and as such too hastily written off. Yet goals are goals and Larsson could score them no matter the opposition, as he regularly proved in Europe and for Sweden.

Larsson was also a very though competitor, with an unrelenting desire to win as he proved by coming back from a broken leg and a broken jaw, injuries that would have brought to a premature end the career of a less determined player.

3. Thierry Henry (Arsenal)
Henry didn’t have the best possible introduction to life at Highbury. Arsenal had just been forced to sell crowd favourite Nicholas Anelka and the man chosen to replace him was a winger who had failed to make it at Juventus.

Matters weren’t helped by profligacy in front of the net which raised further doubts over his talents.

Arsene Wenger, however, had complete faith in his compatriot and with good reason. Scary pace allied with breathtaking skill, Henry’s talents eventually started to emerge as he developed into one of the world’s best strikers.

Now elevated to club captain, the rumours linking him to a move to Barcelona must be unnerving for Arsenal fans for whom he is the undoubted star and one of the players underpinning their club’s recent successes. His ability to score apparently impossible goals from anywhere on the pitch mark him out as one of the best strikers in the game.

2. Eric Cantona (Leeds United, Manchester United)
There are two landmark moments in Cantona’s career in England. The first is when he joined Leeds, the second is when Howard Wilkinson decided to accept Manchester United’s offer to sign the French forward.

And to think that Cantona had originally been turned down by Sheffield Wednesday a sign, perhaps, of the reluctance at the time to go for foreign players. Wilkinson, on the other hand, decided to give the French rebel a chance and it proved to be an inspired choice as he helped the Yorkshire club to the league title.

At Leeds, however, Cantona was still largely a good rather than a great player. It was only when he joined United that his brilliance started to emerge.

Brilliantly influential, his desire to win – and do so with style – rubbed off on his team-mates as he helped transform a collection of good players into a great unit. If Alex Ferguson was the mastermind behind United’s success, Cantona was undeniably the charismatic leader who ensured that no one strayed from reaching the high standards set by the club.

1. Gianfranco Zola (Chelsea)
Irrespective of what he achieved throughout his career, Zola was quite simply a player who could illuminate games with flashes of brilliance: someone you would gladly pay to watch playing football. Humble and extremely likeable off the pitch, on it he could win games single handedly with an amazing array of tricks.

In many ways, Zola is the antithesis to the public imagery of Italian players. Hard working, passionate and never one to put up any airs on the pitch, the man who started out as Diego Maradona’s understudy at Napoli eventually became a legend at Chelsea where he was voted as the club’s greatest players.

The six honours that he won during his seven seasons in England – 2 FA Cups, a League Cup, a European Cup Winners Cup, a European Super Cup and the Charity Shield – do not include the league title and some consider this to be a major failing. Yet Zola made football deserve to be described as the ‘beautiful game’ and so my title goes to him.

This article originally appeared on squarefootball.net on the 28th December 2005.