Latin American Players in Top European & US Football Leagues
653 Latin American players dominate top leagues, with 30% in the US—higher than any European country.
Editor's note: This article was originally published in January 2022. Player rosters and figures reflect the data available at the time — the "World Cup" referenced is Qatar 2022, and the named players were active in the listed clubs then.
With the World Cup coming up later this year, it seems fitting to wonder how many Latin Americans play in the top European and US football leagues. So, we decided to chart the data.
The answer is a lot. According to data from SoccerWay, there are 653 players from Latin America in the eight leagues seen on the chart. 30% of them play in the US, the highest country. These are the highest-paid Latin Americans in the leagues as mentioned above:
USA MLS: 🇲🇽 Carlos Vela (Los Angeles FC)
Portugal Primeira Liga: 🇧🇷 Everton Sousa Soares (Benfica)
Spain La Liga: 🇧🇷 Marcelo (Real Madrid)
Italy Serie A: 🇦🇷 Paulo Dybala (Juventus)
UK Premier League: 🇺🇾 Edinson Cavani (Man. United)
France Ligue 1: 🇦🇷 Lionel Messi (PSG)
Germany Bundesliga: 🇦🇷 Lucas Alario
Netherland’s Eredivisie: 🇦🇷 Nicolás Tagliafico
