Royce Franklin, a life member of the Association of Football Statisticians, digs up yet more fascinating facts about football
As a football fanatic who watched games for the first time in my home City of Lincoln in the late forties, I am sure contemporaries would accept football has changed dramatically over those 60 plus years.
One change I personally find intriguing is how football has become so cosmopolitan, even in the lower reaches of the Football League. We can both admire the extra skill imports have added to the pleasure of watching football but at the same time decry their appearance because it can hamper the development of home grown talent.
Let’s look at Latics’ team appearances from only 20 years ago. In the 1992-93 season, Latics were founder members of the newly-named Premier. They used 24 players for the whole season. Only 5 were not English: Paul Bernard and Graeme Sharp (Scottish); Gunnar Halle (Norwegian); Mike Milligan (Irish) and Henk Keizerweerd (Dutch). Henk played in only one game as substitute in the 1-0 reverse at Liverpool. In that season just over 20% were not English.
This year up to 9th March, Latics had used 28 players. Only 16 identified with the flag of St George. The nationality of others – 4 are Australian: James Weslowski and all 3 goalkeepers Dean Bouzanis; Liam Jacob and Alex Cizak. Although an Australian national Alex was born in Poland. The other 3 players from down under were all born in Sydney. Other foreign nationals are Dean Furman (South African); Cliff Byrne (Irish); Youssouf M’Changama born in Marseille but has represented Comoros Islands at international level; Chris Iwelumo (Scottish); Jean-Yves M’voto (French); Cristian Montano (Colombian) and Carl Winchester and Kirk Millar. The last 2 were born in Belfast and have represented their country, Carl at senior level.
In this season nearly 43% are not English. In other words the proportion of non-English players has more than doubled even in the third tier of football in just 20 years.
