Gunnar Nielsen’s Premier League profession was transient.
Extraordinarily transient, in reality: it lasted 17 minutes. The goalkeeper was launched as a late substitute for Manchester Metropolis towards Arsenal in 2010 after Shay Given had aggravated a shoulder harm he picked up per week earlier when diving in useless for Paul Scholes’s late winner within the Manchester derby.
However it was a giant deal again house. These 17 minutes represented the primary — and solely — time a participant from the Faroe Islands had performed within the Premier League. It was such a giant deal {that a} native radio station couldn’t even wait till the sport had completed to name his brother for some response. Fortunately, Nielsen stored a clear sheet, avoiding the decidedly awkward prospect of his brother having to supply some dwell, on-air touch upon an embarrassing blunder.
“He was so nervous he couldn’t say a word,” Nielsen says now. “He just gave the phone to my sister-in-law.”
Nielsen is a part of an uncommon little membership of gamers, a bunch that was joined lately by new Metropolis signing Abdukodir Khusanov, the defender from Uzbekistan: they’re two of 18 males to be the one gamers from their respective international locations to make an look within the Premier League.
Neilsen made his solely Premier League look in April 2010 (Neil Tingle – PA Pictures by way of Getty Pictures)
“It was such a big thing when it happened. I remember people were sending me pictures and texting me and calling me — to this day I meet people who still say they remember where they were at that exact time when I came on.”
Khusanov is the second participant to hitch the membership this season, after Ipswich City striker Ali Al-Hamadi turned the primary Iraqi to grace the division when he got here on within the opening recreation of the season towards Liverpool.
For the sake of completeness, the others are: Victor Wanyama (Kenya), Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Armenia), Onel Hernandez (Cuba), Junior Firpo (Dominican Republic), Nathaniel Mendez-Laing (Guatemala), Danny Higginbotham (Gibraltar), Ryan Donk (Suriname), Ali Al-Habsi (Oman), Jordi Amat (Indonesia), Hamza Choudhury (Bangladesh), Dylan Kerr (Malta), Mbwana Samatta (Tanzania), Frederic Nimani (Central African Republic), Neil Etheridge (Philippines) and Zesh Rehman (Pakistan).
By definition, the nations on that checklist will not be conventional soccer powerhouses. A number of the gamers had a slight leg-up, on condition that they have been born and raised in larger or extra recognisable soccer environments, however performed for an additional nation as a consequence of a familial connection. Amat, Choudhury, Rehman, Etheridge, Hernandez, Firpo, Mendez-Laing, Higginbotham and Donk fall into that class.
However among the others grew up in environment the place there merely weren’t any position fashions to point out them the trail to one in all Europe’s large leagues. They’re trailblazers.
“You need to see someone that’s done it before,” Nielsen tells The Athletic. “We’re closely connected to Denmark, so you’re looking up to players from there, but (not having a Faroese example) did not make it easier. There hadn’t been anyone in the Premier League from the Faroe Islands, and even though there were some young players who had been on youth contracts at some Premier League clubs, there wasn’t anyone to look up to in that sense.”
Wanyama didn’t have a compatriot to point out him the trail to the Premier League both however he was fortunate in that he, no less than, did have some extra fast position fashions, equivalent to his brother, McDonald Mariga, who joined Parma in Serie A when Wanyama was 16. Earlier than that, Wanyama adopted Mariga to Helsingborgs in Sweden, briefly returning house when the elder brother went to Italy, earlier than correctly beginning his European journey with Beerschot, in Belgium. It additionally didn’t harm that his father, Noah, performed for and coached Nairobi-based aspect AFC Leopards.
Wanyama enjoying for Tottenham in 2019 (Shaun Botterill/Getty Pictures)
“I grew up in a football family,” Wanyama tells The Athletic. “I used to observe the Premier League — I grew up watching these video games. After I was 11, I used to be already dreaming about being there sooner or later. I liked Roy Keane and Paul Scholes.
“My father was a coach, my brother played: it was something very deep. It was in our blood. I wanted to play on the biggest stage. I was aware the Premier League was the toughest league in the world. I knew it would be tough to get into, which motivated me.”
Etheridge’s state of affairs was barely totally different. Born and raised in England, the goalkeeper certified to play for the Philippines by his mom. He would journey to the Philippines pretty recurrently rising up however, for varied causes, didn’t return for years. Then, at 18, his former team-mates within the Chelsea youth crew and Filipino internationals James and Phil Younghusband prompt him for a spot within the squad too. He made his debut in 2008, has clocked up greater than 80 caps and was named nationwide crew captain in 2022.
Neil Etheridge in motion for Cardiff towards Manchester Metropolis in 2019 (Oli Scarff / AFP)
“I just felt a connection with the country and the people,” Etheridge says from Thailand, the place he’s now enjoying. “The Philippines is an extremely proud country. The culture and blood runs through you. I was only 18, but I saw a chance to make a change in a country that is not necessarily football-orientated. Basketball is the No 1 sport. Back then, football wasn’t really a sport that was recognised.”
He’s not kidding. That they had sunk to 195th on the earth across the time Etheridge was first known as up, and had little to no file in worldwide competitors. Their highest rating within the intervening years of 111 may not appear nice, however they certified for the Asian Cup for the primary time in 2019 and made it to the second spherical of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup, once more the primary time the crew had gone that far.
Etheridge achieved most of this earlier than enjoying within the Premier League for the primary time, ultimately doing so in 2017 after successful promotion with Cardiff. “It was a massive deal,” he says. “Though it wasn’t as large as if a Filipino performed within the NBA, and Manny Pacquiao is the No 1 sportsperson within the nation by a rustic mile. I used to be in all probability extra recognised as the primary South East Asian participant to play within the Premier League, slightly than the primary Filipino.
“I’ve been able to do a lot of first. In 2010, we reached the semi-finals of the South East Asian Cup (AFF Cup) for the first time and that was when football blew up in the Philippines. Even now, 15 years later, it’s still in infant stages, but it’s something I’m proud to be a part of, to put football on the map in the country.”
Nationwide id could be a barely sophisticated, non-binary and generally fluid factor, so it’s value providing some parameters: the gamers are outlined as being ‘from’ their specific nation both in the event that they have been born there and haven’t represented one other nation, or if they’ve represented that nation at full worldwide stage.
There are some curiosities on the checklist. The Premier League has seen a number of gamers who have been born in Suriname and went on to signify the Netherlands (Regi Blinker, Edgar Davids, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink), however Donk, the one participant to signify Suriname, was born within the Netherlands.
A couple of on the checklist weren’t classed as being from their respective nations whereas enjoying within the Premier League. Higginbotham performed a number of video games for Gibraltar, however these have been a very long time after his Southampton/Sunderland/Stoke Metropolis pomp. Mendez-Laing’s debut for Guatemala got here when he was in League One with Derby, a number of years after his top-flight days with Cardiff.
Danny Higginbotham again in his enjoying days for Stoke Metropolis in 2010 (Mike Egerton/PA Pictures by way of Getty Pictures)
Then there are the gray areas, equivalent to former Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder Mahmoud Dahoud, who’s counted on some lists as Syria’s sole consultant. He was born in Syria and raised in Germany, for whom he performed two friendlies in 2020 so was thus considered German whereas in England. Nevertheless, in 2024, he switched allegiance to the nation of his start and was known as as much as Syria’s squad… solely to drag out earlier than truly enjoying. He should signify them sooner or later, however we’re not counting him for now.
Then there’s Equatorial Guinea. Emilio Nsue, who was born and raised in Spain and made 4 appearances for Middlesbrough within the Premier League, performed 45 instances for Equatorial Guinea between 2013 and 2024 and received the Golden Boot on the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations. Nevertheless, he may not rely, as in 2024 FIFA dominated he had been ineligible the entire time.
Again in 2013, the Equatoguinean Soccer Federation utilized to their Spanish counterparts for Nsue to change nationalities (he had made a number of aggressive appearances for varied Spain youth groups), however to say the least there have been some irregularities with the method. They defaulted two 2014 World Cup qualifying video games as a consequence of Nsue’s ineligibility, however they stored selecting him anyway, and did so at varied intervals over the next decade. It genuinely appears that FIFA solely seen as a consequence of his heroics at AFCON, at which level they declared his complete worldwide profession null and void.
So…does he rely? Are we getting right into a bizarre, metaphysical space by appearing as if Nsue’s worldwide appearances actually by no means occurred, slightly than administratively by no means occurred? In that case Pedro Obiang, the one different Equatorial Guinea worldwide, turns into the nineteenth particular person on this checklist. However for now, we’ll go together with tangible actuality and credit score Equatorial Guinea with two Premier League gamers.
After all, the Premier League isn’t the top for everybody. It’s not essentially the case that each participant slept on Barclays mattress sheets and their solely want as a child was to play in England.
Take Wanyama, for instance. “It was a bigger deal to play for Celtic,” he says, “because it was the team I grew up supporting. Particularly in the Glasgow derby.”
For many of those gamers, enjoying within the Premier League was a supply of private satisfaction, however the hope is they are often the inspiration and position mannequin that they didn’t have once they have been youthful.
“Without wanting to blow my own trumpet,” says Etheridge, “if it wasn’t for me and the success I’ve had, there would be a lot of football players who wouldn’t have had a career in the game. A lot of people wouldn’t even have known that the Philippines had a team, if it wasn’t for the likes of myself, and the success I had later in my career, playing in the Premier League, being able to really enhance our national team. There are a lot of people around the world who have decided to play for the Philippines because they now know what the Philippines national team is.”
Wanyama provides: “I’m proud if I have made young players dream, to believe in themselves that they could play in the Premier League one day. Now everyone wants to be there, and they know the door is open to them. They believe they can do it too.”
(Prime photographs: Getty Pictures)
