With the Africa Cup of Nations a fading memory and the European leagues back in full swing I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the Africans represented in five of Europe’s top leagues: Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Ligue 1 and Bundesliga.

Despite their non qualification for the Africa Cup of Nations 2013, Senegal have the most players playing in the five European leagues mentioned in the introduction. 32 Senegalese players play in these leagues. Twenty-nine different nationalities are represented in these leagues from Morocco to Mauritania.

With much of Africa being Francophone and many French born players opting to play for the countries in the Maghreb it’s unsurprisng that Ligue 1 features so many African footballers.

Number of African players used so far in the 2012/2013 league season.

French teams dominate the list. Every single one of Ligue 1?s twenty sides have fielded an African footballer during the current 2012/2013 season. However, it’s Rennes who are the club who have used the most African players. They’ve used an impressive eleven different African players so far this season. Brilliantly this is enough to field a whole first XI of African players:

Possible Rennes first XI

 Source: Spirit of Mirko