Issue number 505 of the CIES Football Observatory presents the top 100 of associations having exported the greatest number of footballers to 135 leagues around the world between 2020 and 2025. With no fewer than 3,020 distinct expatriates, is ahead of the last two World Cup winners : (2,293) and (2,171).

In the top ten is a third South American country, , an African nation, , and five additional European ones : (notably due to the strong presence of English players in other British associations), , , and . The biggest increase between 2020 and 2025 in absolute terms was recorded for France (+372 expatriates), followed by Argentina (+216) and Nigeria (+181).

The 100th presents in greater detail the trends in the number of expatriates for the main exporting nations, as well as the main destinations and changes observed. Also available free of charge, the is a valuable tool for understanding the global geography of footballer flows. For all these studies, the origin of the players was established on the basis of the association where they grew up.

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