Gunnar Nielsen’s Premier League profession was temporary.
Extraordinarily temporary, the truth is: it lasted 17 minutes. The goalkeeper was launched as a late substitute for Manchester Metropolis in opposition to Arsenal in 2010 after Shay Given had aggravated a shoulder damage he picked up per week earlier when diving in useless for Paul Scholes’s late winner within the Manchester derby.
However it was an enormous deal again dwelling. These 17 minutes represented the primary — and solely — time a participant from the Faroe Islands had performed within the Premier League. It was such an enormous deal {that a} native radio station couldn’t even wait till the sport had completed to name his brother for some response. Fortunately, Nielsen saved 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 phrase,” Nielsen says now. “He simply gave the cellphone to my sister-in-law.”
Nielsen is a part of an uncommon little membership of gamers, a gaggle that was joined not too long ago by new Metropolis signing Abdukodir Khusanov, the defender from Uzbekistan: they’re two of 18 males to be the one gamers from their respective nations to make an look within the Premier League.
Neilsen made his solely Premier League look in April 2010 (Neil Tingle – PA Photographs by way of Getty Photographs)
In order you’ll be able to think about, it was fairly massive information within the Faroes when Nielsen made his look. TV and radio protection was a given, however his nearly literal quarter-hour of fame was the discuss of the city. “I spoke to a bouncer at a nightclub who I knew,” Nielsen says. “He mentioned the one factor everyone spoke about on that Saturday night was how I made my look within the Premier League.
“It was such an enormous factor when it occurred. I keep in mind folks have been sending me footage and texting me and calling me — to at the present time I meet individuals who nonetheless say they keep in mind the place they have been at that actual time once I got here 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 in opposition to 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 record usually are not conventional soccer powerhouses. A few of the gamers had a slight leg-up, provided that they have been born and raised in larger or extra recognisable soccer environments, however performed for an additional nation as a result 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 function fashions to indicate them the trail to one among Europe’s massive leagues. They’re trailblazers.
“You could see somebody that’s completed it earlier than,” Nielsen tells The Athletic. “We’re carefully linked to Denmark, so that you’re wanting as much as gamers from there, however (not having a Faroese instance) didn’t make it simpler. There hadn’t been anybody within the Premier League from the Faroe Islands, and despite the fact that there have been some younger gamers who had been on youth contracts at some Premier League golf equipment, there wasn’t anybody to look as much as in that sense.”
Wanyama didn’t have a compatriot to indicate him the trail to the Premier League both however he was fortunate in that he, at the least, did have some extra instant function 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 dwelling 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 facet AFC Leopards.
Wanyama enjoying for Tottenham in 2019 (Shaun Botterill/Getty Photographs)
“I grew up in a soccer household,” Wanyama tells The Athletic. “I used to look at the Premier League — I grew up watching these video games. Once I was 11, I used to be already dreaming about being there in the future. I cherished Roy Keane and Paul Scholes.
“My father was a coach, my brother performed: it was one thing very deep. It was in our blood. I needed to play on the largest stage. I used to be conscious the Premier League was the hardest league on this planet. I knew it might be robust to get into, which motivated me.”
Etheridge’s scenario was barely totally different. Born and raised in England, the goalkeeper certified to play for the Philippines by way of his mom. He would journey to the Philippines pretty recurrently rising up however, for numerous 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 advised 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 in opposition to Manchester Metropolis in 2019 (Oli Scarff / AFP)
“I simply felt a reference to the nation and the folks,” Etheridge says from Thailand, the place he’s now enjoying. “The Philippines is an especially proud nation. The tradition and blood runs by way of you. I used to be solely 18, however I noticed an opportunity to make a change in a rustic that’s not essentially football-orientated. Basketball is the No 1 sport. Again then, soccer wasn’t actually a sport that was recognised.”
He’s not kidding. They’d sunk to 195th on this planet across the time Etheridge was first known as up, and had little to no report 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, finally doing so in 2017 after successful promotion with Cardiff. “It was a large deal,” he says. “Though it wasn’t as massive 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, moderately than the primary Filipino.
“I’ve been in a position to do lots of first. In 2010, we reached the semi-finals of the South East Asian Cup (AFF Cup) for the primary time and that was when soccer blew up within the Philippines. Even now, 15 years later, it’s nonetheless in toddler phases, nevertheless it’s one thing I’m proud to be part of, to place soccer on the map within the nation.”
Nationwide identification is usually a barely sophisticated, non-binary and typically fluid factor, so it’s price providing some parameters: the gamers are outlined as being ‘from’ their explicit 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 degree.
There are some curiosities on the record. The Premier League has seen a number of gamers who have been born in Suriname and went on to characterize the Netherlands (Regi Blinker, Edgar Davids, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink), however Donk, the one participant to characterize Suriname, was born within the Netherlands.
Just a few on the record 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 Photographs by way of Getty Photographs)
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 thought to be 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 really enjoying. He should still characterize 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 occasions for Equatorial Guinea between 2013 and 2024 and received the Golden Boot on the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations. Nevertheless, he may not depend, 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 numerous 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 result of Nsue’s ineligibility, however they saved selecting him anyway, and did so at numerous intervals over the next decade. It genuinely appears that FIFA solely seen as a result of his heroics at AFCON, at which level they declared his complete worldwide profession null and void.
So…does he depend? Are we getting right into a bizarre, metaphysical space by appearing as if Nsue’s worldwide appearances actually by no means occurred, moderately than administratively by no means occurred? If that’s the case Pedro Obiang, the one different Equatorial Guinea worldwide, turns into the nineteenth particular person on this record. However for now, we’ll go together with tangible actuality and credit score Equatorial Guinea with two Premier League gamers.
In fact, the Premier League is just not the head for everybody. It’s not essentially the case that each participant slept on Barclays mattress sheets and their solely need as a child was to play in England.
Take Wanyama, for instance. “It was an even bigger deal to play for Celtic,” he says, “as a result of it was the crew I grew up supporting. Significantly within the Glasgow derby.”
For many of those gamers, enjoying within the Premier League was a supply of private pleasure, however the hope is they are often the inspiration and function mannequin that they didn’t have once they have been youthful.
“With out eager to blow my very own trumpet,” says Etheridge, “if it wasn’t for me and the success I’ve had, there could be lots of soccer gamers who wouldn’t have had a profession within the recreation. Lots of people wouldn’t even have identified that the Philippines had a crew, if it wasn’t for the likes of myself, and the success I had later in my profession, enjoying within the Premier League, having the ability to actually improve our nationwide crew. There are lots of people world wide who’ve determined to play for the Philippines as a result of they now know what the Philippines nationwide crew is.”
Wanyama provides: “I’m proud if I’ve made younger gamers dream, to consider in themselves that they might play within the Premier League in the future. Now everybody needs to be there, they usually know the door is open to them. They consider they will do it too.”
(Prime images: Getty Photographs)
