Ghana Is Africa’s Second Highest Exporter Of Footballers –CIES Football Observatory Report

Ghana over the years has been a hub for nurturing football talents. The likes of Michael Essien, Stephen Appiah, Abedi Ayew, Ibrahim Tanko, among others remain the countries best talents yet.

International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) Football Observatory’s April 2020 report shows that Ghana is Africa’s second-biggest exporter of football talents in the world with a total number of 311 players.

Issue number 292 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks countries worldwide according to the number of their representatives having played professional football abroad during the calendar year 2019. Brazil is at the top of the table (1,600 players, of which 74.6% active in top division leagues) ahead of France (1,027, 74.0%) and Argentina (972, 75.5%).

On the African continent, Nigeria is the biggest football talent exporting country with a total of 399 players plying their trade outside their country.

Ghana follows with a total of 311 players which makes 67.8% according to CIES’ reports. Ghana is ranked 14^th globally and Senegal comes third on the African continent with 230 footballers outside their country.

The CIES Football Observatory Atlas of Migration presents the main destinations for each origin. This exclusive tool notably reveals that 26 of these players are in the United States of America, 17 in Spain and 13 are in Sweden.