Is Senegal the second country that supplies the most players to European championships, after Brazil?

VERDICT: FALSE. The available statistics do not confirm El Hadji Ousseynou Diouf’s assertion. In the 2026 CIES ranking, which lists the countries of origin of expatriate players in Europe, Senegal is 16th. In the five major European championships, it comes third among non-European nationalities, behind Brazil and Argentina.

After the publication of Patrick Vieira’s list, on November 5, 2026, former Senegalese international El Hadji Ousseynou Diouf, present on site, affirmed that: “After Brazil, Senegal is the country which supplies the most players in Europe. »

To verify this statement, Soleil Check contacted the former international. He first agreed to respond and asked us to send him our questions by voice note, which we did immediately, on November 5. Twenty-four hours later, despite our reminders, El Hadji Ousseynou Diouf still had not responded.

We then wrote to the International Center for the Study of Sport (CIES), based in Switzerland. Its Football Observatory specializes in the statistical analysis of markets and player migrations.

Senegal, 16th country of origin for expatriate players in Europe

In his response to the Soleil Check, Loïc Ravenel, data analyst at the CIES Football Observatory, immediately believes that “the quote from El Hadji Diouf seems a little presumptuous”. He sent us the 2026 ranking of expatriate players playing in 83 European competitions.

According to this census, Senegal has 252 expatriate players and ranks 16th. It is far behind Brazil, in the lead with 812 players.

Senegal is not first in Africa either: Nigeria (468 players) and Ghana (288) are ahead of it. Ivory Coast comes just after him with 241 players.

These figures therefore do not allow Senegal to be placed in second place among the countries which supply footballers to the European championships.

To properly read these results, the CIES method must be taken into account. In its census, an expatriate Senegalese player is a footballer who grew up in Senegal and who then left for a foreign club for a reason related to football. The definition is based neither on sporting nationality alone, nor on family origin.

Loïc Ravenel specifies: “Our definition of Senegalese players only concerns players who grew up in Senegal and then left abroad as part of a migration linked to football. In fact, many players considered “Senegalese”, because they are eligible for the national team due to their ancestry, are not taken into account in our analysis. For example, Yehvann Diouf, born in France and always remained in France, is not considered a Senegalese expatriate. »

In the five major championships, Senegal has 47 players

To broaden the verification, we compared this data to that of FBref, a statistics platform which lists the nationalities represented in the five major European championships: the English Premier League, the Spanish La Liga, the German Bundesliga, the Italian Serie A and the French Ligue 1.

For the 2026-2027 season, eFBref has 47 players of Senegalese nationality in these five championships. According to data consulted on November 6, 2026, Senegal is 11th in the general ranking of nationalities, ahead of Morocco (45 players), Ivory Coast (40), Nigeria (27) and Ghana (21).

This approach takes into account players who, like Yehvann Diouf, do not correspond to the definition of expatriate retained by the CIES.

If we only consider non-European nationalities, Senegal is third, behind Brazil and Argentina. It was then the first African nation.

Two methods, one conclusion

The CIES data and those of FBref do not measure the same thing. The CIES counts players who left the country where they grew up to pursue their careers abroad, in 83 European competitions: we arrive at 252 players. While FBref classifies players by nationality, only in the five major championships: we arrive at 47 players.

Depending on the method, Senegal is 16th or 11th in the general ranking. Among non-European countries, it is never second. El Hadji Ousseynou Diouf’s assertion is therefore false.

Abdou Khadir SECK