British footballers moving abroad is no longer an exotic escapade. Eight of England’s most recent World Cup squad are currently playing overseas, from Munich to Madrid, Milan to the Middle East, while Scotland have even more players abroad, predominantly in Serie A. It is against that backdrop that BBC Sport senior journalist Alex Bysouth has ranked the best British exports since the turn of the century.
Gareth Bale takes top spot. The Welsh forward won five Champions League titles across a nine-year spell at Real Madrid, more than the rest of the list combined. His commitment to Real Madrid was sometimes questioned, and he made clear that Wales and golf were his priorities, but his return was still impressive: 106 goals in 258 games, including three in Champions League finals, among them an overhead kick in 2018. A short stint at Los Angeles FC before retirement was less memorable, but it still yielded a Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup triumph, with Bale scoring a last-gasp leveller before LAFC won on penalties.
Steve McManaman is second. The midfielder moved from Liverpool to Real Madrid in the summer of 1999, becoming the first English player since Laurie Cunningham in 1982 to feature for Los Merengues and the first to move to the Bernabeu directly from the Premier League. He scored a volley against Valencia in the 2000 Champions League final and came off the bench to collect another winner’s medal two years later, adding two La Liga successes. His last of 37 England caps came before he won a second Champions League with Real Madrid, despite pleas from club team-mates such as Zinedine Zidane for a recall.
Harry Kane is third. The ranking calls it a tight call between Kane and Jude Bellingham, but Kane’s individual form at Bayern Munich is described as staggering. He has scored 101 Bundesliga goals in 98 games, and 152 goals in 154 games overall for Bayern. He won the European Golden Shoe in his debut season, the first Englishman since Kevin Phillips to do so, and is the fastest player in Bundesliga history to hit a century of goals. Kane has also won two Bundesliga titles and a German Cup, though the Champions League and potentially a Ballon d’Or remain ultimate targets.
Jude Bellingham is fourth. He was the fourth British player to win the Champions League for a foreign club, and the first since another English Real Madrid star in 2002. A teen sensation at Birmingham, he followed Jadon Sancho’s playbook by moving first to Dortmund, where he became the club’s youngest ever goalscorer and the youngest English player to start a Champions League match. Three productive seasons in Germany led Real Madrid to agree a deal worth more than £100m. He scored 23 goals in all competitions as Madrid won both La Liga and the Champions League, and finished third in that year’s Ballon d’Or.
Owen Hargreaves is fifth. Born and raised in Canada, he moved to Bayern Munich aged 16 and is the only player to represent England without having previously lived there. He won 42 Three Lions caps and also represented Wales at youth level. In seven seasons at Bayern he won four Bundesliga titles and several German Cups. At 20, he played 120 minutes in central midfield alongside captain Stefan Effenberg as Bayern beat Valencia on penalties at San Siro in 2001. Hargreaves became only the third British player to win the European Cup with a foreign club; Dortmund’s Paul Lambert in 1997 was the first.
Scott McTominay is sixth. The ranking describes his transformation from Manchester United squad player to Napoli cult hero, helped by compatriot Billy Gilmour. He scored 12 goals from midfield in his debut Serie A season as Napoli won only their fourth Scudetto in history, and he landed the league’s MVP award. Napoli finished runners-up last term, and McTominay has already etched his name in Napoli folklore.
David Beckham is seventh. After four seasons at Real Madrid, where he collected a sole La Liga crown, he swapped the Galactico comforts for LA Galaxy. His presence was at times questioned, especially when spending loan spells in Milan, but he brought a huge amount of eyeballs and allure to the American game. He left with silverware, twice winning both the MLS Cup and Supporters’ Shield. There was also a five-month stay in Paris before he retired, winning Ligue 1 and waving an emotional goodbye in 2013.
Jadon Sancho is eighth. It was brave for a 17-year-old to reject Manchester City and move to a new country, but he was vindicated with rapid progress at Dortmund. In his second season he scored 12 goals and added 18 assists in 34 Bundesliga games; the following term he netted 17 times. By the time he left Dortmund aged 21 he had scored 50 goals and made 64 assists across 137 games in all competitions, winning a German Cup and finishing runner-up in both the European Golden Boy prize and the Kopa Trophy. He later departed Germany in a £73m move to Old Trafford, four years after initially leaving Manchester, and helped establish a pathway for young British prospects to grow and develop abroad.
Fikayo Tomori is ninth. Before him, the only British players to clinch a Scudetto were John Charles, a three-times winner, Jimmy Greaves with Milan in 1961-62 and Gerry Hitchens with Inter the following season. Aaron Ramsey ended a wait of more than half a century in 2020 with Juventus, but his Turin expedition was inconsistent and expensive, while Ashley Young helped Inter win a first title in 11 years but his San Siro stay lasted only 18 months. Tomori lifted the prize in 2021-22, earning a spot in the Serie A team of the season, and at 28 is now into his seventh season with AC Milan.
Kieran Trippier completes the top 10. He was seemingly deemed surplus to requirements at Tottenham after their Champions League final defeat by Liverpool in 2019, but renewed his career under Diego Simeone in Spain. He became Atletico Madrid’s first English player in almost a century, and helped Los Rojiblancos win only their second La Liga title since the turn of the millennium, breaking the Barcelona and Real Madrid stranglehold. It was the first trophy of his career, and he returned to the Premier League for a successful spell at Newcastle.
The ranking acknowledges the earlier trailblazers, from Paul Gascoigne to John Charles, Kevin Keegan and Glenn Hoddle, but its focus is on the best British exports since the turn of the century. It is a reminder that what was once an exotic European escapade is now a well-trodden pilgrimage.