By Stelios Toromanidis/ info@eurohoops.net
Globalization has now penetrated many areas of everyday life, with an impact on sports and, in particular, basketball. Even though we are talking about the top club competition in Europe, 31.5% of the players who participate in it come from countries outside of the Old Continent, precisely from the USA, Oceania and Africa.
This means that 74 of the competition’s 235 players are not European. Of those, 71 come from the USA, two from Australia and one from Africa.
In terms of the countries of origin of the players of the competition, they are 34 in number, 26 of them are in Europe (76.5%), while the table also includes six from the Americas, one from Oceania and one from Africa.
Eurohoops searched and found all of them, then singled out countries with a double-digit number of EuroLeague representatives. Which of them has the most basketball players, and by what amount?
Before we present them to you, here is the table that contains the other 27 countries that have from one to nine representatives in the EuroLeague.
Notes:
- We should note that the naturalized players that teams have, those who also have a passport from another country as well, apart from their own, will be considered representatives of their main country (for example, Matt Lojeski, who plays in the national team of Belgium as a naturalized player but comes from the USA, we classify with the Americans).
- On the contrary, players like Nick Calathes or Daniel Hackett, who don’t compete as naturalized players in the national teams of their countries even though they have roots or a connection with another country, we will classify them as Greek and Italian respectively.
In detail, here are the countries that have a single-digit number of players in the EuroLeague, in places 8 to 34:
|
Place |
Country |
Teams in the EuroLeague |
Players in the EuroLeague |
| 8 | Turkey | 2 | 9 |
| – | Italy | 1 | 9 |
| 10 | Germany | 1 | 8 |
| 11 | Israel | 1 | 5 |
| – | Latvia | – | 5 |
| 13 | Argentina | – | 4 |
| – | Slovenia | – | 4 |
| – | Montenegro | – | 4 |
| 16 | Georgia | – | 3 |
| – | Croatia | – | 3 |
| 18 | Brazil | – | 2 |
| – | Australia | – | 2 |
| – | Finland | – | 2 |
| 21 | Sweden | – | 1 |
| – | Czech Republic | – | 1 |
| – | Holland | – | 1 |
| – | UK | – | 1 |
| – | Bosnia | – | 1 |
| – | Poland | – | 1 |
| – | Czech Republic | – | 1 |
| – | Canada | – | 1 |
| – | FYROM | – | 1 |
| – | Mexico | – | 1 |
| – | Bulgaria | – | 1 |
| – | Uruguay | – | 1 |
| – | Hungary | – | 1 |
| – | Congo | – | 1 |
7. Lithuania: 12 players in the EuroLeague
The countdown of our list starts with Lithuania. They are definitely a pure basketball country with a long tradition in the sport and have produced scores of talents.
Aside from Zalgiris Kaunas’s eight native players, there are four more players who compete in three EuroLeague teams outside of Lithuania. From the veteran of the competition, Paulius Jankunas, to the rookie, Gytis Masiulis, the DNA of the orange ball is in the blood of the representatives of this Baltic country.
| Position | Club | Number of Lithuanian players |
| 1 | Zalgiris Kaunas | 8 |
| 2 | Armani EX Olimpia Milano | 2 |
| 3 | Panathinaikos Superfoods | 1 |
| 4 | Real Madrid | 1 |
| Sum | 4 clubs | 12 players (5.1%) |
6. France: 13 players in the EuroLeague
Even though France is not represented by any team in the EuroLeague, the talent of their players is so big that a lot of squads in the top club competition on the Old Continent are betting on them.
Nine of the 16 teams in the competition have from one to three French players on their rosters, and as a result, the ‘Tricolores’ are in sixth place on our list. The most… famous of them is CSKA Moscow’s superstar, Nando De Colo, while Kevin Seraphin and Thomas Heurtel (FC Barcelona Lassa), Fabien Causeur (Real Madrid), and Kim Tillie (Olympiacos Piraeus), who is currently injured, are some of the players that are well worth watching in this season’s EuroLeague.
| Position | Club | Number of French players |
| 1 | FC Barcelona Lassa | 3 |
| 2 | CSKA Moscow | 2 |
| 3 | Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz | 2 |
| 4 | Olympiacos Piraeus | 1 |
| 5 | Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade | 1 |
| 6 | Real Madrid | 1 |
| 7 | Valencia | 1 |
| 8 | Zalgiris Kaunas | 1 |
| 9 | Armani EX Olimpia Milano | 1 |
| Sum | 9 clubs | 13 players (5,5%) |
5. Russia: 16 players in the EuroLeague
The two Russian teams that take part in the EuroLeague have on their rosters all 16 players that hail from the largest country in Europe.
Some of them, like Alexey Shved and Andrey Vorontsevich, are considered to be some of the “heavier” names in the competition thanks to their talent, experience and ambition. This is the only country with a double-digit number of players in the competition where all its representatives play for organizations that are within its borders.
| Position | Club | Number of Russian players |
| 1 | CSKA Moscow | 8 |
| 2 | Khimki Moscow Region | 8 |
| Sum | 2 clubs | 16 players (6,8%) |
4. Greece: 18 players in the EuroLeague
The Greek presence in this season’s EuroLeague is once again extended, as there are 18 players representing the country. 16 of them play in Olympiacos and Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens, while two have migrated to Germany and Turkey.
One is Nikos Zisis, who plays in the colors of Brose Bamberg, and the other is the European champion with Fenerbahce Dogus Istanbul, Kostas Sloukas. It’s worth mentioning that the Greek participants have won a total of 15 trophies in the competition, while 11 of them (61.1 %) have played in at least one final in the competition. If nothing else, the… Greek Team is overflowing with experience.
| Position | Club | Number of Greek players |
| 1 | Olympiacos Piraeus | 8 |
| 2 | Panathinaikos Superfoods | 8 |
| 3 | Brose Bamberg | 1 |
| 4 | Fenerbahce Dogus | 1 |
| Sum | 4 Clubs | 18 players (7,6%) |
3. Serbia: 19 players in the EuroLeague
Τhe representatives of one of the best basketball schools in the world are not an insignificant amount this season, either.
The only Serbian team in the competition, Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade, has 41.2% of them (8/19), while the other 11 are scattered in a total of seven countries (Spain, Greece, Turkey, Lithuania, Germany, Russia, Italy). In fact, the two that are featured in the photo above (Nikola Kalinic, Nikola Milutinov) were rivals in last season’s final, where it’s possible they will be protagonists this season as well.
| Position | Clubs | Number of Serbian players |
| 1 | Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade | 8 |
| 2 | Unicaja Malaga | 3 |
| 3 | Fenerbahce Dogus | 2 |
| 4 | Olympiacos Pireaus | 1 |
| 5 | Anadolu Efes | 1 |
| 6 | Brose Bamberg | 1 |
| 7 | Khimki Moscow Region | 1 |
| 8 | Zalgiris Kaunas | 1 |
| 9 | Armani EX Olimpia Milano | 1 |
| Sum | 9 Clubs | 19 players (8,1%) |
2. Spain: 21 players in the EuroLeague
Spain is one spot below the top, but by a huge amount. The home country of Juan Carlos Navarro, Sergio Llull and Sergio Rodriguez, has 21 players in the competition, 20 of whom play for the five Spanish teams in total that are in the EuroLeague, and only one of them plays away from his homeland.
Considering that the Spaniards have almost 31.3% of the competition’s organizations (5/16 teams), which is an all-time record in the competition, the players who hail from the Iberian Peninsula in the competition are not that many.
| Position | Club | Number of Spanish players |
| 1 | FC Barcelona Lassa | 6 |
| 2 | Valencia | 5 |
| 3 | Real Madrid | 4 |
| 4 | Unicaja Malaga | 3 |
| 5 | Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz | 2 |
| 6 | CSKA Moscow | 1 |
| Sum | 6 Clubs | 21 Players (8,9%) |