African 'EPL Kingdom' becomes richer for country #34

As one of the most popular sports competitions, the English Premier League has always attracted viewers from all over the globe. However, since football market started to expand and became more open for foreigners, England's top flight has become almost every player's dream.

When it was founded in 1992, its opening round included only 13 foreign players, from France, Canada, Norway, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Israel, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, and Poland.

Who shone in EPL opening round? Ex-Serie A lads

Times have significantly changed since (to say the least), so the opening Premier League round 33 years later, brought us a representative of 127th different nation and it's the African one!

Sunderland's defender, who joined the Black Cats a month ago from Atletico Madrid, Reinildo Mandava, became the first-ever player from Mozambique to feature in an EPL match. This way, this Southeast African country became #127 in total and #34 regarding only the Mother Continent.

In the inaugural Premier League campaign, Africa had four representatives from two different countries: Efan Ekoku (Norwich City) and George Ndah (Crystal Palace) from Nigeria and Bruce Grobbelaar (Liverpool) and Peter Ndlovu (Coventry City) from Zimbabwe, with the last one becoming officially the first African player to make an EPL appearance.

For instance, in the 2025/2026 campaign, England's top tier will involve 33 players from the Mother Continent from 15 different countries. Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Nigeria will be most represented with seven, six, and five players, respectively, while nine nations will have one player apiece.

As for Kenya, its first and only Premier League player was the legendary Victor Wanyama, who wore Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur jerseys between 2013 and 2020.