International Rescue

Last updated : 22 July 2005 By Keith Allman

Ooh, remember the old days? You were guaranteed a group of local lads representing your club. The furthest away anyone lived was Portsea and they'd walk down from the dockyards to Fratton with the fans. The rest all lived in Goldsmith Avenue and if they dared dream of somewhere like Waterlooville they were flogged for being a big time Charlie. Ooh yes, those were the days; staying in the pub with the supporters until half an hour before kick off and waiting in the queue with everyone else for fish and chips after. Dietary information? Don't know what you're talking about. None of these wussy warm-ups either.

Or so I'm told. Way before my time, these halycon days of yore - THE 1967 EUROPEAN CUP FINAL! The Lisbon Lions, all from Glasgow! Er, quite.

Needless to say that these days most teams have a more continental look and tend to shy away from grabbing youngsters off the street when it comes to assembling the squad (you'd probably get arrested for it now for a start). Indeed Arsenal brought forth a mild gasp of disapproval last season when they became the first team not to name a single English player in their squad (Bolton or Chelsea had the honour of being the first team not to put one in the starting eleven, I believe). That got me thinking - just how many different countries are represented in our squad? Then that got me thinking - could you construct a team using players from all different countries?

If you answered "I don't know" to the previous question, read on. If you answered "I don't care, why aren't you talking about our two latest signings like everyone else", then you're reading the wrong website.

Goalkeeper - Sander Westerveld (Holland)

Right Back - Aliou Cissé (Senegal)
Centre Back - Dejan Stefanovic (Serbia & Montenegro)
Centre Back - Andy O'Brien (Republic of Ireland)
Left Back - Gregory Vignal (France)

Right Mid - John Viafara (Colombia)
Centre Mid - Richard Hughes (Scotland)
Centre Mid - Giannias Skopelitis (Greece)
Left Mid - Matthew Taylor (England)

Centre Forward - Azar Karadas (Norway)
Centre Forward - Lomana LuaLua (DR Congo)

And that's not all, either. There's enough other variations to bulk out a substitutes bench; Mornar (Croatia), Todorov (Bulgaria), Fuller (Jamaica), Duffy (Wales), Rodic (Slovenia), Guatelli (Italy) - hell, even Linvoy was once approached by St Kitts and Nevis to ask if he'd like to play for their national side.

With that sort of worldwide coverage, worldwide domination must surely follow.