Number of Portuguese players in English Premier League at record high

For the fourth consecutive year, the number of Portuguese players playing in the top flight of English football has increased significantly after the close of the transfer window.

The number of Portuguese players in the Premier League has set a new record, sharply increasing from the previous record high of 18 that was set during the 2019-20 season.

This season, there are currently 22 Portuguese footballers based in the English top flight, a significant increase of 22.2% from last season.

For a brief moment during the 2020 summer transfer window, the number of Portuguese players in the English Premier League actually reached an even higher number, with 25 Portuguese based in the English first division towards the end of September.

However, the departure of Adrien Silva, Diogo Dalot and Ruben Vinagre at the start of October means that the number now stands at 22 - which is still the highest ever seen at the close of a transfer window in the English game - and it is a trend that doesn’t look like ending any time soon.

For the first three years of the introduction of the English Premier League, no Portuguese players plied their trade in the top tier of the English game.

This number slowly increased over the years, though, and reached a remarkable 15 by 2009. After this point, there was a slow decline again, but over the last 6 years, there has been a rapid rise in the number of Portuguese footballers in the EPL.

Wolves are a major factor in the recent explosion in the number of Portuguese players in English football, with no fewer than 9 of the 22 Portuguese players in the top flight playing for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side. In other words, 41%.

Below shows the graph of the number of Portuguese players in the English Premier League each year since the 1992-93 season.