The BBC has a very interesting piece about where the crop of 2009-10 Premier League footballers are from compared to where the 1989-90 class of players were born. What is particularly telling is the percentage of players from outside the UK in today's game. The BBC has a high quality interactive map to illustrate the increasingly global influence on the Premier League. Click here for the interactive map. You can see how the makeup of individual clubs has changed over the last 20 years, and the Premier League as a whole.

The map indicates the birth location for every player in the Premier League today, and the birth locations of the players on those same teams 20 years ago. Today, the average team has 13 foreign born (non-UK) players, far more than 10 or 20 years ago. Note that the article focuses on the place of birth, not nationality. For instance, although Florent Malouda plays for France, he is listed as being from French Guiana on the map.

The current club with the most players born abroad? Not surprisingly, it's Arsenal with 23. Liverpool is not far behind with 20 foreign born players. The newly promoted clubs tend to have the fewest foreign players: Burnley have 7 and Wolves have 6.

BBC Interactive Map

For the club, of course, what is most important is not the country of origin but the quality of the player. Some would argue that the influx of non-UK talent hinders the development of UK players and thus has a negative affect on the national team. There may be something to that theory, but I don't recall England winning the World Cup in the 70s or 80s when the English Football League was still fairly provincial. Any thoughts? Anyone?

% Players born in the UK*
71% - Wolverhampton
69% - Burnley
67% - Birmingham City
67% - Stoke City
60% - Aston Villa
57% - West Ham
56% - Hull City
55% - Everton
54% - Sunderland
52% - Bolton
52% - Tottenham
39% - Wigan
39% - Manchester United
38% - Portsmouth
33% - Fulham
30% - Manchester City
28% - Blackburn
26% - Chelsea
17% - Liverpool
15% - Arsenal

*based on statistics reported by the BBC on 12 August 2009.

Premier League Predictions 2009-10
1. Chelsea
2. Arsenal
3. Liverpool
4. Manchester United
5. Manchester City
6. Everton
7. Aston Villa
8. Spurs
9. Sunderland
10. Fulham
11. West Ham
12. Stoke City
13. Bolton
14. Blackburn
15. Birmingham
16. Wigan
17. Burnley
18. Wolverhampton
19. Portsmouth
20. Hull City