“I make Rúben Amorim the seventh Portuguese to manage in the Premier League,” writes Daniel Keown. “What’s the record for a country outside the home nations? And have any major football countries not produced a Premier League manager?”
On Sunday afternoon, at Portman Road, Amorim will indeed become the seventh Portuguese manager of a Premier League team. José Mourinho was the first, when he joined Chelsea in 2004, and he was followed (in chronological order) by André Villas-Boas, Marco Silva, Carlos Carvalhal, Nuno Espírito Santo and Bruno Lage.
That puts Portugal joint-fifth on the list of nations outside Britain and Ireland. It’s tight at the top: Enzo Maresca put Italy 15-14 ahead of Spain when he was appointed as Chelsea manager in the summer. Fifteen Spaniards have managed in the Premier League – but Bruno Saltor did so for only one game at Chelsea, in 2023, so he’s bundled into the caretaker category with no right of appeal.
We’ve put the full list of countries with at least five managers below. But before the pedants and trolls get lively, here’s the small print:
We’ve included temporary managers who were either in charge or originally appointed for a minimum of five Premier League games. That means Cristian Stellini makes the cut; Spurs appointed him for the last 10 games of the 2022-23, only to sack him after four. But Ruud van Nistelrooy isn’t included as he was only ever appointed for two league games. The figure in parentheses covers your Van Nistelrooys and your Saltors.
Nationalities are taken from the official Premier League site. Technically there have been no African managers in the Premier League era, but Jean Tigana (France), Patrick Vieira (France) and Nuno (Portugal) were born in Mali, Senegal, and São Tomé and Príncipe, respectively.
Right, here’s the list, with the managers in chronological order for each country.
Italy 15 (0): Attilio Lombardo, Gianluca Vialli, Claudio Ranieri, Gianfranco Zola, Carlo Ancelotti, Roberto Mancini, Roberto Di Matteo, Paolo Di Canio, Francesco Guidolin, Walter Mazzarri, Antonio Conte, Maurizio Sarri, Roberto De Zerbi, Cristian Stellini, Enzo Maresca.
Spain 14 (1): Rafael Benítez, Juande Ramos, Roberto Martínez, Pepe Mel, Quique Sánchez Flores, Aitor Karanka, Pep Guardiola, Javi Gracia, Unai Emery, Mikel Arteta, Xisco Muñoz, Julen Lopetegui, Ruben Selles, Andoni Iraola. Caretaker: Bruno Saltor.
Netherlands 10 (1): Ruud Gullit, Martin Jol, Guus Hiddink, René Meulensteen, Louis van Gaal, Ronald Koeman, Dick Advocaat, Frank de Boer, Erik ten Hag, Arne Slot. Caretaker: Ruud van Nistelrooy.
8 (0) France: Arsène Wenger, Gérard Houllier, Jean Tigana, Jacques Santini, Alain Perrin, Remi Garde, Claude Puel, Patrick Vieira.
7 (0) Portugal: See above.
7 (0) Germany: Felix Magath, Jürgen Klopp, Jan Siewert, Daniel Farke, Thomas Tuchel, Ralf Rangnick, Fabian Hürzeler.
As for the other home nations, Scotland are well out in front with 30 managers, excluding caretakers, although Russell Martin is the only one since 2017. We haven’t listed them all because this thing has a word limit and we’re throwing them away like confetti. And if you think we’re cross-checking every English caretaker manager since 1992, you’ve got another thing coming.
Scotland 30 (9)
Wales 9 (3)
Northern Ireland 7 (1)
Republic of Ireland 6 (2)
As for the biggest country without a Premier League manager, you could change the question to the biggest continent. With the earlier caveat, no one from Africa or Asia has been in charge of a Premier League team.
The biggest countries in Europe and the Americas without a Premier League manager include Colombia, Turkey, Mexico, Peru, Paraguay, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Russia, Slovakia (Jozef Venglos managed Aston Villa in the old Division One), Greece (though Ange Postecoglou was born there), Romania, Israel and the Czech Republic.
An end has an identical start
“Liverpool and Aston Villa are the only Premier League teams whose names begin and end with the same letter (discounting ‘Football Club’ and the like). In Scotland, three of 12 teams fit the criteria: Kilmarnock, Celtic and Dundee United,” notes Matthew Chapman. “Which league has had the most such teams at any time?”
“Iraq seems to be the place to go for this kind of thing,” writes Jack Hayward, who has done the work. “In the 2024-25 Stars League, the country’s top division, eight of the 20 participants match the criteria of this question, but there has been a higher number in the past.“On three occasions, the Iraqi Premier League, as it was known at the time, contained 10 teams – exactly 50% – whose names began and ended with the same letter. The 2017-18 season had these teams:
Al-Zawraa
Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya
Al-Shorta
Al-Kahrabaa
Naft Maysan
Al-Sinaat Al-Kahrabaiya
Al-Samawa
Al-Talaba
Al-Minaa
Al-Diwaniya
“All of them stayed up to be in the 2018-19 campaign as well. They all started the 2019-20 edition too, but I won’t count it as football was suspended early on due to Covid. Al-Samawa and Al-Diwaniya withdrew when the league was restarted, only for it to be abandoned again and the season annulled.
“What I will count is the 2020-21 season, which was played in full with the previously withdrawn teams returning to the league. Al-Samawa were relegated that year along with Al-Sinaat Al-Kahrabaiya, and the number of teams starting and ending with the same letter in Iraq’s top flight hasn’t hit double digits since.”
Most international debut scorers in one game
“Four England players scored their first international goals against Ireland,” notes Billy Dods (and dozens of others). “Has there been a match at international or club level with more debut goals?”
We can recall at least one: Norway 6-0 Jordan in 2023. With the Penalty Box Monster an unused substitute, all six Norwegian goals went to players who had not previously scored for their country: Antonio Nusa, Kristoffer Ajer, Jørgen Strand Larsen, Fredrik André Bjørkan, Bard Finne and Hugo Vetlesen.
The mind boggles at how many Erling Haaland would have scored.
Your unbeatables took one helluva beating (2)
In last week’s Knowledge we looked at unbeaten runs of 15 games or more that ended with a good old-fashioned doing, including Chelsea 5-0 Manchester United’s Treble winners in 1999. Thanks to all of you who sent these additional examples:
69 games (all domestic comps) Hearts 4-0 Celtic, Scottish Premiership, 2017-18
51 games (all comps) Atalanta 3-0 Bayer Leverkusen, Europa League final, 2023-24
45 games (all comps) Bayern Munich 5-0 Dinamo Zagreb, Champions League, 2015-16
44 games (league only) Watford 3-0 Liverpool, Premier League, 2019-20
21 (all comps) Borussia Dortmund 7-1 Celtic, Champions League, 2024-25
Knowledge archive
“I’m sure I remember a Panini (or such-like) sticker, back in the early 70s, with a Division One player crouched down over the ball with a cigarette clearly in his hand. Any Panini obsessives out there, ready to pan through their archives?” asked Graeme Westwood in 2017.
Kudos to John Chubb and David Poza, who both provided pictorial evidence that the player in question was the Crystal Palace centre-back Phil Hoadley. “It was in 1971-72, and the collection was from FKS Wonderful World of Soccer,” wrote David. “Hoadley, who was on Palace’s books from 1967 to 1972, appeared with cigarette in hand in the previous edition too.”
Hoadley, who went on to be a pub landlord, began his career at Palace before spells at Leyton Orient and Norwich City, where he helped launch a good-health plan in 2010. He played in one of Orient’s most famous victories, scoring a long-range screamer in their FA Cup fifth-round win over Chelsea in February 1972. It came second in the BBC’s goal of the month competition … to Ronnie Radford.
Can you help?
“The Scottish Championship fixtures for 16 November were 2nd v 1st; 3rd v 4th; 5th v 6th; 7th v 8th; and 9th v 10th,” mails Phil Bowen. “Are there other examples of this happenstance?”
“Germany beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 7-0 in Freiburg on Saturday. Their last five games in Freiburg have finished 7-0, 7-0, 7-0, 7-0 and 8-2. A cumulative score of 36-2 across five matches on one ground has to be some kind of record, right?” writes Christoph.
“The five League One games played last weekend produced a total of three goals,” begins Jonathan Tasker. “Is the average 0.6 goals per game a record low for an English league matchday of at least that scale?”
“Curtis Jones is the ninth Jones to play for the England men’s team, after Alf, William, Harry, Herbert, Bill, Mick, Rob and Phil. Do any countries have a more capped surname?” asks Jack Hayward.
“Let’s say, hypothetically, that Trent Alexander-Arnold moves to Madrid in the summer and then Real meet Liverpool in the Champions League final,” hypothesises Gavin O’Sullivan. “He would be cup-tied but would be up for a winner’s medal if his old club won the competition. Has this scenario ever happened before?”
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