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Stats: Juventus top international players list for 2016

Juventus and Italy’s first choice back three and goalkeeper

Juventus are the club whose players have played the most number of senior international minutes in 2016. According to the CIES Football Observatory, 21 players from the Italian champions played for their senior national teams this year, totalling 157 international matches. In those games, Juventus players have played 12,454 minutes.

The Old Lady‘s first XI consists of players, almost all of whom are regular starters for their national side. Gianluigi Buffon and their back three of Leonardo Bonucci, Andrea Barzagli and Giorgio Chiellini were Antonio Conte’s first choice back three during Euro 2016. Other players like Miralem Pjanic, Gonzalo Higuain, Dani Alves and Patrice Evra have also been first-choice for their respective national teams.

Tottenham Hotspur are the first English club on the list – the Lilywhites are in second place just behind the Bianconeri, with the North London outfit’s players having played 12,009 minutes for their respective countries in 2016. For Tottenham, it was more the England players playing a lot of minutes for their country as Roy Hodgson went in to Euro 2016 with Harry Kane, Eric Dier, Kyle Walker, Dele Alli and Danny Rose all in his first-choice XI.

In the top ten, there are six English clubs, with Arsenal, Chelsea, Southampton and the two Manchester clubs giving Spurs company in the top ten. Liverpool find themselves in 14th place on the list, with their players having played 6,966 minutes.

The first club on the list from outside the famed top five European leagues is Fenerbahce, the Turkish club, who are 13th, with their players playing 7,011 minutes of international football.

The first non-UEFA club on the list is at 17th place – Thailand’s Muang Thong United. Laos’s Lao Toyota FC are not far behind at 22nd place. The two clubs have the largest contingent in their respective national teams.

Here are the top 25 clubs, in terms of the number of minutes their players have played senior international football in 2016:

ClubCountryPlayersMatchesMinutes
JuventusItaly2115712,454
Tottenham HotspurEngland1915512,009
BarcelonaSpain2013410,802
ArsenalEngland1812710,034
Real MadridSpain191319,989
Manchester UnitedEngland201399,833
Bayern MunichGermany151299,750
ChelseaEngland181178,771
Manchester CityEngland181097,925
SouthamptonEngland13957,565
Atletico MadirdSpain171047,483
Inter MilanItaly12927,381
FenerbahceTurkey18947,011
LiverpoolEngland221066,966
Bayer LeverkusenGermany19956,715
Paris St. GermainFrance16856,693
Muang Thong UnitedThailand10846,611
EvertonEngland18886,416
West Bromwich AlbionEngland12816,206
NapoliItaly17886,158
RomaItaly18866,121
Lao ToyotaLaos12745,809
Sporting LisbonPortugal10815,734
Shakhtar DonetskUkraine12745,718
Borussia DortmundGermany19845,529

In the top 25, Liverpool have the most players who have played international football, but it is evident that they didn’t play enough minutes – as a lot of their players like Divock Origi, Simon Mignolet, Nathaniel Clyne and Roberto Firmino are fixtures in their national squads but do not get as much playing time.

Another interesting point to note is that there is no club from the Americas in the top 50. The first club from either of the Americas are the Vancouver Whitecaps – who are at 62nd place. There is also only one club from South America in the top 100 – Bolivar FC from Bolivia. That goes to show how much of the highest quality South America has given to the European Leagues.

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