SPANISH PLAYERS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

This season, the much-travelled 26-year-old Spanish player Michu has really taken the English Premier League by storm. Playing for the modest Swansea, he has become, with no doubt, one of the greatest stars of the first half of the season. His name stands out between the main scorers in the League and his surprising irruption has even made Manchester United coach, Sir Alex Ferguson, question the capability of his club scouts, since they had never reported him about such a player.

Michu, after scoring a goal for swansea

But he is not the only Spanish player who we can find in English Premier League teams. At least other 19 players from our country have taken over the English League. Some of them are internationals with our national team but some others are football journeymen looking for the opportunities that many Spanish teams denied them. Within this category, we can mention the names of Michu´s teammates at Swansea: They are Chico Flores, Ángel Rangel and ex-Valencia winger Pablo Hernandez. A photo of these four players was famous some weeks ago.

The four Swansea Spanish players celebrating a goal

 Let´s remember the names of these players. After all, they have deserved the recognition of good Spanish fans. To begin with, We will have a look at Cazorla, one of the best players our football has produced in recent times.

Santi Cazorla has been another Spanish signing of this season that has already paid dividends with his club, Arsenal, where he plays along with Mikel Arteta and Ignasi Miquel.

 

Cazorla has had a brilliant debut for arsenal

Even the current European Champions, Chelsea F.C., has a number of players from or country in its ranks. Perhaps the most well-known of them all is Fernando Torres, the man who gave Spain the Euro 2008 with his goal., but he is not the one who is drawing the main attention this season. That honour goes to Juan Mata, who has already had some important performances  for the London team. Along with Mata and Torres we find Oriol Romeu, a young miedfielder coming from La Masía.

Torre and Mata playing for Chelsea

We mustn´t forget the names of some other players who belong to more modest teams. After all, they help to spread the reputation of Spanish football all over the British Islands. We refer to Albert Crusat, Jordi Gómez and Iván Ramis (they all play for Wigan Athletic) or Daniel Sánchez Ayala and Carlos Cuéllar (playing for Norwich City and Sunderland respectively). A strange case would be that of Esteban Granero, who went straight on from winning the Spanish League with Real Madrid last season to being in the wrong position of the English table this year with Queen´s Park Rangers.

Going back in time, we could say that it all began some years ago at Liverpool, when the main team of the city, Liverpool F.C. signed a great number of Spanish players, what even made them be known as "The Spanish Liverpool". At that time, important players such as Xabi Alonso, Arbeloa, Fernando Torres or Pepe Reina defended Liverpool´s shirt with great success, winning the Champions League in 2005.  From them all, only Pepe Reina continues playing for Liverpool F.C but it doesn´t mean that he is the only player from our country to keep on the tradition in that team, as left-back José Enrique is enjoying his best footbal days there.

This is a video where Liverpool fans sing for Fernando Torres before a Champions League match, during his time playing for The Reds. The lyrics were: His armband proved he was a red  // Torres, Torres / / You´ll never walk alone// Torres, Torres//  We bought the lad from sunny Spain // He gets the ball and scores again // Fernando Torres // Liverpool´s number nine.




David Silva has confirmed as one of the great stars in England

Last but not least, we can´t forget those players living and playing in Manchester. We talk about  David Silva (one of the great stars of the whole League) and Javi García, signed this season by Manchester City, and David De Gea, Manchester United´s goalkeeper.


All these players form the present-day Spanish army at the English Premier League. They play every week in the English football fields and contribute to export and make the prestige of our football yet bigger and bigger.