The 10 greatest British exports in football history: Kane, Keegan, Charles, Bale… | OneFootball

Anthony Gordon has become the latest British player to test himself overseas – a move that’s becoming increasingly commonplace after years of the top talents staying closer to home.

The England international will do well if he’s to emulate some of the all-time greatest British exports, who have shone for European giants including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Marseille and Juventus.

Here’s our ranking of the 10 greatest Brits abroad in football history.

10. Glenn Hoddle

We were tempted to stick Scott McTominay straight into the top 10, given he was named Serie A’s Player of the Season in a year in which Napoli won the Scudetto.

The Scotland international might one day make it, but we just couldn’t not include Hoddle – who inspired Monaco to the Ligue 1 title in his debut season, having joined the club with future Ballon d’Or winner George Weah and fellow Englishman Mark Hateley.

A young Arsene Wenger convinced him to join the club over PSG, and the rest is history.

“He had this youthful sort of excitement about him at Monaco, and it didn’t take me long to realise this is where I wanted to be,” Hoddle later reminisced in an interview with Sky Sports.

“I was going to Paris Saint-Germain, but Arsene really was the one that turned my head.

“I’ve got to say what Monaco did [compared] to Tottenham in those days in 1987 was so much more advanced.”

9. Jude Bellingham

No recency bias here.

It’s been back-to-back trophyless campaigns for Bellingham. That’s unthinkable for a club of Real Madrid’s size and stature.

We’re yet to see the England star really clicking with Kylian Mbappe, and it’ll be interesting to see whether Jose Mourinho can get them working in tandem.

Still only 22, let’s not forget, the midfielder is worthy of a place in this list on the basis of his debut season alone.

Few English players – anywhere, ever – have had as good a year as Bellingham’s 2023-24 campaign, in which he rocked up at the Bernabeu as if he were right at home, with a starring role in a Champions League and La Liga double.

A special mention for his time at Dortmund. It wasn’t especially laden with trophies – Dortmund bottled the Bundesliga while he was injured in his final season – but he did win the DFB Pokal alongside Jadon Sancho and Erling Haaland, and his time in Germany was the making of him as a €100million superstar.

8. Gary Lineker

Lineker didn’t win the European Cup or La Liga title during his time at Barcelona. And Johan Cruyff didn’t much fancy him.

But he ruled El Clasico, scoring an unforgettable hat-trick, and lifted both the Cup Winners’ Cup and Copa del Rey.

“It was an unbelievable game: after I’d scored twice in the first five minutes, for the first time in my career the hairs on the back of my neck stood up,” Lineker reminisced.

“There were 120,000 fans at the Nou Camp – they still had standing – and the noise was incredible.”

That’s enough for us.

7. Paul Lambert

Pocketing Zidane in a Champions League final? We couldn’t have Lambert, the only Scot in this list, any lower than seventh.

It was only one season, but what a season.

“Dortmund as a city is quite similar to Glasgow. It is hard-working, it is industrial. I think the Dortmund fans knew what they were getting,” the former Aston Villa and Norwich manager recalled of his year in Germany.

“They took to me really quickly. I guess it is the way I played. I knew exactly what I had to do. My job was to look at the No 10.

“That was my role, really, with Zidane.”

6. Steve McManaman

Two La Liga titles and two Champions Leagues? That’ll do. Scoring in their 2000 final victory over Valencia just seals McManaman’s place in the upper echelons.

“It is the ultimate moment for a professional footballer playing in Europe, and to do it for Real Madrid was incredible because the competition means so much to that club,” Macca told us back in 2018.

“So while that goal was not the best of my career, it was the most memorable.

“I loved my time in Spain. Liverpool was home for me, but the chance to experience life in Spain and play a different type of football was a wonderful adventure.

“To have a bit of success in a wonderful Real Madrid team was the cherry on the cake for me and to have won the Champions League twice is an achievement I’m very proud of.”

5. Chris Waddle

Arguably the most glamorous signing that Marseille ever made, Waddle was undoubtedly one of the finest players in Europe during Bernard Tapie’s controversial reign as president.

A £4.5million transfer from Tottenham in 1989 made him the third most expensive footballer in history at the time. But the fee would soon be forgotten about.

He won three successive Ligue 1 titles and was particularly exceptional in Les Olympiens’ run to the 1991 European Cup final, agonisingly lost on penalties to Red Star Belgrade.

The Geordie will never have to buy a Pastaga in Marseille as long as he lives, such is his legendary status in the city.

He was voted second-best Marseille player of the century behind that side’s iconic captain, Jean Pierre Papin, for the club’s centennial anniversary in 1998.

4. Harry Kane

“Harry Kane is the best transfer we’ve ever made,” says Bayern legend Uli Hoeness.

It was a tricky decision where to stick Kane given we’re very much in the midst of him writing his own story with Bayern. Who knows? By the time he departs Bavaria, it’s not unthinkable that he’ll be worth bumping up to the top of this list.

As of the summer of 2026, after three seasons, the England captain has won two Bundesliga titles and one DFB Pokal.

That’s probably about par given Bayern’s domestic dominance, having won 11(!) successive league titles before Kane’s €100million transfer.

Look beyond the collective achievements, though, and as an individual, he’s simply been outrageous. Three successive Bundesliga Golden Boots. Two European Golden Shoes.

Beyond the record-breaking numbers and ridiculous goalscoring exploits, he’s elevated Bayern to another level – with Kane pulling it all together, they look like a side more than capable of winning the Champions League. Maybe next year.

There’s a very strong argument that Kane has been the best player in Europe this season. How many other players on this could boast that claim? Well…

3. Kevin Keegan

The only Ballon d’Or winner in this list. For now, at least.

After his sensationally decorated pomp with Liverpool, Keegan moved to Hamburg in a deal that was both a British and German transfer record.

He played a talismanic role in their run to the 1979 European Cup final and Bundesliga title victory the following year.

Keegan was considered the best footballer in world football at the time, recognised as such by claiming France Football’s prestigious Golden Ball award for two seasons running.

2. John Charles

Il Gigante Buono (The Gentle Giant) played for Juventus between 1957 and 1962.

He remains widely regarded as the best import in the Old Lady’s history, having moved from Leeds United for a fee of £65,000 that doubled the previous British transfer record.

During five years in Turin, he scored 108 times in 155 appearances, won three Scudetti, two Coppa Italia, one Capponcannoniere for Serie A’s top scorer and placed third in the 1959 Ballon d’Or. No other Welshman, not even the next fella, has even made the podium.

Most of all, he simply got what it meant to represent one of European football’s grandest clubs.

“Juventus means victory,” Charles explained of his time in Turin.

“This is the simplest way to explain Juve, I said it many times in England when they asked me to talk about my Italian period and I didn’t really want to talk. It’s simple, I said, at Juventus you win.”

1. Gareth Bale

Hoddle, Waddle, Kane… Tottenham have something of a track record when it comes to exporting British talent to the continent.

Four of these top 10 are Spurs sales, although they also got Lineker in the other direction.

None, however, came close to matching the success enjoyed by Gareth Bale. Three La Liga titles. Five Champions Leagues. One Copa del Rey, defined by his stunning solo goal against Barcelona in the final. Countless more silverware.

Bale was never Real Madrid’s leading superstar — Cristiano Ronaldo ensured that spotlight remained his — but the Welshman supplied the moments of magic and a knack for showing up on the big occasion that helped turn Florentino Perez’s second Galacticos era into the most decorated chapter in the club’s history.

For a club of Real Madrid’s stature, that’s quite something.