By Amaechi Agbo

Nigeria has been rated the 10th most exporter of football players in the world and 1st in Africa, according to report, Bestchoicesports.com.ng can report.

According to the 2018 report of CIES Football Observatory, Ghana was named as the number 1 in Africa when it comes to transferring of footballers abroad in the past calendar year.

Ghana exported 39 players abroad, to rank 6th globally in 2018 according to the reports.

However, overall, Nigeria is ranked 10th in the world and first in Africa with 361 Nigeria footballers currently playing abroad.

Brazil is at the top of the rankings for countries exporting footballers.

In total, 1,330 players having grown up in Brazil play in the 147 leagues covered in the report.

Brazilians are present in 85 associations out of 98, according to the report.

Ghana follows Nigeria as the second exporter of players in Africa with a total of 286 Ghana football players playing their football careers across the world.

In the world rankings, France 867, Argentina 820, Serbia 458, England 431, Spain 427, Germany 394, Columbia 382, Croatia 374 and Nigeria
361 are the top 10 exporters of players around the world in that order.

In Africa, Ghana 286, Senegal 203, Ivory Coast 202 and Cameroon with 170 are the top 4 exporter of footballers in the continent.

The report looks at the presence of expatriate footballers in 147 leagues from 98 national associations.

Also, five championships from five different countries were added in comparison to the study carried out in 2018.