5 current Premier League players who represent smaller countries

#2 Cuco Martina (Everton & Curaçao)

Cuco Martina in action for Everton in a recent Europa League match

Cuco Martina, who signed for Everton last summer after a couple of years at Southampton, was born in the Netherlands, but he represents Curacao.

Curacao is a small Caribbean island with a population of around 160, 000. It was part of the Netherlands Antilles before the country was dissolved into five separate nations in 2010.

The best-known player born in Curaçao is Vurnon Anita, who played in the Premier League for Newcastle a few seasons ago. The Dutch international helped the Magpies back into the league last season but signed for Leeds in the summer.

Martina has played in the Premier League since 2015. He represented three different teams in the Netherlands before making the big jump.

As captain, Martina led Curaçao their first ever Caribbean Cup win this year. The small nation also took part in their 5th ever Gold Cup tournament this year, their first since 1973.

Former Dutch international star Patrick Kluivert, whose mother is from Curaçao, is the man behind the recent rise.

Kluivert has had a short stint as Curaçao manager in 2015-2016 and he helped attract a lot of players with Curaçaon roots, like Martina, to represent the nation. 18 of the 23 players in the Gold Cup squad had spent the previous season in Europe.

Curaçao was 183rd in the FIFA rankings as recently as 2014, but they achieved their best ever 68th position in July. It's been a massive rise and maybe in a few years time, we won't see Curaçao as an obscure footballing nation anymore.