Stats: Juventus top international players list for 2016

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 14^th 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 13^th, with their players playing 7,011 minutes of international football.

The first non-UEFA club on the list is at 17^th place – Thailand’s Muang Thong United. Laos’s Lao Toyota FC are not far behind at 22^nd 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:

Club	Country	Players	Matches	Minutes
Juventus	Italy	21	157	12,454
Tottenham Hotspur	England	19	155	12,009
Barcelona	Spain	20	134	10,802
Arsenal	England	18	127	10,034
Real Madrid	Spain	19	131	9,989
Manchester United	England	20	139	9,833
Bayern Munich	Germany	15	129	9,750
Chelsea	England	18	117	8,771
Manchester City	England	18	109	7,925
Southampton	England	13	95	7,565
Atletico Madird	Spain	17	104	7,483
Inter Milan	Italy	12	92	7,381
Fenerbahce	Turkey	18	94	7,011
Liverpool	England	22	106	6,966
Bayer Leverkusen	Germany	19	95	6,715
Paris St. Germain	France	16	85	6,693
Muang Thong United	Thailand	10	84	6,611
Everton	England	18	88	6,416
West Bromwich Albion	England	12	81	6,206
Napoli	Italy	17	88	6,158
Roma	Italy	18	86	6,121
Lao Toyota	Laos	12	74	5,809
Sporting Lisbon	Portugal	10	81	5,734
Shakhtar Donetsk	Ukraine	12	74	5,718
Borussia Dortmund	Germany	19	84	5,529

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 62^nd 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.