[Saba Sports News] According to UK football news agency Hayters, 19 Manchester City players will head to North America for the World Cup this summer. The figure puts City not only top among all English sides but also ahead of every football club across the globe. Even though Phil Foden, Sávio Moreira de Oliveira and several other players missed out on national team selection, Manchester City still end up with 19 World Cup-bound internationals.
Arsenal lead the rest of the Premier League with 16 players set to feature at the tournament. Manchester United follow with 13 representatives and Crystal Palace 12. Chelsea, Liverpool and Sunderland are tied next on 11 apiece, with Aston Villa on 10, Tottenham Hotspur on nine and Brighton & Hove Albion on eight. Fulham and Newcastle United share a tally of seven players each heading to the World Cup, while AFC Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest each have six athletes lined up to represent their respective nations.
The three newly promoted Premier League clubs field the fewest World Cup call-ups: Hull City has three internationals, with Coventry City and Ipswich Town registering two apiece.
In my view, this ranking only reflects clubs’ quantity of players selected for the World Cup and does not directly equate to overall squad strength. Several of Manchester City’s 19 selected players are squad backups or fringe internationals. In addition, the World Cup has expanded from 32 to 48 participating nations compared with previous editions, meaning the enlarged pool of national-team spots must be factored into the comparison. Even so, the statistics objectively prove Manchester City stands among the world’s elite talent hubs in terms of youth development, player allure and squad consistency.