It was announced this month that French World Cup winner Patrick Viera had been released by Manchester City after 18 months at the age of 35. With Robert Pires also being released by Aston Villa and Spain's World Cup winner Cesc Fabregas almost certainly set to leave Arsenal for Barcelona this summer it led me to do some research on World Cup winning players who have played in the English Premier League.
Jurgen Klinnsmann (Tottenham 1994-95, Tottenham 1997-98)
Karl-Heinz Riedle (Liverpool 1997-99, Fulham 1999-2001)
1994 - Winners Brazil
Branco (Middlesbrough 1996)
1998 - Winners France
Patrick Viera (Arsenal 1996-2005, Manchester City 2010-11)
Bernard Lama (West Ham 1997-98)
Laurent Blanc (Manchester United 2001-03)
Stephane Guivarch (Newcastle 1998)
Youri Djorkaeff (Bolton Wanderers 2002-04, Blackburn Rovers 2004)
Didier Deschamps (Chelsea 1999-2000)
Marcel Desailly (Chelsea 1998-2004)
Robert Pires (Arsenal 2000-06, Aston Villa 2010-11)
Thierry Henry (Arsenal 1999-2007)
Fabian Barthez (Manchester United 2000-04)
Emmanuel Petit (Arsenal 1997-2000, Chelsea 2001-04)
Bernard Diomede (Liverpool 2000-2003)
Frank Leboeuf (Chelsea 1996-2001)
Christian Karembeu (Middlesbrough 2000-2001)
Christophe Dugarry (Birmingham City 2003-04)
2002 - Winners Brazil
Gilberto Silva (Arsenal 2002-08)
Juliano Beletti (Chelsea 2007-10)
Kleberson (Manchester United 2003-05)
Juninho (Middlesbrough 1995-97, 1999-2000, 2002-04)
Roque Junior (Leeds United 2003-04)
2006 - Winners Italy
Marco Materazzi (Everton 1998-99)
2010 - Winners Spain
Gerard Pique (Manchester United 2004-08)
Fernando Torres (Liverpool 2007-11, Chelsea 2011 - )
Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal 2003 - )
Xabi Alonso (Liverpool 2004-09)
Alvaro Arbeloa (Liverpool 2007-09)
Pepe Reina (Liverpool 2005 - )
As you would expect there are only a handful of World Cup winning players who played for English Premier League clubs during the early to mid-nineties as the league itself was in its infancy. The "Foreign Invasion" on the Premier League pretty much started in 1995 and 1996 with a huge amount of continental players joining Premier League clubs which helped increase its worldwide profile. By the time France won The World Cup in 1998 the Premier League was in full flow and regarded as the best league in the world - this is reflected by the amount of players from the successful French national squad who were either playing in the league at the time or joined Premier League clubs soon after.
The 2002 winners Brazil and the 2006 winners Italy only had 6 players between them that had experienced Premier League football but this is due to the fact that both country's domestic leagues are very strong and players from both countries rarely move abroad. This is also reflected by the number of Spanish players who were in the successful World Cup winning squad who had either played or were still playing in the English Premier League. Spain's domestic league "La Liga", is arguably as strong as the English Premier League and the majority of their World Cup winning team played in their home country - only 3 of the entire Spanish squad played outside of Spain (Torres, Fabregas and Reina).
For information and statistics on legends of the Premier League take a look at Premier League Heroes
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