Day Zero: 10/6/2010

There are 32 teams in the World Cup, including the unlikely appearance of North Korea. Their last (and only other) World Cup was in 1966, when they surprised everyone by getting through to the last sixteen. They're in with Brazil, Portugal and Ivory Coast this year, though, so it might not happen again. Plus, one of their goalkeepers is usually a striker. Unfortunately for Kim Jong-Il, he misunderstood the rules. Tough.

Before the games begin, I took a look at all the players in the teams. I worked out which countries each played for, and worked out which were the most popular. In the style of 11 points, here are the top 11 countries for players to play in during the year.

1. North Korea, unsurprisingly. 20 players usually play in North Korea, and they are all on the North Korean squad. What is surprising is that three North Korean players don't play here! One is in Russia, and two are in Japan.
   
2. Mexico is equal eighth with two other teams, with 21 players who usually play here. This is because most of the Mexican team play in their own country, and the rest is due to South Americans for the most part. However, a few USA players also spend most of the year in Mexico.
   
3. Greece shares eighth place, and like Mexico, most of the Greek team play in their own country. However, a few teams around the world have the odd player in the Greek league. These are almost all European, but one of the Algerian players also makes his money there.
   
4. Portugal is the final team to be equal eighth. It's surprising that they are not higher. Ten of these are Portugese, but the rest come from various South American countries. No Spanish players work here, but by contrast, six Portugese players work in Spain.
   
5. Japan come seventh, with twenty-five players, thanks to nineteen of their squad's players staying in their own country to take part in Japanese football. If you want to know more about Japanese football, check out the anime series Giant Killing on Crunchyroll! The other six players who work in Japan are from the Korean nations and Australia.
   
6. The Netherlands are a surprise sixth! 34 players usually work here when not playing for their country. Of these, only nine are actually Dutch, with most of the others coming in small groups from countries all around the world! The largest group is five Danish men who take part in the Dutch league.
   
7. France come bottom of an unsurprising top five, with 45 players. Only eleven Frenchmen on the World Cup team this year play in France, but it's popular around the world, especially in the French-speaking country of Algeria. Seven Algerians play in the Ligue Francais.
   
8. Spain is next up. 59 world cup players ply their trade here, and twenty of them are Spanish. The other three members of Spain's team all play in England. La Liga is famous worldwide, of course, with incredible teams like Barcelona and Real Madrid, so it's no wonder so many footballers choose to play here.
   
9. Italy comes an honourable third place, with 79 players here. Again, Italy has some brilliant teams, such as AC Milan. All of Italy's squad members play in their own country – Italy is one of only three nations where this occurs – the other two are the final pair on our list.
   
10. Germany slips in next with 84 players, thus only just beating out Italy. Again, all the German squad play in their own country.
    
11. England, finally and triumphantly, come in top. 114 footballers from around the world play here, demonstrating its popularity around the world! With so many good teams able to compete for the top spot in the Premiership, and often a few surprises as well, everyone wants to play here. Apart from Germany and Italy, only Japan, North Korea and Uruguay have no team members playing in England.
    

Tomorrow – statistics from the first day of play. Goals per game, cards per game and anything else I can make up!