The four players who played in all of Europe’s big five leagues
The Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1. Thousands of players have played in two. Only four in our records have played in all five, and three of them scored in every one.
Europe’s “big five” leagues are England’s Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A, Germany’s Bundesliga and France’s Ligue 1. Moving between two of them is routine for a top player. Playing in three is unusual. Playing in all five means moving country at least four times and earning a place in a top-flight squad in each country.
We checked the league records behind our games, which cover every player in each league’s history as far back as our data goes. 104 players have played in four of the five. Just four have played in all five.
| Player | Premier League | La Liga | Serie A | Bundesliga | Ligue 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stevan Jovetić | 30 / 8 | 21 / 6 | 147 / 41 | 35 / 10 | 61 / 18 |
| Florin Răducioiu | 11 / 2 | 56 / 19 | 96 / 22 | 19 / 4 | 12 / 2 |
| Justin Kluivert | 91 / 22 | 26 / 6 | 53 / 5 | 19 / 3 | 27 / 4 |
| Christian Poulsen | 12 / 0 | 62 / 4 | 48 / 1 | 111 / 3 | 24 / 0 |
Florin Răducioiu: the wanderer
The Romanian striker Florin Răducioiu played in Italy for Bari, Verona, Brescia and Milan, then moved to Espanyol in Spain. He joined West Ham in 1996 for a short spell, then went to VfB Stuttgart in Germany and Monaco in France. He scored in every league he played in, including two Premier League goals in eleven games.
His move pattern shows how this record is usually set. None of his spells outside Italy lasted long. Răducioiu did not stay anywhere, which is why he ended up everywhere.
Stevan Jovetić: the most complete set
Stevan Jovetić has the most balanced record of the four. The Montenegrin forward made his name at Fiorentina, then played for Manchester City, Inter, Sevilla, Monaco and Hertha Berlin. He scored at least six league goals in every country, and his 18 for Monaco and 10 for Hertha both came after his best years at Fiorentina.
Justin Kluivert: the youngest
Justin Kluivert completed the set much younger than the others. He left Ajax for Roma, and then spent loan spells at RB Leipzig, Nice and Valencia before joining Bournemouth. His 22 Premier League goals for Bournemouth make England by far his most productive league. His father, Patrick Kluivert, came close to the same record. He played in four of the five leagues, for Milan, Barcelona, Newcastle and Lille, but never in the Bundesliga.
Christian Poulsen: five leagues, eight goals
Christian Poulsen is the only one of the four who did not score in every league. The Danish midfielder played for Schalke, Sevilla, Juventus, Liverpool and Evian, and was a holding midfielder throughout. He made 111 Bundesliga appearances, more than in the other four leagues put together, and failed to score in England or France.
Why it is so rare
Most players who move often do it within a country, or between their home league and one other. Language, playing style and the risk of a bad first season all count against a player who keeps changing country. The four players above did it in very different ways: one through a run of short loans, one through a long career, one through a series of transfers that never quite stuck, and one as a dependable midfielder who kept being bought by big clubs.
Players like these are hard to name in Career Path, where clubs appear one at a time, because each new club points in a different direction. They are also the reason club-and-country squares in Football Tic-Tac-Toe sometimes have surprising answers.
So close: the four-league players
Plenty of famous names stopped one league short. Of the 104 players in our records who have played in exactly four of the five leagues, the Bundesliga is by far the most common gap: 43 of them never played in Germany. France is next, missing from 22 careers, then Spain (21), Italy (10) and England (8).
- Zlatan Ibrahimović played in Italy, Spain, France and England, for Juventus, Inter, Milan, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United, but never in Germany.
- David Beckham is the same: Manchester United, Real Madrid, Milan and Paris Saint-Germain.
- Thierry Henry and Nicolas Anelka both played in France, Italy, England and Spain.
- Ángel Di María and Edinson Cavani both missed the Bundesliga, and Jérôme Boateng missed La Liga.
- Kevin-Prince Boateng played in England, Germany, Italy and Spain, but never in France.
The Bundesliga gap is the interesting one. The players most likely to complete the set are big-name forwards who keep moving late in their careers, and in our records they have gone far more often to England, Spain, Italy or Paris than to Germany.
Sources and method
Appearances and goals are league matches only, from Transfermarkt’s season-by-season player records, as used by the games on this site. Figures were checked on 2 November 2026 against data collected on 24 October 2026, early in the 2026/27 season, so totals for players still active will have moved on since.
Coverage starts in 1929 for La Liga and Serie A, 1932 for Ligue 1, 1963 for the Bundesliga and 1992 for the Premier League. Earlier English top-flight football, before the Premier League, is not included, so a player who appeared in the old First Division but never in the Premier League does not count as having played in England here.