2018 World Cup: out of the 736 players of the 32 national teams, 74% play for European clubs

74% (or 544) of the 736 players selected for the 2018 World Cup in Russia play for European clubs, according to the ECA who conducted the "ECA Player Release Analysis", a statistical study based on the 32 lists of 23 players communicated to FIFA ahead of the deadline on 04/06/2018 (document available see downloads).

In the ranking of the countries where these players are currently playing, the top six are European (see Top 20 below). They alone account for 57.3% of the participants of the 21^st World Cup:
• England, 130 players, including 23 players from English clubs (34 clubs)
• Spain, 81 players, including 17 players from Spanish clubs (21 clubs)
• Germany, 68 players, including 15 players German clubs (22 clubs)
• Italy, 58 players, including 0 players from Italian clubs (16 clubs)
• France, 49 players, including 9 players from French clubs (19 clubs)
• Russia, 36 players, including 21 players from Russian clubs (10 clubs)

In the club rankings (see below), the top nine are European and English club's dominate this group: Manchester City FC are in first place (16 players…