Since Walter Bowman made his way from Berlin Rangers, Ontario, to Accrington Stanley in 1891, there have been 1700 foreign footballers to have played professionally in England.
But none has made such an impact as a certain 20-year-old who arrived in London in September 1996.
Patrick Vieira was this week named asthe best foreigner to have played in the Football League or Premiership by a panel of 20 experts, including three former England managers, interviewed for England Their England, a comprehensive book on the impact of overseas players on the domestic game, written by the Independent journalist, Nick Harris.
Vieira, who was virtually unknown when Arsenal signed him from Milan on the orders of their soon-to-be-appointed manager, Arsene Wenger, for £3.5m, won narrowly from Chelsea's Marcel Desailly and his Highbury team-mate, Thierry Henry.
The panel was asked to select an all-time foreign XI and also to choose a captain or "best of the best".
Vieira, Desailly and Henry - all, significantly, French - appeared in 17 of the 20 teams but Vieira won when the captaincy was used as a tie-breaker.
Vieira may have been the best but the most successful came from Zimbabwe not France.
In the shadow of his trials for match-fixing, Bruce Grobbelaar's skills as a goalkeeper have tended to be forgotten, yet he won 13 major honours with Liverpool.
Wenger and his great rival, Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, have each signed three of the 11 men who make up the All Time Foreign XI.
Chelsea, to no surprise, have bought the most overseas players (Irish players were excluded from the reckoning) - 63.
It may be a coincidence but of the 20 teams in the current Premiership, only Leicester have signed fewer foreigners than Manchester United.
All Time Foreign XI: Peter Schmeichel (Denmark), Marcel Desailly (France), Mikael Silvestre (France), Robert Pires (France), Ossie Ardiles (Argentina), Ruud Gullit (Netherlands), Patrick Vieira (France), Arnold Muhren (Netherlands), Gianfranco Zola (Italy), Eric Cantona (France), Thierry Henry (France).
