The taste of Africa fills La Liga with colour

The Spanish league is so diverse that six percent of its players are African. These talents were brought up with footballing intelligence and they have a wide range of skills (as much as European players), and they are now enjoying the best football in the world in the Liga BBVA and Liga Adelante.

Cameroon, Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco, Algeria, the Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Gambia, Togo, Gabon, Cape Verde, Angola, and others totalling to 19 of the continent's 54 countries that are represented in La Liga. There is room for everyone in a competition that is full of stars. These starts really shine in their home nations and now they have made an impact on the Spanish league too.

Cameroon, Senegal and Ghana, are the most represented countries

Such is the case of the Cameroon goalkeeper, Carlos Kameni, who is now in goal at Málaga CF following a long spell at RCD Espanyol. Cameroon is the country that has contributed the most players, with eight. Among them it is worth pointing out Jean-Marie Dongou at FC Barcelona B, Stéphane Mbia, at Sevilla FC, Patrick Ekeng, at Córdoba CF and Allan Romeo Nyom, at Granada CF.

The same is true of the Ikechukwu brothers (Villarreal CF) and Kalu Uche (Levante UD), two of the most well-known footballers in Nigeria, where Isaac Success (Granada), Ramón Azeez (UD Almería) and Cedric Omoigui (RCD Mallorca) are also worth mentioning. Alfred N'Diaye (Real Betis), Papa Babacar (Getafe CF) and Abdoulaye Ba are some of Senegal's ambassadors in La Liga.

Other countries represented in the league are Mozambique, the country of Simão Maté (Levante UD), Burkina Faso, where Jonathan Zongo was born (UD Almería), Gabón, the country of origin of Lévy Madinda (RC Celta) and Angola, the birthplace of Manucho (Rayo Vallecano).

Born and nationalised

If we are talking about teams, Granada, FC Barcelona B, Levante, Almería, Rayo and Málaga can claim to be some of the clubs with the most Africans, whether born there or nationalised. Karim Yoda and Mehdi Lacen (both from Getafe CF) are both part of the long list of footballers who were born in France and are dual passport holders.

Like them, there are more than 40 players in the Liga BBVA and 20 in the Liga Adelante who were nationalised or born in Africa and who are proud to show their roots both on and off the pitch.