5. Owen Hargreaves – Bayern Munich
Owen Hargreaves is something of an anomaly. You could argue he shouldn’t count as an export given he was born and raised in Canada, before moving to Bayern Munich aged 16.
Indeed, he’s the only player to represent England without having previously lived there. But winning 42 Three Lions caps legitimises his inclusion.
Born in Calgary, having also represented Wales at youth level, Hargreaves cleaned up on the silverware front during his seven seasons in Munich – winning four Bundesliga titles and several German Cups.
Yet his most impressive achievement came in Europe.
Then a 20-year-old, yet to be capped by England, he played 120 minutes in central midfield alongside captain Stefan Effenberg as Bayern beat Valencia on penalties at San Siro in 2001.
Several British players previously lost European Cup finals for foreign clubs – Kevin Keegan with Hamburg, Laurie Cunningham at Real Madrid, Steve Archibald with Barcelona and Chris Waddle at Marseille.
But Hargreaves became only the third to win it – and only one other player has done so since. Dortmund’s Paul Lambert in 1997 was the first, we’ll get to the others in a moment.
