Arsenal FC: A Look Back at 15 Years of Arsene Wenger's United Nations Club Team

Congratulations Arsene Wenger.

Fifteen years and counting.

Let's put aside the last six years of no trophies, best players leaving, midseason collapses and so forth.

Today, we look at what you have done since you waltzed into Highbury amid the incredulous looks and ever present Arsene Who?

This is not necessarily a look at your achievements, though they are inextricably linked with the topic of discussion, but a look at one of the major changes you made to the organization.

Since your arrival in North London, Arsenal has become basically the United Nations of club football.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, when you consider the amount of team and individual success some of those players brought to the club, but it has been a point of displeasure for, well, most of England during your time at the helm.

Some may even point to that lack of British grit as part of the problem with your squad in recent years. They lack that bit of locality that most other big-name teams generally have, though nowadays a lot of big clubs are filled with a host of non-local talent.

It seems your team is coming full circle where that is concerned, however, with the emergence of players like Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs and Emmanuel Frimpong along with the capture of youngster Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, highlighting a resurgence in British numbers at the Emirates.

But let's not get carried away with that old argument. Let us reminisce on some of the hugely talented and not so hugely talented players that you flown in from all corners of the globe.

Since Wenger's time in charge, Arsenal has seen over 85 players from over 35 countries play some part in the first team. If you want to go even broader than that, Arsenal has had players from five of the seven continents in the world.

Some of these players have dual nationalites, and in those cases, the country they represented at the Senior International level while at Arsenal gets the nod. If they haven't played such a game, the county of birth is winner.

North America

Hats off to those who remembered these two fellows from the United States. Frankie Simek and Daniel Karbassiyoon have the honor of being the two North Americans to play for the Gunners.

Carlos Vela from Mexico helps that CONCACAF rivalry carry on in Europe.

South America

Most Gooners will remember all the Brazilian players who have played or are playing for the Gunners. Sylvinho, Gilberto, Edu, Denilson have all played numerous games for the Gunners. But does anyone remember Julio Baptista's one year stint, and a little know left-back named Juan?

Not to be left out, though considerably smaller in number, Argentina sent over Nelson Vivas for a time.

Europe

Obviously, being a European club means that the majority of players that passed through came from European countries.

France has by far the highest contingent of players with 23. Of course, there is no forgetting the quartet of Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit, Robert Pires, and the boss, Thierry Henry. Others, such as Sebastian Squillaci and Pascal Cygan are quite forgettable.

The Netherlands has seen its share of players in Marc Overmars, Gio Van Bronckhorst and Robin Van Persie, to name a few. Dennis Bergkamp does not make this list because he wasn't a Wenger buy.

Germany had the likes of Jens Lehmann and now Per Mertesacker, and Sweden is represented by Sebastian Larsson and Freddie Ljungberg.

Portugal had the likes of Luis Boa Morte, Italy has Vito Mannone and Arturo Lupoli and Poland brought Lukasz Fabianski and current first team keeper, Wojciech Szczesny.

There were a host of other countries including Lithuania (Tomas Danilevicius), Latvia (Igors Stepanovs), Greece (Stathis Tavlaridis), Belgium (Thomas Vermaelen), Ukraine (Oleg Luzhny), Croatia (Davor Suker, Eduardo) and, of course, Russia (Andrei Arshavin) and the Czech Republic (Tomas Rosicky), to name a few.

Africa

The talent that comes from this part of the world cannot be understated, and Arsenal had a good share of that talent.

Cameroon provided Lauren and still gives us Alex Song, Nwanko Kanu represented Nigeria, and Ivory Coast is well represented with Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Eboue and now Gervinho.

Quincy Owusu-Abeyie could have added Ghana to that list, but he left before his senior debut with the Black Stars. There is still time for Emmanuel Frimpong to go that route though.

Of course, Morocco (Maroune Chamakh) is now in the pool, and smaller countries such as Libya (Jehad Muntasser) and Liberia (Christopher Wreh) also had representation.

Armand Traore provides the classic dual nationality scenario. Having played for France in the youth squads early on he made his international debut for Senegal right before his departure to QPR. Therefore he goes down on this list as a representative for Senegal.

Asia

One may be forgiven to think that two of our most recent additions, Chu Park Young and Ryo Miyaichi, are the first of Arsenal Asian contingent.

However, that continents first representative was Japan's Junichi Inamoto. Chu Young Park is the first South Korean.

If you would like to go through and look at all the first team players that have passed through during Wenger's time or just Arsenal period, then check here. Some of the players may not have biographies like others, but there is always Wikipedia.

Of course, not all of the players or countries are on show above but even then, some fans may look at the lot and wish it were different. But that would be foolish.

If you take a step back and look at the quality of talent in representation, as well as the significant impact of many of these players, then you couldn't wish for any more.

So thank you Arsene for providing us with such a broad spectrum of talent throughout your years, but tomorrow let's start to get back in the W column.