As Australia celebrates Harmony Day on Wednesday March 21, the Hyundai A-League will once again support the cause with this weekend’s ‘Harmony Round’ across the competition.
Harmony Day is a celebration of Australia’s cultural diversity, with the Hyundai A-League to focus on the theme that Everyone Belongs.
All 10 clubs will be embracing diversity among players, spectators, supporters and partners through various celebrations in the week leading up to the round.
In this season alone there are players from 25 different countries competing in the Hyundai A-League, while a total of 64 nations have been represented in the competition since the inaugural 2005/06 Season (see the full list below).
Perhaps unsurprisingly, England (65) and New Zealand (44) follow Australia (546) as the most common birthplaces.
Rounding out the top nine are Brazil (41), Netherlands (27), Spain (26), Argentina (16), Scotland (15) and Croatia (12), with South Korea, France and Serbia all level on 11.
Players from as far and wide as Afghanistan, Burundi, Finland and Suriname have all featured at some point.
With that in mind, here is a reminder of just some of the diverse backgrounds to have graced the domestic competition since its inception.
AFRICA
Seyi Adeleke (Nigeria), Malik Buari (Ghana), Baba Diawara (Senegal), Jonas Salley (Ivory Coast), Eugene Sseppuya (Uganda)
ASIA
Ali Abbas (Iraq), Sayed Mohamed Adnan (Bahrain), Shinji Ono (Japan), Qu Shengqing (China), Song Jin-hyung (South Korea)
CENTRAL & NORTH AMERICA
Michael Enfield (United States), Carlos Hernandez (Costa Rica), Issey Nakajima-Farran (Canada), Yairo Yau (Panama), Dwight Yorke (Trinidad & Tobago)
EUROPE
Besart Berisha (Kosovo), Thomas Broich (Germany), Diego Castro (Spain), Alessandro Del Piero (Italy), Robbie Fowler (England)
OCEANIA
Kosta Barbarouses (New Zealand), Roy Krishna (Fiji), Brad McDonald (Papua New Guinea), Benjamin Totori (Solomon Islands)
SOUTH AMERICA
Pablo Contreras (Chile), Marcos Flores (Argentina), Fred (Brazil), Milton Rodriguez (Colombia), Edmundo Zura (Ecuador)
EVERY NATIONALITY IN HYUNDAI A-LEAGUE HISTORY
Albanian, American, Argentinian, Australian, Austrian, Bahraini, Barbadian, Belgian, Brazilian, Canadian, Chilean, Chinese, Colombia, Costa Rican, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Ecuadorian, English, Eritrean, Fijian, Finnish, French, German, Ghanaian, Greek, Hungarian, Iraqi, Irish, Italian, Ivorian, Japanese, Korean, Liberian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Maltese, Mauritian, Netherlands Antillean, New Zealander, Nigerian, Northern Irish, Panamanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Scottish, Senegalese, Serbian, Singaporean, Slovak, Slovenian, Solomon Islander, Spanish, Swiss, Thai, Togolese, Trinidadian & Tobagonian, Ugandan, Ukrainian, Uruguayan, Venezuelan, Welsh, Zambian.
