remarks: Europe is not the same as Europe  Cameroon seem the most wanted as even all goalkeepers are under contract with European clubs. But European clubs can mean a wide range. Between players from Arsenal London or Real Madrid and Burkinabé youngsters from French 3rd division Valence should be ahuge gap. But past African competitions have shown, those gaps can vanish suddenly, f.e. when Burkina Faso made the fourth place in 1998 or Congo scared three giants in 2000. Anyway: with Cameroon and Nigeria, two teams dominated by 'Europeans' topped the last Nations Cup, and Senegal has been one of the strongest outfits in the recent past. Surprising is Mali as #4 in the number of European players. If one considers also the age structure it seems European clubs have started to focus on securing the West African talents early. Because compared to 2000 (click to open the graphic in a popup window) there is a significant tendency in Burkina Faso's squad as well.  Tunisians loved to play at home  Another tendency visible is a change in the Tunisian squad where the number of foreign based players has remarkably increased. Instead Zambia has the most homebased players now - certainly not because of the high standards of Zambian club football. Ghana is another example where a mix of reasons has brought a much higher number of local players into the squad than last time. Surprise?  Possibly that most other selections have a rather balanced number of foreign-based professionals and local based players. In some cases this has had a good effect, but in some cases has led to problems between the groups.