Here is a question that you will not find in Never Mind The Penalties — The Ultimate World Cup Quiz Book: How many squads at the 2010 World Cup did not feature English-based players?

The total at this year’s tournament will almost certainly be lower, with only Colombia and Russia lacking options from the English leagues as football fans soak up a highly entertaining first week of Brasil 2014.

Subject to availability — a phrase that embraces such eventualities as injury at the end of a tough domestic season or maybe lengthy suspension after appalling behaviour — Germany will surely select Mesut Özil and Uruguay will pin their hopes on Luis Suárez, both having shone in South Africa and then in the Premier League.

And if the tournament fails to excite punters and pundits in quite the same way as before, it is almost certainly down to us having no longer to wait four years to see the world’s best players. Many of them are in action in our own competitions every week, with the rest beamed to our screens via wall-to-wall coverage of the Champions League, La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga.

The movement that developed into an overseas invasion of players into the English game began as a trickle. Tottenham Hotspur were at the forefront in 1978 when they signed Argentina’s World Cup winners Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricky Villa. Later that year, Manchester City recruited the stylish Kazimierz Deyna, who had captained the Poland side that denied England in the 1974 World Cup qualifying campaign.

Since then countless performers from world football’s biggest stage have paraded their skills …

Five stars of the World Cup

and the Premier League

Dennis Bergkamp

A mean streak that surfaced occasionally could not detract from the quality of a player who scored stylish and stunning goals for Arsenal and Holland, notably against Argentina in the quarter-finals of the 1998 World Cup.

Jürgen Klinsmann

Infuriated fans with his theatrics for the German national side but then brought smiles to their faces with the diving goal celebration that appeared regularly during two successful spells with Spurs.

Luis Suárez

A bad boy at the 2010 World Cup with Uruguay and on many occasions since with Liverpool, but arguably the most lethal striker in the Premier League and a big threat to England’s hopes of progress this summer.

Dan Petrescu

Sheffield Wednesday brought Romania’s attacking full back to England after he impressed at the 1994 World Cup and he soon made an impact in the Premier League. Chelsea signed him the next year and he became a key player at Stamford Bridge.

Jay-Jay Okocha

England in 2002 were Jay-Jay Okocha’s last opponents in his third World Cup finals. Four seasons at Bolton Wanderers followed and he signed off at Hull City. Had the magical midfielder managed more than 18 appearances, Hull surely would have won a Premier League place without having to battle through the play-offs.

Premier League wish list

Gheorghe Hagi

A mercurial midfielder who starred for Romania at three consecutive World Cups. Nicknamed “the Maradona of the Carpathians”, Hagi played for Real Madrid and Barcelona before leading the transformation of Galatasaray into European contenders. He would have improved any English club of his time.

Hristo Stoichkov

Experienced mixed fortunes as Bulgaria exited the 1998 finals without a point four years after shocking holders Germany on their way to the semi-finals. Stoichkov scored the first goal against the Germans and finished as the 1994 tournament’s joint top scorer.

Paolo Rossi

Italians have made their mark in the English game, but we have never quite attracted the very best. Paolo Maldini would have been a catch and Salvatore “Totò” Schillaci’s goal celebrations would have been a sight to behold. But the addition of Rossi, hero of the 1982 finals, would have been a game-changer.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Supremely talented, a prolific goalscorer and with an ego the size of his native Sweden, Ibrahimovic would be perfect for the Premier League. Instead he has delivered outstanding and outrageous performances for the likes of Ajax, Juventus, Barcelona and both Milan clubs, but at the age of 32 there is still time for a London swan song.

Zinédine Zidane

The World Cup has not provided the best stage for “Zizou” as France lurched from the ecstasy of 1998 to the collective embarrassment of 2002 and his personal shame in 2006.

Retirement spared him a hat-trick of humiliations in 2010, but as a player he had it all and would have pulled the crowds in the Premier League.

Ones to watch in 2014

Rather than an individual player I will be keeping an eye on the team who could just make a mockery of the old joke about ten famous Belgians. Fourth place in 1986 is their best finish so far and they did not even qualify for the previous two tournaments, but Mignolet in goal, Kompany at the back and Hazard up front are only three reasons why Belgium are a team to avoid in Brazil.

Oh, and the answer to that question, by the way, is five: Germany, Italy, Japan, North Korea and Uruguay.

n Phil Ascough, the author of Never Mind The Penalties — The Ultimate World Cup Quiz Book (foreword by Kevin Kilbane) and Never Mind The Tigers, both published by The History Press, was a senior reporter and sub-editor at The Royal Gazette from 1989 to 1992