GOAL takes you through the best and worst of British stars playing on foreign soil, including the England captain over in Germany
In 2025, you're sometimes more likely on any given weekend to see British players lighting up football anywhere but in their home country. Plenty of the home nations' brightest stars have taken their talents further afield and are enjoying life abroad.
You can find two of England's most famous footballers as Galacticos at Real Madrid, for example, yet such is the dearth of Britons earning a living away from home that they don't even feature in this week's roundup. Considering Trent Alexander-Arnold has been unceremoniously dropped from the England squad, perhaps that's for the best.
For 2025-26, GOAL will be bringing you the winners and losers from the Brits playing abroad, and this week, we're taking an even more extensive look at a couple of players who have gone beyond the boundaries of Europe…
Getty Images SportWINNER: Harry Kane
Unlike most of Europe, the Bundesliga has only been through two rounds of fixtures heading into the first international break of the season. Nevertheless, Harry Kane is still running up his stats with Bayern Munich to get a head-start on the competition.
The England captain is bidding to become the first player in history to finish as top scorer for each of their first three seasons in the German top-flight. Exiting August, he is level with team-mate Michael Olise and Borussia Dortmund's Serhou Guirassy with three goals apiece having fired a blank in Bayern's 3-2 win at Bavarian neighbours Augsburg, his 100th appearance for the club.
So, how exactly is Kane a winner from the weekend on a personal level? Well, he showed Germany his multifaceted style is still fruitful, providing two assists to help the champions sprint into a three-goal lead. Firstly, he came up with a delectable cross from the half-space to pick out the run of Serge Gnabry, who nodded the ball back down into the bottom corner to put Bayern ahead. After Luis Diaz doubled the lead in first-half stoppage time, Kane then teed up Olise to run at a haphazard Augsburg backline and convert their third of the afternoon.
Kristijan Jakic and Mert Komur then scored for the hosts to set up a nervy finish, but Vincent Kompany's men held on to seal their second win from two Bundesliga games, and Kane now has more goal contributions (five) than anyone else in the league.
Meanwhile, Bayern have been desperately scouring the transfer market to help find Kane some support and back-up, in part in response to his claims that this is the smallest squad he's ever worked with. Director of sport Max Eberl was hoping to close a loan-to-buy deal for Nicolas Jackson, only for Chelsea to recall him back to London at the eleventh hour after Liam Delap suffered a hamstring injury. Atalanta's Ademola Lookman, who can play on the wing or up top, is another target. Whether Kane gets his wish before Monday's deadline remains to be seen.
AdvertisementGetty ImagesLOSER: Marcus Rashford
You'd be hard pressed to find any English football fan (bar perhaps bitter Manchester United supporters) who isn't rooting for Marcus Rashford to make a success of himself during his loan spell at Barcelona. That hasn't gone quite to plan after three La Liga appearances, though.
The reigning Spanish champions have taken a respectable seven points from nine available, with all of them coming on the road given their inability to return to an unfinished Camp Nou just yet. Rashford, in his three appearances totalling about 90 minutes in total, is yet to register a goal or assist.
His latest blank came on Sunday when Barca's winning start came to an end with a 1-1 draw at Rayo Vallecano, during which the visitors had new goalkeeper Joan Garcia to thank for clinging on for only a point. Rashford was introduced shortly before Fran Perez cancelled out Lamine Yamal's opener, but his only real moment of note came when he strangely had a shot from about 40 yards, with Rayo stopper Augusto Batalla not even far off his line enough to jot it down as a potential lob.
In his post-match press conference, Hansi Flick was critical again of his Barcelona players for not playing with the same team ethic that saw them finish first in La Liga last season: "I think a point was good enough. We don't deserve more. Joan Garcia, Eric [Garcia], and [Andreas] Christensen were good. The problem was in midfield and attack. We made so many mistakes. I'm not happy with my team. We did not play well. We didn't play to our usual sharpness, we didn't dominate as we should have, and we made many mistakes. When you play against a team that plays well, you have to play in different ways, and not make many mistakes, we should have played better."
Despite this underwhelming start to life in Spain, Rashford has at least received an England call-up from Thomas Tuchel having missed out on a place in the Three Lions' squad for their troublesome June internationals.
WINNER: Ivan Toney
The struggles of a certain Cristiano Ronaldo over in Saudi Arabia have been well-documented over the last couple of weeks, and for the most part, his loss is Ivan Toney's gain. Having ousted CR7's Al-Nassr on penalties in the final of the Saudi Super Cup last week, the England striker scored four goals for Al-Ahli in their two matches over the last five days.
Toney scored the only goal as Al-Ahli saw off newly-promoted NEOM, who boast the likes of Alexandre Lacazette, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Said Benrahma, with a neat finish under former Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper Marcin Bulka. This was then followed by a hat-trick in their 5-0 victory away at Al Arabi in the last 32 of the King's Cup.
The only sour note for Toney to start 2025-26 is that he has been dropped by Tuchel for England's September internationals. The Three Lions boss claimed he wanted to get a closer look at the striker in place of Tottenham's Dominic Solanke back in June, but Toney was only afforded two minutes of action across games against Andorra and Senegal. Solanke is currently injured, buy Tuchel has decided only to call upon Ollie Watkins as a natural deputy to captain Kane, raising questions over Toney's standing ahead of next year's World Cup.
WINNER: Aaron Ramsey
Let's take another detour away from Europe for a moment and check in on a fantasy move that everyone can enjoy. Aaron Ramsey decided to swap his hometown Cardiff City for UNAM Pumas of Mexico this summer, and on only his second appearance, he's become a local hero.
Amid a downpour that resembled Grimsby Town vs Manchester United last week, Ramsey was introduced in Pumas' home game with Atlas on Sunday in the hope of snatching a winner, with the match locked steadfast at 0-0. As he has done so often in his career, the Welshman popped up with a late goal to snatch the three points.
Rodrigo Lopez's corner appeared to deceive everyone bar Ramsey, who was left unmarked inside the six-yard box and wouldn't have been able to believe his luck when allowed such an open volley at close range. He made no mistake and sprinted away to take in the adulation, removing his shirt and holding his name up to the new fans who will now sing his name.
