Nah, really – although it pains us here to admit it, the EPL is officially the home of the heroes of World Cup 2006. Premiership players scored more goals in the tourney than any other national league.

Even though the Poms flopped and barely made it onto the roster of World Cup scorers, their teammates back at their domestic clubs more than made up for the lack of England firepower.

What’s worse is that we helped them do it – the double from Everton’s Tim Cahill and Liverpool’s Harry Kewell’s fine strike joined the likes of Arsenal’s Thierry Henry and Chelsea’s Hernan Crespo in boosting the EPL’s figures.

It gets worse – Chelsea and Arsenal shared the honours of the highest scoring World Cup clubs - thanks to Henry and Crespo and their respective new signings Tomas Rosicky and Andrey Shevchenko - with Spain’s Real Madrid, mainly through nutjob Zinedine Zidane and tubby manboobed Ronaldo.

In a fit of autistic boredom between matches, FourFourTwo Australia broke down all the World Cup scorers into their clubs and domestic leagues to see where all the stars were based.

Twenty-five national league were represented by goalscorers in the competition, but more than half of all the goals scored were by players from the English, Spanish, Italian, German or French leagues which were a long way clear of the rest of the world.

And Scottish, Turkish, Qatari, Russian and Egyptian national leagues were notable in having their domestic club players score in the World Cup despite the national team not qualifying itself.

National leagues goal total
England 29

Spain 25

Germany 20
Italy 20

France 12

Mexico 5

Costa Rica 3
Russia 3
Ukraine 3

Ecuador 2
Iran 2
Poland 2
Portugal 2
Qatar 2
Saudi Arabia 2
Serbia 2
Turkey 2

Argentina 1
Brazil 1
Denmark 1
Egypt 1
Japan 1
Scotland 1
Sweden 1
US 1

Clubs Goal Total
Chelsea 8
Arsenal 8
Real Madrid 8

Atletica Madrid 6
Werder Bremen 6

Inter 5
Liverpool 5

AC Milan 4
Bayern Munich 4
Juventus 4
Valencia 4

Barcelona 3
FC Cologne 3
Manchester United 3

Al Hilal 2
Al Sadd 2
Benfica 2
Dynamo Moscow 2
Everton 2
Fiorentina 2
Guadalajara 2
Herediano 2
Hertha Berlin 2
Lens 2
Lyon 2
Paris St Germain 2
Quito 2
Red Star Belgrade 2
Rennes 2
Saba Battery 2
Seville 2
Udinese 2


Al Ahly 1
Alaves 1
Argentinos Juniors 1
Bayer Leverkusen 1
Bolton 1
Borussia Moenchengladbach 1
Borussia Dortmund 1
CD Numancia 1
Celtic 1
Copenhagen 1
Corinthians 1
Cruz Azul 1
Deportiva Saprissa 1
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 1
Dynamo Kiev 1
En Avant Guingamp 1
Fenerbahce 1
Galatasaray 1
Helsingborgs 1
Lech Posnan 1
Marseille 1
Modena 1
MSV Druisburg 1
Nagoya Grampus Eight 1
New England Revolution 1
Newcastle United 1
Nice 1
Nuremburg 1
Pachuca 1
Palermo 1
Roma 1
Shaktar Donetsk 1
Spartak Moscow 1
Toluca 1
Troyes 1EUROPE

Danish Superliga
Marcus Allback – Sweden (Copenhagen) 1

English Premier League
Thierry Henry – France (Arsenal) 3
Hernan Crespo – Argentina (Chelsea) 3

Tim Cahill – Australia (Everton) 2
Andriy Shevchenko – Ukraine (Chelsea) 2
Steven Gerrard – England (Liverpool) 2
Tomas Rosicky – Czech (Arsenal) 2

Freddie Ljungberg – Sweden (Arsenal) 1
Robin Van Persie – Holland (Arsenal) 1
Philippe Senderos – Switzerland (Arsenal) 1
Xabi Alonso – Spain (Liverpool) 1
Peter Crouch – England (Liverpool) 1
Harry Kewell – Australia (Liverpool) 1
Didier Drogba - Ivory Coast (Chelsea) 1
Arjen Robben – Holland (Chelsea) 1
Joe Cole – England (Chelsea) 1
Ruud Van Nistelrooy – Holland (Manchester United) 1
Cristiano Ronaldo – Portugal (Manchester United) 1
Park Ji Sung – South Korea (Manchester United) 1
Radhi Jaidi – Tunisia (Bolton) 1
Craig Moore – Australia (Newcastle United) 1

French Ligue 1
Aruna Dindane – Ivory Coast (Lens) 2
Alexander Frei – Switzerland (Rennes) 2


Zied Jaziri – Tunisia (Troyes) 1
Bonaventure Kalou – Ivory Coast (Paris St Germain) 1
Pauleta – Portugal (Paris St Germain) 1
Bakary Kone – Ivory Coast (Nice) 1
Fred – Brazil (Lyon) 1
Juninho Pernambucano – Brazil (Lyon) 1
Frank Ribery – France (Marseille) 1

French Ligue 2
Mohamed Kader – Togo (En Avant Guingamp) 1

German Bundesliga
Miroslav Klose – Germany (Werder Bremen) 5

Lukas Podolski – Germany (FC Cologne) 3

Bastien Schweinsteiger – Germany (Bayern Munich) 2

Torsten Frings – Germany (Werder Bremen) 1
Jan Koller – Czech (Borussia Dortmund) 1
Oliver Neuville – Germany (Borussia Moenchengladbach) 1
Philipp Lahm – Germany (Bayern Munich) 1
Ze Roberto – Brazil (Bayern Munich) 1
Tranquillo Barnetta – Switzerland (Bayer Leverkusen) 1
Jaouhar Mnari – Tunisia (Nuremburg) 1
Gilberto – Brazil (Hertha Berlin) 1
Niko Kovac – Croatia (Hertha Berlin) 1

German 2.Bundesliga
Jung Hwan Ahn – Korea (MSV Druisburg) 1

Italian Serie A
Luca Toni – Italy (Fiorentina) 2
Adriano – Brazil (Inter) 2
Marco Materazzi – Italy (Inter) 2
Patrick Vieira – France (Juventus) 2

Alberto Gilardino – Italy (AC Milan) 1
Kaka – Brazil (AC Milan) 1
Andrea Pirlo – Italy (AC Milan) 1
Filippo Inzaghi – Italy (AC Milan) 1
Esteban Cambiasso – Argentina (Inter) 1
Vicenzo Iaquinta – Italy (Udinese) 1
Sulley Muntari – Ghana (Udinese) 1
Francesco Totti – Italy (Roma) 1
Gianluca Zambrotta – Italy (Juventus) 1
Allessandro Del Piero – Italy (Juventus) 1
Fabio Grosso – Italy (Palermo) 1

Italian Serie B
Asamoah Gyan – Ghana (Modena) 1

Polish Elkstraklasa
Bartosz Bosacki – Poland (Lech Posnan) 2

Portuguese SuperLiga
Simao Sabrosa – Portugal (Benfica) 1
Nuno Gomes – Portugal (Benfica) 1

Russian Premier League
Maniche – Portugal (Dynamo Moscow) 2

Maksym Kalinichenko – Ukraine (Spartak Moscow) 1

Scottish Premier League
Shunsuke Nakamura – Japan (Celtic) 1

Serbian Meridian Superliga
Nikola Sigic – Serbia and Montenegro (Red Star Belgrade) 1
Haminu Draman – Ghana (Red Star Belgrade) 1

Spanish Primera Liga
Fernando Torres – Spain (Atlético Madrid) 3
Maximo Rodriguez – Argentina (Atlético Madrid) 3
Ronaldo - Brazil (Real Madrid) 3
Zinedine Zidane – France (Real Madrid) 3
David Villa – Spain (Valencia) 3

John Aloisi – Australia (Alaves) 1
Javier Saviola – Argentina (Seville) 1
Juanito – Spain (Seville) 1
Lionel Messi – Argentina (Barcelona) 1
Deco – Portugal (Barcelona) 1
Rafael Marquez – Mexico (Barcelona) 1
Raul – Spain (Real Madrid) 1
David Beckham – England (Real Madrid) 1
Roberto Ayala – Argentina (Valencia) 1

Spanish Segunda Division
Chun Soo Lee – Korea (CD Numancia) 1

Swedish Allsvenskan
Henrik Larsson – Sweden (Helsingborgs) 1

Turkish Premier Super League
Sasa Ilic – Serbia and Montenegro (Galatasaray) 1
Stephen Appiah – Ghana (Fenerbahce) 1

Ukrainian Premier League
Andriy Rusol – Ukraine (Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk) 1
Serhiy Rebrov – Ukraine (Dynamo Kiev) 1
Darijo Srna – Croatia (Shakhtar Donetsk) 1AMERICAS

Argentine Primera Division
Ivan Kaviedes – Ecuador (Argentinos Juniors) 1

Brazilian Serie A
Carlos Tevez – Argentina (Corinthians) 1

Costa Rican Primera Division
Paulo Wanchope – Costa Rica (Herediano) 2

Ronald Gomez – Costa Rica (Deportiva Saprissa) 1

Federación Ecuatoriana de Fútbol
Agustin Delgado – Ecuador (Quito) 2

Mexican Primera Division
Omar Bravo – Mexico (Guadalajara) 2

Zinha – Mexico (Toluca) 1
Nelson Cuevos – Paraguay (Pachuca) 1
Jose Fonseca – Mexico (Cruz Azul) 1

US Major League Soccer
Clint Dempsey – USA (New England Revolution) 1

MIDDLE EAST

Egyptian Premier League
Flavio – Angola (Al Ahly) 1

Iranian IPL
Yahya Golmohammadi – Iran (Saba Battery) 1
Sohrab Bakhtiarizadeh – Iran (Saba Battery) 1

Qatar Football League
Carlos Tenorio – Ecuador (Al Sadd) 2

Saudi Premier League
Sami Al Jaber – Saudi Arabia (Al Hilal) 1
Yasser Al Kahtani – Saudi Arabia (Al Hilal) 1

ASIA

Japan J-League
Keiji Tamada - Japan (Nagoya Grampus Eight) 1