Vieira named best foreigner in English soccer

The voters were asked to name their all-time top teams of international imports, with the biggest vote-winners lining up in a final 11, six of them French.

In an interview with Harris, Robson paid tribute to the impact of foreign players on the English game, but warned increases could hurt domestic players.

‘‘They’ve enhanced it and they’ve been brilliant for us (England as a whole),’’ Robson said. ‘‘What we have to be careful of is that we don’t bring in ordinary players — we bring in players we haven’t got the likes of in this country. Bring in ordinary players and it’s obviously denying our players the chance of progressing and we mustn’t do that.’’

The book names England’s first-ever foreign soccer player as Canadian Walter Bowman, who joined Accrington in 1892 after coming to the country as part of a touring team. He went on to play for Ardwick, later Manchester City, before retiring and settling in the United States.

Manchester United lead the number of representations in the elite 11 with four, despite having only signed 30 overseas-born players in their history up to the end of last season.

Chelsea has signed the most number of foreign players with 64, starting with Indian-born Charles Donaghy in 1905.