The Premier League, or EPL as many Aussies may know it, is no stranger to players from Down Under.
In this past decade, the likes of Maty Ryan and Aaron Mooy were playing regularly in the English top-flight.
Prior to that, Mark Schwarzer was an ever-present fixture in goal for Fulham, while Tim Cahill was wreaking havoc at the other end for Everton.
For the past year, Australians have been harder to come by in the Premier League with older Socceroos plying their trade elsewhere and the younger generation still trying to breakthrough.
Are there any Australians in the Premier League this season?
For the 2022-23 season, Fulham’s Tyrese Francois started off as the only Australian currently part of a Premier League club’s senior team, but was joined by Harry Souttar after the Socceroo arrived at Leicester City in a record deal for an Aussie.
Souttar made his debut for the Foxes in a 4-2 road-trip win against Aston Villa and performed well despite scoring an unfortunate own goal.
Francois made his Premier League debut in May 2021 for Fulham against Newcastle United in a 2-0 defeat.
The 22-year-old made four senior appearances for Marco Silva’s side last season as they won the Championship title and sealed promotion.
While he may struggle to force himself into first-team contention regularly this season, Fulham clearly rate him and recently handed him a two-year contract extension.
22/23 pic.twitter.com/RCmPeczIpO
— Tyrese Francois (@tyrese_francois) August 4, 2022
Fellow Aussie Caleb Watts is contracted to Southampton but has been loaned out for the entire season to League One side Morecambe.
Australian youngster Cameron Peupion is also part of Brighton’s youth team and the 19-year-old attacker could force himself into Premier League contention with some consistently good performances.
Australians that have won the Premier League
Only two Australians have ever won a Premier League title.
Robbie Slater was the first when he was part of the Blackburn Rovers side that finished first in 1994-95.
The Aussie midfielder featured 18 times for Blackburn that season as they edged Manchester United by a single point.
Mark Bosnich was the next and to date last Australian to be crowned a Premier League champion.
The goalkeeper managed the feat with Manchester United in 1999-2000 and was Alex Ferguson’s first-choice shot-stopper as the Red Devils comfortably claimed the league title.
Ferguson subsequently questioned Bosnich’s antics during his time at Old Trafford but no-one can take away the Australian’s winner’s medla.
“Mark Bosnich was a terrible professional,” Ferguson wrote in his 2013 autobiography.
“We played down at Wimbledon and Bosnich was tucking into everything: sandwiches, soups, steaks. He was going through the menu.
“I told him, ‘For Christ’s sake, Mark, we’ve got the weight off you. Why are you tucking into all that stuff?’
“We arrived back in Manchester, and Mark was on mobile phone to a Chinese restaurant to order a takeaway…I just couldn’t make an impact on him.”
Australians that have played in the Premier League
While there’s been a shortage of Australian players recently, the Premier League has had a number of Aussies feature in years gone by.
To date, 53 players with Australian citizenship have graced the competition with a full host of clubs represented.
- Danny Allsopp – Manchester City
- John Aloisi – Coventry City
- Con Blatsis – Derby County
- Mark Bosnich – Aston Villa, Manchester United, Chelsea
- Vlado Bozinovski – Ipswich Town
- Jacob Burns – Leeds United
- Tim Cahill – Everton
- David Carney – Blackpool
- Chris Coyne – West Ham United
- Jason Davidson – West Bromwich Albion
- Ahmad Elrich – Fulham
- Brett Emerton – Blackburn Rovers
- Adam Federici – Reading, Bournemouth
- John Filan – Coventry City, Blackburn Rovers, Wigan Athletic
- Hayden Foxe – West Ham United, Portsmouth
- Tyrese Francois – Fulham
- Richard Garcia – West Ham United, Hull City
- Vince Grella – Blackburn Rovers
- Chris Herd – Aston Villa
- Brett Holman – Aston Villa
- Mile Jedinak – Crystal Palace
- Richard Johnson – Watford
- Brad Jones – Middlesbrough, Liverpool
- Jason Kearton – Everton
- Harry Kewell – Leeds United, Liverpool
- Neil Kilkenny – Birmingham City
- Stan Lazaridis – West Ham United, Birmingham City
- Jordan Lyden – Aston Villa
- Steve Mautone – West Ham United
- Scott McDonald – Southampton
- Jamie McMaster – Leeds United
- Craig Moore – Newcastle United
- Aaron Mooy – Huddersfield Town, Brighton & Hove Albion
- Kevin Muscat – Crystal Palace
- Lucas Neill – Blackburn Rovers, West Ham United, Everton
- Paul Okon – Middlesbrough, Leeds United
- Aiden O’Neill – Burnley
- Andy Petterson – Ipswich Town, Charlton Athletic
- Tony Popovic – Crystal Palace
- Adem Poric – Sheffield Wednesday
- Mathew Ryan – Brighton & Hove Albion, Arsenal
- Mark Schwarzer – Middlesbrough, Fulham, Chelsea, Leicester City
- Josip Skoko – Wigan Athletic
- Robbie Slater – Blackburn Rovers, West Ham United, Southampton
- Brad Smith – Liverpool, Bournemouth
- Harry Souttar – Leicester City
- Mile Sterjovski – Derby County
- Danny Tiatto – Manchester City
- Carl Veart – Crystal Palace
- Tony Vidmar – Middlesbrough
- Mark Viduka – Leeds United, Middlesbrough, Newcastle United
- Caleb Watts – Southampton
- Luke Wilkshire – Middlesbrough
- Ned Zelic – Queens Park Rangers
Australia’s referee in the Premier League
With few Australian players to keep an eye on this season, there is an Aussie referee that will be featuring regularly.
Jarred Gillett, who previously officiated in the A-League, was promoted to the Premier League last season and will continue to referee in England’s top-flight across the 2022-23 season.
The Australian will be deployed as both a referee and VAR official after getting experience in both roles last season.
In the first round of the Premier League, Gillett has been appointed to referee Leicester City vs. Brentford and will be in the VAR booth for Leeds vs. Wolves.
Premier League 2022/23 TV channels, live streams
| UK | USA | Canada | Australia | |
| TV channel | Sky Sports, BT Sport | USA Network, Telemundo, Universo | — | — |
| Streaming | NOW TV, Sky Go, Amazon Prime | fuboTV, Peacock | fuboTV | Optus Sport |
UK: Matches are carried across Sky Sports and BT Sport streaming and TV platforms, with select matches on Amazon Prime.
USA: Select matches are televised on USA Network (English) and Telemundo or Universo (Spanish), and all three channels can be streamed on fuboTV. The rest of the matches are streamed on NBC platform Peacock for subscribers.
Canada: Every Premier League game streams live and on demand exclusively via fuboTV.
Australia: Fans in Australia can stream matches live and on demand on Optus Sport.
Credit: sportingnews.com