Alexander Isak and Erling Haaland finished last season as two of the Premier League’s most productive strikers. Both are part of a pattern that goes back more than thirty years. More than 200 players from Norway, Sweden and Denmark have competed in the division. Their imprint on English football runs considerably deeper than the headlines and the transfer fees.
Three decades of Nordic talent
Six Scandinavian players scored double-digit goals in Europe’s top five leagues in 2024–2025, the same number as Brazil and Italy, out of a combined population of 22.1 million.
The transfer market discovered the potential of the Scandinavian players early on. When the Premier League began in 1992, they had already started arriving.
Peter Schmeichel had joined Old Trafford the year before and was to spend seven seasons winning everything English football had on offer. Solskjær came next, then Ljungberg, Larsson, Eriksen. Each of them absorbed the pace and physicality of the Premier League with minimal complaint. And clubs kept returning because the formula continued to work.
Haaland scored 22 Premier League goals in a single season cut short by injury. Isak finished with 23. Viktor Gyökeres scored 39 goals for Sporting CP in the Primeira Liga, and Rasmus Højlund is developing well for Manchester United, on loan at Napoli. The influx of scouts and sporting directors to the north shows no sign of abating.
The habits that crossed the North Sea
At one point, nicotine pouches started to appear in Premier League changing rooms. The product, available through snus online platforms in the UK, arrived through the same channels as the habits that preceded it. No press release was issued.
Traditional snus has long been an integral part of Scandinavian culture. In English football, what is commonly referred to by this name is generally the tobacco-free version. When Scandinavian players arrived in the Premier League, some of their customs came with them. The changing rooms function less like national teams and more like small multinational communities, populated by players from a dozen different countries. Cultural practices spread through them faster than most recruitment analysts anticipate.
The phenomenon has quietly taken hold in English football. Something that was virtually unheard of in changing rooms ten years ago is now commonplace in many of them. The clubs have said very little about it.
What research reveals: Nicotine pouches in English football
Data has however offered more details than the clubs have. In 2024, the Professional Footballers’ Association and Loughborough University published the first systematic study of the use of nicotine pouch and among English professional footballers. It was based on anonymous survey responses from 628 male players at Premier League or EFL clubs, plus 51 Women’s Super League players.
The headline figures:
- 18% of male players and 22% of female players reported current use
- 42% of men and 39% of women had tried snus at some point
The findings showed use among professional footballers was “higher than typically seen in the UK general population”. Relaxation was the primary reason, given by 41% of male users and 64% of female users. Improved mental readiness also featured prominently: 29% of male respondents and 55% of female respondents cited it as a perceived benefit.
Among men, 58% said they had not received any information about this type of nicotine product at club level. Among women, the figure was 86%. The full findings are published by Loughborough University and were shared with the PFA alongside a call for improved education at club level.
The Nordic pipeline shows no sign of slowing down
Scandinavian youth development systems offer young players significantly more competitive playing time than the Premier League. Since the 2011–2012 season, players under the age of 22 have accounted for:
- 3% of top-flight minutes in Denmark
- 3% in Norway, 16.3% in Sweden
- 0% in the Premier League
This difference is no coincidence, and it has a direct impact on how well prepared players arriving in English football are. The training structures and development pathways that produce players are well established, and results remain consistent from one season to the next. Having gained experience at the highest level from a young age, new players generally adapt quickly.
Each cohort of football players that arrives from Scandinavia brings with it not only the playing habits formed in those youth systems, but the cultural practices that are a natural part of life in the countries they come from. Clubs that regularly sign Scandinavian players have rarely found a valid reason to stop doing so. The cultural exchange extends far beyond the pitch.
The lineage stretching from Schmeichel to Haaland and Isak has continued unbroken for over thirty years. What goes with it is harder to quantify than goals. Scouts, in England and elsewhere, are already keeping an eye on the players of tomorrow.
