It may not be considered as European footballs elite competition but the Europa League is a tournament that still draws plenty of interest. Formerly known as the UEFA Cup, the Europa League pits domestic cup winners, league winners and sides that failed to qualify for the CL in a fierce competition that includes some top clubs and players. In recent years we've seen huge established clubs such as Atletico Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester United and Sevilla go on to lift the trophy and the rewards from it can be huge. Not only does it give you a new shiny piece of silverware and financial rewards, the winning club will also gain automatic qualification for the following seasons Champions League - so it's a tournament that every club wants to win.
On Thursday the Europa League returns with Arsenal and Chelsea both in action against Sporting Lisbon and BATE Borisov respectively, both expected to win. Both sides will be eager to go all the way in the competition and they're amongst the favourites to do so. Both clubs have plenty of English representatives in their squads and with the competition returning we decided to put together a quiz on how our players have fared in it over the years.
Below we want to see if you can the 30 players to have made the most appearances in the Europa League dating back to the 1992/93 season up till the present day. This includes a number of players both currently playing & retired - so it'll really test your knowledge! We've given you 8 minutes to name as many players as possible and we're expecting you all to struggle - so anything over 18/30 is a very solid score! Give it your best shot below and tweet your efforts into us @FootyAccums to see how you compare with the rest of our followers - good luck!
