Britain has never been renowned for consistently exporting players around the world. In fact ever since Ian Rush allegedly described his struggles at Juventus in the late 1980s as ‘like living in a foreign country’ overseas clubs have steered well clear of British talent – until now.

While Englishmen such as David Beckham, Matt Derbyshire and Darius Vassell light up the top leagues in Italy, Greece and Turkey respectively delve a little deeper and you discover that more and more British youngsters are trying their luck abroad.

Most have suffered similar experiences. Having been rejected by Premier League clubs a large number of players, not content with slipping down the Football League ladder, are now looking to broaden their horizons overseas.

But while the 1980s saw British talent join the elite leagues in Italy, Spain and Germany nowadays youngsters from these shores are making waves in the likes of Sweden, Finland and Denmark.

“I just fancied a change,” says ex-Chelsea youngster Sam Tillen, now in his third year with Icelandic side Fram Reykjavik.

“I was only 22 and I was a bit disillusioned and I wanted to try something different and I am extremely glad that I did. It is a great place to live and things have gone really well.”

Having joined Brentford, then in League One, in 2005 Tillen quickly fell out of love with the game in England: “In my first year at the club we should have got promotion and we missed out on the last day and we got beat in the play-offs, then in the second year Martin Allen, our manager, left and I ended up having six managers in the next 18 months and that’s when I decided to leave.”

Despite league crowds averaging just over 1000 and the Icelandic league boasting no more then 12 foreigners - including Tillen and his younger brother Joe, who has joined him at Fram - the left–back insists the standard of football is similar to what he was used to at Griffin Park.

“The standard of football is good compared to the lower leagues in England,” he added. “They play more football over here and I would say the top four or five teams could play in League One and definitely League Two and the top half of teams are of a very good standard.”

24-year-old defender Mark Howard went down a different route. Despite having a year still to run on his contract with Manchester United the centre-half took the plunge and joined his former reserve team boss Rene Meulensteen at Brondby in Denmark in summer 2006.

Experience

“My reserve team manager Rene Meulensteen had just left to become the manager of Brondby and one day I got a phone call in the summer and he said ‘would you like to come over?’ I didn’t really fancy it but I went there for two days to train and I liked it. The guys all spoke English which was a bonus so I came home and had a good think about it and felt I may as well give it a go and I signed a three-year contract.

“I spoke to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, he said I would enjoy it and that Copenhagen was a nice place to live and the football would be good.

“I was a regular at 20 playing all the time. When you play all the time you learn different things. At first I got a stupid red card and I was young and naïve but you learn so quickly and you gain so much experience as well.”

However Meulensteen lasted just six months in Denmark before returning to Old Trafford with Brondby sitting seventh in the league. But rather than curse his misfortune and return to England Howard knuckled down and began to make a name for himself in Scandinavia.

“(Meulensteen) left in December and it was difficult, I was thinking ‘what do I do now?’ He recalled.

“I spoke to the new management and they told me they would be happy for me to stay and they didn’t want me to leave. In a way it was a release of pressure because I was the guy that Meulensteen brought in and now I had nothing to lose and things went really well from there.”

A Player of the Year award in 2007 was proof of his progression but after contract negotiations turned sour Howard soon discovered the harsher side to football abroad.

“I had been at Brondby for two years and we were in talks to sign a new deal in my last year but things went on and I didn’t agree with the sports chief and things turned sour,” he pointed out.

“I was Player of the Year in 2007 I didn’t agree on the contract and the sport chief at the time was the chairman’s son. I was playing all the time I established myself but I ended up signing for AGF.”

Calum Angus is another Englishman who has recently experienced the down side to forging a football career abroad. The 23-year-old was offered the chance to join Swedish top flight side GAIS last summer after spending four years playing and gaining a degree at Saint Louis University in America following his release from Portsmouth.

Having established himself in the first-team last season Angus broke a bone in his foot during pre-season (the Swedish campaign runs from March to October) keeping him sidelined for three months.

Injury

“This is the only time I have struggled out here. I broke a bone in my foot and I have been out for three months. Pre-season is really long, it goes on for months and I am still a couple of weeks from training properly.” he stated.

“That’s the one thing I have really struggled with while being away from home, I’m over here to play football so if I’m not able to do that it’s really depressing.

“I have been really homesick and every opportunity I have to go home I have taken it but it is mainly due to me not playing.”

Despite his recent struggles Angus admits he is in no rush to come home: “The hardest thing is not being close to home and the family. Don’t get me wrong I like it over here but that would be the only reason why I would come back. But I wouldn’t come back and play in League One or League Two if I was to come back it would have to be in as high a league as possible.”

Howard, who has also just recovered from ankle surgery himself, agrees and insists he would only consider returning to England if the right club came in for him.

“I suppose it would have to be the right team because in the Premier League and the Championship and the other leagues everyone is firing their managers. It’s weird over here everything is a little more stable with the structure and everything.

“Obviously I am going to come home at some point but I am in no rush. I have just signed with AGF and if everyone is fit we have a great team.”

Meanwhile Tillen has already come to the conclusion that he has played his last game in England’s lower leagues.

“I have no regrets about coming here,” he declared. “I don’t miss England at all my girlfriend has come over with me and that obviously helps having someone there with me all the time.

“The only way I would come back is if a Championship club or Premier League club came in for me and that’s not going to happen, I don’t want to play in the lower leagues again I just didn’t enjoy it really.”

Perhaps the biggest perk of plying your trade abroad is the chance to play in European competition. To date Howard has featured nine times in the Europa League but Tillen was left somewhat disappointed with his foray into European football.

“I think playing in European competition is the best thing, playing in League One or League Two you have got no chance of playing in Europe but ironically the first game we played was against a Welsh team TNS,” he stated.

“We could have gone ended up anywhere and I end up going back to Wales.”

Despite the advantages of playing overseas so few English players actually take the plunge and leave the comforts of home much to Angus’ bewilderment.

No brainer

“For me personally it is a no brainer to play in a better league abroad. There are so many players in England who are good enough to play over here. I am surprised there aren’t a lot more not just in Sweden but in Scandinavia and Germany,” he mused.

Howard agrees: “I think they are just comfy living at home with family and friends around them. I was lucky really because my family were encouraging really and my girlfriend moved over with me so everything worked out well. People are afraid to experience something different. It was a big risk but I think it has been worth it and I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Football agent Brian Humphreys, who works on behalf of a number of foreign clubs, says that European teams are now distancing themselves from British talent because of how they are now perceived on the continent.

“If you take a British player abroad they don’t really want to do it, they don’t really want to travel,” he explained.

“To be honest I just think they are in a comfort zone, they have the best of everything. In general a lot of players don’t want to go to a different country. If they did, the level of football would definitely go up because the players of the European clubs are more professional.

“The European clubs know that English players don’t want to travel and a lot don’t even try and get them. I think it has always been like that.”

One thing is for certain the growing number of footballers now looking to forge a career abroad are slowly changing people’s perceptions of British footballers.