During the Premier League era, many players have moved from one country to another at different stages of their careers.
Ahead of Saturday’s exciting pre-season clash against Swiss outfit Grasshopper Club Zürich, we look back on the five individuals who have played for both. Quite ironically, three of them played together during Grasshopper’s title-winning season in 2000/01!
Henri Camara
Senegal's third most-capped player with 99 appearances and second-highest goalscorer with 31 strikes, behind only Sadio Mane (45), much-travelled Henri Camara joined the Hammers on a season-long loan from Wigan Athletic, with whom he reached the League Cup final in 2006, on deadline day in August 2007, before making his debut in a 3-1 away defeat to Newcastle United a month later.
Camera’s time in Claret and Blue was short and sweet, but our former No37 enjoyed a storied career that featured spells in Greece, France, Switzerland, England and Scotland, having also featured for Wolverhampton Wanderers, who loaned him to both Southampton and Celtic, and Sheffield United.
Indeed, he shone during a single season with Grasshopper Club Zürich in 2000/01, scoring three goals in eleven appearances to help clinch that year's Swiss title.
Overall, he made ten appearances for Alan Curbishley’s Hammers in 2007/08, managing three starts and seven outings off the substitutes' bench.
Camara was part of the Senegal squad that created history at the FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan in 2002, when they beat defending champions France in the opening match before reaching the quarter-finals, with his first-half equaliser and golden-goal strike in extra-time helping seal a 2-1 win over Sweden in the round of 16.
Furthermore, Camara also scored at the 2000, 2006 and 2008 editions of the Africa Cup of Nations. He retired from football in 2018, after featuring for 19 different teams.
Fabio Daprelà
Defender Fabio Daprelà joined the Hammers after progressing through the youth ranks at Grasshopper Club Zürich, and it was there he began his senior career in the 2007/08 season at the age of 16.
After 31 appearances, he left for east London in the summer of 2009, joining fellow Swiss international Valon Behrami, who had been signed from SS Lazio a year earlier.
Having signed a five-year deal, Daprelà made his first-team debut on 3 January 2010 in the Hammers’ 2-1 home defeat to Arsenal in the FA Cup third round, before making his Premier League bow in a 4-1 defeat to Chelsea two months later.
His permanent move away from West Ham came with a transfer to newly-promoted Serie A side Brescia Calcio in August 2010, before subsequent spells with Palermo FC, AC Carpi, AC Chievo Verona and SSC Bari.
Daprelà returned to his homeland in 2017 to play for FC Lugano, where he enjoyed a fruitful six-year stint and won the Swiss Cup in 2022, Now 34, he last represented local club FC Zürich, who he was released by in September 2024.
Papa Bouba Diop
It is almost half a decade since West Ham United’s 2012 promotion-winner Papa ‘The Wardrobe’ Bouba Diop tragically passed away at the age of 42, in November 2020.
One of the greatest players in Senegal history, Bouba Diop spent the 2011/12 season with the Hammers, scoring one goal in 16 EFL Championship appearances as Sam Allardyce’s squad returned to the Premier League via the Play-Offs.
Then 33, Diop’s experience, quality, physicality and positivity added a great deal to a squad that also included his compatriot and friend, Abdoulaye Faye.
After joining on a free transfer on 30 August 2011, having established himself as a Premier League force with Fulham, where he won the club’s Player of the Year award in 2005/06, and Harry Redknapp’s Portsmouth, with whom he won the FA Cup in his first season with the club, Diop made his Hammers debut in a 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace on 1 October.
His only goal in Claret and Blue was an important one, as it was the winner in a 1-0 home victory over Barnsley on 17 December, and his final appearance also came against Barnsley, as a substitute in a 4-0 victory at Oakwell on Good Friday 2012.
Prior to his arrival in east London, Diop had also become a national hero in his homeland, alongside the aforementioned Camara, who both helped Grasshopper Club Zürich to their 26th Swiss Super League title in 2000/01, having notched a famous winning goal for Senegal against holders France at the 2002 FIFA World Cup finals and helped the Lions of Teranga make a historic run to the quarter-finals.
Indeed, Diop added to his winner against France with two goals in a 3-3 group-stage draw with Uruguay, before helping Senegal edge past Sweden to reach the last eight, where they were beaten narrowly by Turkey.
Mladen Petrić
Mladen Petrić arrived in east London with a reputation for pace, power and goal-scoring pedigree, but it just never worked out for the Croatia international, who was born in Bosnia & Herzegovina.
The now 44-year-old joined FC Baden’s youth ranks in 1996 before making his debut in the first team in 1998. A move to Grasshopper Club Zürich, then managed by Roy Hodgson, took his game to new heights. In 140 appearances for a Grasshopper side operating at the top end of the Swiss top-flight table, he scored 40 times, including 13 strikes in 30 league games in 2002/03.
In 2004, he signed for FC Basel, where he scored 50 goals in 112 appearances and won the Swiss Super League, Swiss Cup and Golden Boot award for 2006/07, before moving to Germany to play for Borussia Dortmund and Hamburger SV, who he helped to the DFB-Pokal final and a UEFA Europa League semi-final respectively.
After four seasons at Volksparkstadion, scoring 61 goals, 45-time capped Croatia star Petrić signed for English side Fulham, where he scored five goals in 23 Premier League appearances, then joined Sam Allardyce’s Hammers on a one-year deal in September 2013.
He made his debut in a 3-2 home defeat by Everton, coming on as a second-half substitute, and after just three further appearances for the Club, he was released in December 2013.
Greek Super League side Panathinaikos FC was Petrić’s eighth and final destination, bringing an end to a glittering career that yielded over 500 appearances and almost 200 goals.
Raphael Spiegel
After impressing for Grasshopper Club Zürich’s reserves, made 17 appearances for Swiss Challenge League side SC Brühl, and won the 2009 FIFA U17 World Cup with Switzerland, goalkeeper Raphael Spiegel moved to West Ham as a 19-year-old in July 2012.
Spiegel spent his time at the Hammers as the fourth-choice keeper behind Jussi Jääskeläinen, Adrián and Darren Randolph, while enjoying three successful one-month loan spells with Crawley Town, Barnet and Carlisle United.
He was part of the West Ham U23 team that won promotion to the Premier League 2 Division 1 via the 2016/17 Play-Offs, starting the final at St James’ Park against Newcastle United U23s alongside Academy of Football graduate Declan Rice.
After departing east London in 2017, Rüttenen-born Spiegel joined Portuguese Primeira Liga side Boavista FC, but it was a move to FC Winterthur in 2018 that yielded regular first-team football.
Across four seasons in the Swiss Challenge League, he managed to rack up 117 appearances, 35 clean sheets and scored against FC Chiasso in 2020 - yes, you read that correctly!
Having moved to FC Lausanne-Sport, where he earned promotion to the Swiss Super League in 2023, Spiegel - now 32 - took the next step in his career by joining USL Championship side Oakland Roots SC in March 2025.
