The names are the same, only the shirts are different...

As is always the case at the World Cup, there comes that moment when you'll be staring vacantly at the screen during Venezuela v Qatar or some such nonsense and you'll hear a player's name mentioned that rings distant bells of familiarity.

Yes, the World Cup gives you the chance to see those players that grace the football pitches of Great Britain every weekend playing for the country of their birth. Or their mother's birth. Or their mother's father's birth. Or somewhere they once had to write a school essay about when they were eleven.

But where once upon a time the British game was played by British players, nowadays it's all a bit more international, so to help you realise which parts of the world your favourite players represent, here's a list of who you may well be seeing during the World Cup in Germany:

Argentina
Andres D'Allesandro (Portsmouth); Hernan Crespo (Chelsea)

Australia
Mark Schwarzer and Mark Viduka (Middlesbrough); Craig Moore (Newcastle); Lucas Neill (Blackburn); Tony Popovic (Crystal Palace); Brett Emerton (Blackburn); Josip Skoko (Stoke City); Tim Cahill (Everton); Harry Kewell (Liverpool)

Croatia
Dado Prso (Rangers)

Czech Republic
Petr Cech (Chelsea); Milan Baros (Aston Villa)

Ecuador
Ulises De La Cruz (Aston Villa)

France
Jean-Alan Boumsong (Newcastle); William Gallas and Claude Makelele (Chelsea); Djibril Cisse (Liverpool); Thierry Henry (Arsenal)

Germany
Robert Huth (Chelsea)

Ghana
Michael Essien (Chelsea)

Holland
Robin Van Persie (Arsenal); Arjen Robben (Chelsea); Edwin Van Der Sar and Ruud Van Nistelrooy (Man United); Jan Kromkamp (Liverpool)

Ivory Coast
Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue (Arsenal); Didier Drogba (Chelsea)

Japan
Junichi Inamoto (West Brom); Shunsuke Nakamura (Celtic); Hidetoshi Nakata (Bolton)

Mexico
Jared Borgetti (Bolton)

Poland
Artur Boruc and Maciej Zurawski (Celtic); Jerzy Dudek (Liverpool); Kamil Kosowski and Grzegorz Rasiak (Southampton)

Portugal
Maniche, Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira (Chelsea); Cristiano Ronaldo (Man United); Nuno Valente (Everton)

Serbia & Montenegro
Nemanja Vidic (Man United)

South Korea
Lee Young-Pyo (Tottenham); Park Ji-Sung (Man United)

Spain
Asier Del Horno (Chelsea); Luis Garcia and Fernando Morientes (Liverpool); Jose Antonio Reyes (Arsenal)

Sweden
Olof Mellberg (Aston Villa); Fredrik Ljungberg (Arsenal)

Switzerland
Philippe Senderos (Arsenal)

Togo
Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal)

Trinidad & Tobago
Kevin Jack (Dundee); Marvin Andrews (Rangers); Ian Cox and Brent Sancho (Gillingham); Denis Lawrence (Wrexham); Christopher Birchall (Port Vale); Carlos Edwards (Luton Town); Kenwyne Jones (Southampton); Russell Latapy and Densill Theobald (Falkirk); Jason Scotland (St Johnstone); Stern John (Derby County); Shaka Hislop (West Ham)

Tunisia
Mehdi Mafti (Birmingham); Radhi Jaidi (Bolton)

USA
Carlos Bocanegra and Brian McBride (Fulham); Eddie Lewis (Leeds United); Claudio Reyna (Man City).