Italian football league, Serie A is one of the best football leagues in the world.

Today, they are behind England (Premier League) and Spain (La Liga).

Of course, some teams need foreign players to improve them.

There have been a lot of great football foreign imports in Serie A.

Here is the list of top 15 foreign imports in Serie A of all time.

Lilian Thuram (Parma & Juventus)

Thuram was a great defender who played for Parma and Juventus in Serie A.

PARMA

He was transferred from Monaco in summer 1996.

He spended 5 years in Parma.

He won Coppa Italia, Italian Supercup and UEFA Cup.

APPEARANCES: 163

GOALS: 1

JUVENTUS

He moved to Juventus in 2001. His transfer cost the club reported £22 million.

In Juventus he won 2 Serie A  and 2 Coppa Italia.

While he played for Juventus, everybody started to consider him as one of the best defenders.

APPEARANCES: 162

GOALS: 1

Cafu (Roma & Milan)

Cafu is probably the greatest defender right back in history of football.

ROMA

Cafu signed for Roma in 1997 and immediately showed his great skills to the world.

In Roma he won  1 Serie A title and 1 Italian Supercup.

APPEARANCES: 217

GOALS: 8

MILAN

In 2003 he moved to Milan and he won everything with them.

Serie A, Italian Supercup, Champions League, UEFA Supercup and FIFA Club World Cup.

APPEARANCES: 161

GOALS: 4

David Trezeguet (Juventus)

David spended 10 great years in Juventus.

He is on fourth place in Juventus all-time goalscorers.

Juventus brought him from Monaco.

After big scandal that saw Juventus heading to Serie B, Trezeguet decided to stay with the team and helped them to come back to Serie A.

APPEARANCES: 318

GOALS: 171

Michel Platini (Juventus)

Platini is one of the greatest French football players in history.

Platini had a difficult introduction to Italian football. He was a target in the demanding Italian sports media, and even came close to leaving Italy in the winter of his first season.

He won 2 Serie A titles, 1 Coppa Italia,  1 Champions League

Platini scored the winning goal in 1985 Champions League against Liverpool and brought this title for the first time to Juventus.

APPEARANCES: 222

GOALS:  103

Gabriel Batistuta (Fiorentina,Roma & Inter)

Batigol, one of the greatest strikers coming from Argentina.

FIORENTINA

Gabriel is definitely one of the Fiorentina legends.

He came from Boca Juniors because Fiorentina president was impressed with his skills.

APPEARANCES: 325

GOALS: 209

ROMA

Batistuta wanted to win Serie A title and Champions League so he moved to Roma.

In Roma his dream finally come true. He finally won Serie A title.

APPEARANCES: 81

GOALS: 37

INTER

He was loaned to Inter but failed to make a big impact. Scored only 2 goals in 12 matches.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Juventus,Inter & Milan)

JUVENTUS

Ibrahimovic moved from Ajax to Juventus for €16 million.

He instantly became a hit in Serie A.

After Calciopoli scandal appeared, he wanted to stay on high level football team so he moved to Inter.

APPEARANCES: 91

GOALS: 26

INTER

In August 2006, he completed a move for 24.8 million € and he signed for Inter.

While he was in Inter, he won Serie A 3 times and Italian Supercup 2 times.

Zlatan had a lot of great goals

Serie A is definitely his league. After Italy, he tried his luck in Spanish, La Liga. He scored 21 goals but he wasn't liked by his coach,Guardiola who apparently didn't want him in his team.

APPEARANCES:116

GOALS: 66

MILAN

In late August Ibrahimovic was loaned to Milan from Barcelona. Milan vice-president Galiani did a great job when because he just loaned Ibra for one season and with an option to buy him at the end of the season for just 24 million €.

From what we saw from Ibrahimovic while he played in Juventus and Inter, there are no doubts that he will do great in Milan.

Ronaldo (Inter & Milan)

Il Fenomeno is one of the greatest strikers in history of football.

INTER

Inter bought himr for a then world record fee of £19 Million from Barcelona.

Immediately he showed his true class. His scoring abilities were amazing.

Unfortunately,  he had a serious knee injury and he had to go on a surgery.

He won UEFA Cup with Inter

APPEARANCES: 99

GOALS: 59

MILAN

In January he made a comeback to Serie A. He was signed by Milan.

He was doing very good but once again he had a serious knee injury.

APPEARANCES: 20

GOALS: 9 

Marco Van Basten (Milan)

Marco is one of the greatest attackers in history of football.

Unfortunately his career ended when he was 30 years old.

He came to Milan in 1987 and spended 6 great years.

He won 3 Serie A, 3 Italian Supercups, 2 Champions League, 2 UEFA Supercup and 2 FIFA Club World Cup.

APPEARANCES: 198

GOALS: 125

Just imagine if Van Basten played more in his 30-es. What great player he was!

Kaka (Milan)

Kaka came to Milan in 2003 from Sao Paulo for only 8.5 million €.

He instantly took place of great Rui Costa and showed great skills.

Kaka became a superstar in Milan.

He won everything with Milan: Serie A, Supercup Italia, Champions League, UEFA Supercup and FIFA Club World Cup.

He was a true leader when he took Milan to their 7th Champions League title.

In summer 2009, Kaka moved to Real Madrid for 68.5 million €.

APPEARANCES: 270

GOALS: 95

Pavel Nedved (Lazio & Juventus)

Czech Republic sensation, Pavel Nedved came to Serie A to Lazio in 1996 from Sparta Prague despite having verbal agreement with PSV.

LAZIO

At Rome club he won Serie A, 2 Coppa Italia, 2 Supercup Italia, UEFA Supercup and UEFA Cup Winners Cup.

He scored 50 goals in 204 matches.

His great performance earned him a move to best Italian club, Juventus.

JUVENTUS

Juve paid 41 million € for Nedved as he was a replacement for great Zidane.

Pavel proved to be great leader on the pitch.

With Juventus he won 2 Serie A titles, 2 Italian Supercup and Serie B.

He was a part of Juventus when they were kicked in Serie B because of the scandal.

APPEARANCES: 324

GOALS: 65

Andriy Shevchenko (Milan)

Andriy is definitely the best foreign attacker that ever played in Serie A.

In 1999, Shevchenko moved to Milan for a then-record transfer fee of $25 million.

He had  7 amazing season in Milan.

Today, he is the second best goalscorer in history of AC Milan. He scored 175 goals for Milan.

Unfortunately  for many Milan fans, Andriy moved to Chelsea in summer 2006 for £30.8 million.

APPEARANCES: 322

GOALS: 175

Diego Maradona (Napoli)

Maradona transferred from Barcelona to Napoli for £6.9m, which was another record fee.

At Napoli, Diego reached the peak of his professional career.

He quickly became an adored star among the club's fans, and in his time there he elevated the team to the most successful era in its history.

Maradona lead them to their only Serie A title in 1987. He also won Coppa Italia, UEFA Cup and the Italian Supercup.

During his time in Italy, Maradona's personal problems increased. His cocaine use continued and he missed a lot of practices and matches because of stress caused by his problems.

He served a 15 month ban for failing a drug test for cocaine. Maradona left Napoli in disgrace in 1992.

APPEARANCES: 258

GOALS:  115

Javier Zanetti (Inter Milan)

Great Inter captain came from Banfield and he became new president Massimo Moratti's first-ever purchase.

Zanetti's qualities have earned him respect on and off the field. He is sometimes criticised for being too soft-spoken on the pitch, but he makes up for this by being one of Inter's most consistent, reliable, and trusted players.

As such, he was rewarded with the club captaincy, taking over from legendary defender Giuseppe Bergomi.

Zanetti spended 15 seasons in Inter and he just started his 16 season.

His current contract with Internazionale runs until 2013 after he extended his contract this summer.

Zanetti won 5 Serie A titles, 3 Italian Supercups, 4 Italian Supercups,1 UEFA Cup and 1 Champions League.

APPEARANCES: 700

GOALS: 22

Zinedine Zidane (Juventus)

In 1996, Zidane moved to Juventus for a fee of £3.2 million.

Zidane is definitely one of the greatest football players ever in history. He was the iconic figure of a generation of French players that won the World Cup 1998 and 2000 European Championship.

He is well known for his abilities in dribbling, passing and amazing controlling of the ball.

In Juventus, he won 2 Serie A titles, 1 Italian Supercup, 1 FIFA Club World  Cup and 1 UEFA Supercup.

APPEARANCES: 209

GOALS: 31

Clarence Seedorf (Sampdoria,Inter & Milan)

Today, we can still watch this amazing midfielder.

He is the only player that won 3 Champions Leagues with 3 different teams (Ajax,Real Madrid & Milan)

SAMPDORIA

In 1995 he moved to Sampdoria from Ajax.

He played 32 matches and scored 3 goals.

INTER

Inter brought him from Real Madrid for 23 million €.

Seedorf could not help bring any major silverware to the club.

He played 72 matches and scored 14 goals.

MILAN

After two years with Internazionale, Seedorf moved to city rivals Milan in 2002, exchanged with Francesco Coco.

In Milan, he showed his great skills. He was fantastic and definitely the best midfielder in his time.

He won Serie A, Coppa Italia, 2 Champions League, 2 UEFA Supercup and FIFA Club World Cup.

APPEARANCES: 376

GOALS: 54