That could easily be the attitude of any Asian country, where the Bundesliga has long been popular in large part because of the number of players from the region who have made it their home.

As far back as 40 years ago there were Asian footballers starring in German football. While there had been some representation across other leagues, such as Cheung Chi-doy’s two games in two years at Blackpool in England in the early 1960s, it would not be until the late 1970s West Germany that the revolution would truly begin.

Arguably the arrival of Asians in German football owed much to the German coach who went to Japan in the 1960s. Dettmar Cramer (who would coach Bayern Munich to the 1975 and ’76 European Cups) travelled to the country to coach the team ahead of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and laid the groundwork for their bronze medal showing in Mexico four years later.

In 1977, Yasuhiko Okudera became the first Japanese footballer in Europe when he signed for Cologne after being spotted by coach Hennes Weisweiler. Fittingly the club had “Pioneer” branded across their shirts thanks to being sponsored by the stereo brand. However, Okudera’s first foray in the brave new world did not begin well.

“Putting it kindly, his start was unpromising. In the first minute of his first game and with his first attempt at making contact with the ball,” FourFourTwo magazine wrote in 2015, “Okudera brought down an opponent in his own penalty area and the referee pointed to the penalty spot.

“However, all's well that ends well. Cologne's goalkeeper Harald Schumacher saved the penalty and Okudera's team went on to win the game – plus the league and cup double.”

The following season they reached the semi-finals of the European Cup where they lost to eventual winners Nottingham Forest. He would also finish Bundesliga runner-up three times in the 1980s with Werder Bremen before returning to Japan in 1986.

By that point he had been joined by South Korean star Cha Bum-kun. The striker had made his German debut in 1978, playing one game for Darmstadt before returning to his military service. He would join Frankfurt in the summer of 1979 and he too had instant success winning the Uefa Cup that season and the German Cup the next season. Cha would also guide Bayer Leverkusen to the Uefa Cup in 1988, scoring in the final, before retiring a year later. He was named Asia’s Footballer of the Century in 2000.

Frankfurt would also play host to China’s first Bundesliga player Yang Chen in 1998. The striker initially landed at third-tier SV Waldhof Mannheim on loan from Beijing Guoan before ending up at Frankfurt. He became the first Chinese player to score in one of Europe’s big five leagues and he finished the season with eight goals for the team as they avoided relegation.

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Yang would be named China’s Footballer of the Year in 2000 and almost made history at the 2002 Fifa World Cup but for the width of the post preventing him becoming the country’s first ever scorer at the finals. Yang’s countrymen Shao Jiayi (1860 Munich and Energie Cottbus) and Hao Junmin (Schalke 04) would follow his path in later years

Players from many AFC nations joined the Bundesliga in the 1990s. Iran’s Mehdi Mahdavikia signed for VfL Bochum in 1998 and would stay in Germany until 2010 with eight seasons at Hamburg and then Frankfurt, playing more than 250 games. The 2003 AFC Player of the Year would also be named to Hamburg’s team of the century.

Iranian star Ali Daei spent five years in Germany from 1997 to 2002, arriving with Arminia Bielefeld before moves to Bayern Munich and Hertha BSC. He won the league title and league cup with Bayern in the 1998-99 season, cruelly missing out on the Uefa Champions League final. Daei was an unused sub as the side lost to Manchester United in injury time.

His international teammate Vahid Hashemian arrived in 1999 and would stay nine years with Hamburg, VfL Bochum, Bayern Munich and Hannover 96. Hashemian won the league and cup double with Bayern in 2004-05.

Ashkan Dejegah was another Iranian to star in the Bundesliga. The Tehran-born, Berlin-raised midfielder played for Germany’s age-group sides before choosing to play for Iran. Dejegah won the title with Wolfsburg in 2009 – one of four Asian players to do so in Felix Magath’s surprise champions.

Makoto Hasebe and Yoshito Okubo became the first to win the title since Okudera. Japan captain Hasebe would go on to become a Bundesliga stalwart, also representing 1. FC Nürnberg and current club Eintracht Frankfurt, while Okubo arrived in January and would return to Vissel Kobe at the end of the season. Hasebe won the German Cup in 2018 and was named AFC International Player of the Year, while he was also named to the Europa League Team of the Season last year.

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The other Asian player, Sergei Karimov, was born in Kazakhstan and raised in Wolfsburg where he came through the youth ranks.

Cambodia’s Chhunly Pagenburg was another Asian Bundesliga player who like Dejegah represented Germany in youth internationals before switching allegiance. Over the years, from Cha and Okudera’s contemporary Witthaya Laohakul becoming the first and last Thai player in the Bundesliga with Hertha BSC, there have been players from across the AFC, including Lebanon, the Philippines, Tajikistan and even North Korea.

Japan and South Korea have provided the most and the pipeline continues now. South Korea’s Koo Ja-cheol spent eight years of the last decade in the Bundesliga with VfL Wolfsburg, FC Augsburg and Mainz 05 – becoming a fan favourite in Augsburg. Japan’s Shinji Kagawa did two stints at Borussia Dortmund either side of a spell at Manchester United. He won the league and the cup twice with Dortmund.

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The current AFC Asian International Player of the Year Son Heung-min also owes his development to the Bundesliga. He moved to Germany as a teenager, first playing for Hamburg and then Leverkusen before moving to the English Premier League with Tottenham Hotspur.

With several of their national team players starring in the Bundesliga, there’s every reason that Asian countries will continue to tune in even when other football returns.