And many of the top stars prefer to play in the sunnier, southern part of the continent, as Manchester United found out with Brazilian Ronaldinho this month.
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Real Madrid spend heavily on attracting star players
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But a major part of the answer perhaps lies in one final statistic - English clubs are vastly outstripped by their Italian rivals in transfer spending, on both domestic and overseas players.
Italian clubs spent more than four times as much on overseas stars from 1997/98 to 2001/2002 - £883m compared with £212m by English clubs.
And there was also a disparity on domestic outlay, with Italian clubs spending £158m to English clubs' £139m.
In the same period, Real Madrid spent £113m acquiring just three players - Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo.
Stars like that make a difference - as Manchester United found out to their cost this year.
The English champions may have beaten eventual finalists Juventus home and away in the last Champions League, but that is no good if you do not make the final yourself.
And it was Real - who lost to Juventus after proving incapable of piercing their expensively-acquired defence - who put paid to United's hopes, thanks in large part to Ronaldo.
Something for Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger to ponder in a summer during which neither Manchester United or Arsenal have as yet made any major signings.
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MMIX
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