British Empire, pretty strong if Scotland and Ireland are included.

French, not very strong up until 1990, but afterward, look out.

China, forget it, the amount of football talent they've got there has never been much.

Dutch, good, but it'll all be from home, as Indonesia, their biggest colony, has been negligible.

German, good, but not much from outside Der Vaterland.

Belgian Empire, okay, if Belgian Congo/Zaire/Republic of the Congo is included.

Japanese Empire, okay, if you're counting Korea.

Ottoman Empire, good, if you're counting Turkey and Egypt, possibly if part of what became Yugoslavia is included, unless that's considered part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Spanish Empire, good, even with all they lost by 1898, by which point we Americans turned all their potential footballers in Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic (which was already independent) into baseball players.

Qajar Dynasty, minimal.

Siam, minimal, especially since their current form, Thailand, has their national team managed by Peter Reid and his monkey's "heed."

United States, not bad. Up until the 1930s, we had some ethnic soccer teams and leagues, probably on a par with England's third division. Nothing like the NASL or today's MLS, but if we'd put our mind to it, we might have seen, by the 1950s, 75,000 people cramming their way into Yankee Stadium to see Empire FC taking on Flatbush Rovers, with the return leg at Ebbets Field getting half as many people but twice the passion. I would've liked to have seen that "derby," but in the years that it would have been possible, we turned our attention away from things that the immigrants brought over from Europe and toward American versions of British games (turning rounders into baseball and "footie" into "footbawwwwl")

Ethiopia, not much, unless they also picked up places like the Ivory Coast and Nigeria.

Brazil, they would have been just fine.

Argentina, I don't see them getting any better unless they were dumb enough to take the Falklands earlier, and I don't think they would have beaten the Royal Navy then, either.

Mexico, also no better than they were.