Huddersfield Town have had a number of foreign imports that have thrived at the John Smith’s Stadium.  

The recently departed Christopher Schindler was a German centre-back supporters absolutely adored, whilst Michael Hefele was another cult hero.

Then, there’s players like Aaron Mooy, a fantastic Australian midfielder that was crucial to Town’s dream promotion to the Premier League.

Danny Ward had a really solid loan with Huddersfield in 2016/17, with the Welsh international a hero in the play-off campaign that led to promotion.

What about the English players that have played for Huddersfield over the last 15 years, then?

There have been a number of really good players play for the club, which has led to us piecing together the strongest English XI we feel the club could have fielded over the last 15 years…

Smithies progressed through the Huddersfield academy and was a solid presence between the posts for almost a decade.

Having debuted for the club in 2007, Smithies would go on to make 274 appearances in a Huddersfield shirt, establishing himself as a really good goalkeeper in the Football League.

He would go on to feature for Queens Park Rangers on 109 occasions, before moving on to Cardiff City, where he remains not out on 69 appearances for the Bluebirds.

The hope will be that in years to come Ryan Schofield has replaced him in this XI, but for the time being, he’s an easy pick.

Smith is currently on the books with Stoke City across the Championship, with the right-back continuing to perform at a consistent level for Michael O’Neill.

Before that, he was a key part of Huddersfield winning promotion in the 2016/17 campaign, making 45 appearances and missing only three fixtures across the regular season and subsequent play-off campaign.

In total, Smith made 200 appearances for Huddersfield between 2013 and 2019, with Stoke then picking up the right-back’s service as they plotted their own route back into the Premier League.

As yet, that’s not materialised and Smith will once again be facing Town next year in the Championship.

If you were going to look for more talented English centre-backs that have played for Huddersfield over the last 15 years, you’d find them.

However, for what a player has given to Huddersfield in terms of promotion into the Championship and a high number of appearances, it’s hard to leave out somebody like Peter Clarke.

Between 2009 and 2014, he clocked up 224 appearances for Town across league, cup and play-off competitions.

The centre-back, now 39, is still going strong, featuring for Tranmere Rovers and cruising past 50 appearances for them in the lower echelons of the Football League.

Like his namesake before, if you were looking for a more talented centre-back to feature in this XI, you’d find one. However, Clarke gave a lot to Huddersfield right at the start of his career and is deserving of a place in this side.

Clarke made 300 appearances for Huddersfield before moving on in 2012, offering a real solid presence for Town during some difficult times.

Simply, you don’t make 300 appearances for a Football Club if you aren’t offering something exceptional to the squad.

Clarke’s career spanned almost 20 years and, by some, he was criminally underrated.

We move onto a current member of the Huddersfield squad in Harry Toffolo.

Toffolo had a tough start to life in professional football, but he excelled with Lincoln City in the lower leagues, before stepping up into the Championship with Huddersfield.

That move to West Yorkshire has been a real success, with Toffolo managing to show extreme consistency whenever he plays. His levels very rarely dip and he spends little time on the sidelines with injury.

Carlos Corberan will be leaning on him heavily when the 2021/22 campaign begins next month.

The 32-year-old remains a player on the books at Huddersfield and is set to captain Corberan’s side into the 2021/22 campaign following the departure of Schindler earlier this summer.

Hogg has been a real steady figure at the base of midfield for Huddersfield over the years since his arrival at the club from Watford in the summer of 2013.

Since that arrival, the midfielder has clocked up 270 appearances for Huddersfield and helped them to promotion to the Premier League.

In the coming season, the captain will pass 300 appearances for the club if he avoids injury, which is a major achievement for him.

O’Brien is still very young at 22-years-old and is a player whose future might well lay away from the John Smith’s Stadium unless we see a major incline on where Huddersfield are competing.

That, though, speaks volumes about the talent that O’Brien has got.

He’s got energy, technical ability and versatility, which make him a firm fan favourite in West Yorkshire right now.

O’Brien is motoring towards 100 appearances for Huddersfield and fans will hope to see him hit that target and then surpass it.

A top talent that Huddersfield need to be building a side around.

Schofield is currently on Corberan’s coaching team, acting as a first-team coach at the John Smith’s Stadium.

Prior to that he was a player at Huddersfield and made almost 300 appearances for the club between 1998 and 2008.

That, of course, only just sees him sneak into the 15 year bracket we’ve placed on this team. However, Schofield is more than deserving of a place on the wing in this side.

He never got close to matching his feats with Huddersfield elsewhere and his service to the club even after retirement makes him something of a mainstay in West Yorkshire.

Brown was only with Huddersfield a short while, but it is difficult to overlook what he gave the club during the 2016/17 campaign having arrived on loan from Chelsea.

He scored four goals during the second-half of the season, driving Huddersfield on towards the play-offs and then promotion to the Premier League.

Their journey would end there, with Brown moving on to different loans and suffering a series of injuries – the latest comes at Preston North End, where the 24-year-old has been struck down with an Achilles injury.

Had he managed to find a way of continuing with Huddersfield, it could have been so different.

Grant is back in the Championship with West Brom after relegation from the Premier League last year.

His goals with Huddersfield earned him that chance of stepping up into the Premier League, with the forward – most effective from the left – helping to keep Town in the Championship in 2019/20 with his goals.

The 23-year-old struck 23 goal in only 56 league appearances for the club, with very few others able to boast that kind of strike rate during the last 15 years.

When Huddersfield take on West Brom next season in the Championship, he will be one to watch, without doubt.

Someone like Andy Booth could have featured in this list, but his last few years at Huddersfield (which would have made him eligible for this team) were hardly prolific.

Instead, we’ve gone for the potential of Josh Koroma, who is embarking on a season full of expectation in 2021/22.

The forward struck eight times in an injury-hit campaign last year, but he looks ready to put that behind him and get amongst the goals in the coming campaign.

He might be a slightly premature selection in this side, but the 22-year-old has all the potential to become a modern day legend in West Yorkshire.