There was a time, not too long ago, when Spanish football was just on top of the world, way beyond everyone else, with not only the best players on this planet, but also the best coaches, the best rivalries. However, even though La Liga remains as one of the biggest leagues without a doubt, all of the sudden most of this people have left to other leagues, and now Spanish officials want them back.
At least that’s what La Liga’s president, Javier Tebas, confirmed in a recent interview, where he named a few important names that he had a few years ago, but they just let them go. “We always want the best”, he said, “I want to keep Lionel Messi in La Liga. I also want Mourinho, Guardiola, Klopp, and Cristiano. All of them would help us grow”.
But wait a minute, what happened with all of them? Out of the 5 people he listed, only Klopp has never been a part of La Liga. Lionel Messi still plays for Barcelona, but different situations he’s had to face with team officials and former President Josep Maria Bartomeu, have made him want to leave, so much that he had his bags packed and was legally forced to stay another season.
Jose Mourinho was in Real Madrid and the team let him go, Pep Guardiola gave Barcelona its best run ever, along with players like Ronaldinho, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Eto’o and some other greats, along with Messi, of course, but then he didn’t want to stay either. Cristiano Ronaldo came to the league and conquered it all with Real Madrid, but then one day he just decided he wanted to leave and went to Italy, to play for Juventus.
Is Spain not good anymore, or are other leagues just more attractive?
So, what’s really going on in Spain and La Liga, that players and coaches end up wanting to leave? One of the main reasons this happens could be the fact that La Liga is clearly dominated by just two teams, Real Madrid and Barcelona, and as big as they are worldwide, this could end up backfiring, making the league less attractive or less challenging for this kind of superstars.
Are team’s directors and representatives just not doing such a good job keeping these people happy? We all know that Florentino Perez and Josep Maria Bartomeu are not exactly liked by many, Bartomeu had to quit already, but Perez has shown no signs of planning to do the same. On the other hand, other teams have failed to come up with a plan to face these two teams and take their power away, while competition is a lot tougher in the Premier League, for example, in England, or in Italy’s Serie A, where teams have a lot more weight in the league, even though Juventus has dominated for the past decade.
All we can say right now is that if La Liga let all these people go before, and now they want them back, then something went really wrong in the planning in the past few years.
