LA
LIGA DE ESPAÑOL
La Liga (The League) is
a league that has historically been one of the best in the world with an
unending level of glamour. The fascination of the Primera División de La Liga
de español (First division of Spanish league) is attributed to the league being
a force to reckon with which is all thanks to it having somewhat of a magnetic
attraction effect on the best of the best footballers.
These footballers
include the likes of Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Thierry
Henry, Lilian Thuram , Fabio Cannavaro.
And of course, asides
these mentioned football greats, this work will be incomplete without the
mention of 2 special outstanding players that never stop the world of football
from marveling at their performance. With all due respect to current great footballers
like Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto’o, Robin Van Persie, Frank Ribery, Arjen Robben,
Wayne Rooney and Zlatan Ibrahimovich; Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are
two players that surpass ones imagination. For this reason, I refer to them as
2 great football players from a yet to be named special planet where only their
kinds and better of their kinds (yet to be born) are made. But for the purpose
of this work, I will dub the Planet football planet of the gifted.
In most of the years
since the founding of La Liga in 1928, the league has been a 2 horse race,
courtesy its dominance by barça and los blancos.
According to Wikipedia, Barcelona
(Barça) has had 21 league titles while Real Madrid has won the league 32 times,
thus having a combined league title victory of 53 in the 84 year old league.
That said, prior to the
commencement of the 2011/2012 La Liga season, it was widely expected that as
usual the season was also going to be a 2 horse race and of course it was.
The eventual success of
Real Madrid, the 2011/2012 champions is on point and highly commendable but long
delayed. In this regard, we will look
back at the high amount of investments and monies by Real Madrid in recruiting
the “best of the best” players, most notably in 2009. In 2009 Real Madrid spent
₤80m and ₤56m pounds respectively on Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka, an amount too
mouthwatering for many clubs to consider a fortune. But having spent this heavy
amount on not just these 2 world greats but others like Xabi Alonso and Karim
Benzima, los blancos went two years without winning the Spanish league.
These said, such amount
of investment with no immediate returns ironically adds to the spice of what
makes football not just beautiful but delicious to watch which is an added
taste of suspense that gets one addicted to the beautiful game with no limit.
In addition, it also added credence to the popular saying that money does not immediately
bring nor attract trophies. A justification guarded by Real Madrid since the
purchase of these goal post assassins waiting three years to win the league and two
years to win the King’s Cup (Copa del rey), trophy they last won in 1993.
Irrespective of this,
the popular saying; the patient dog eats the fattest bone defined the tenacity
of Real Madrid which productively landed them the league title and trophy in
the just concluded 2011/2012 season, a trophy they won in grand style by being
the first club in the Spanish La Liga history to win the league with an
unprecedented 100 points. An achievement that has indeed brought to fruition
the fortune spent on both Christiano Ronaldo, Ricardo Kaka, added to Xabi
Alonso Karim Benzima and a host of others that have been acquired sequel to the
2007/2008 season when they last won the La Liga that was dominated by the
invincible (Barcelona).
In the last 12 years,
Real Madrid has finished the season as winners 5 times and runners up 5 times
while Barca have had 5 trophy triumph and 3 second place finish. The two horse
race overwhelming effect by these two clubs on the La Liga title has been
transcended to two of their priceless assets. These 2 assets are of course,
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
To this end, the
Spanish La Liga have been dominated by both players particularly since 2010
with Messi being the top scorer in the 2010, added to the just concluded 2012
season while Ronaldo was the top scorer in 2011. No doubt the La Liga top
scorers award just like the league has been a two horse race between Real
Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona’s Lionel Messi.
In addition, the FIFA
World Player of the year award (now the FIFA Ballon d’Or award), has also been
diffused by the flawless approach to the beautiful game by Cristiano Ronaldo
and Lionel Messi. This is marked by Messi winning the highly coveted award for
three straight years as thus 2009, 2010 and 2011 while Ronaldo being the Runner Up in these three years. It should
however be recalled that in the 2008 awards when Ronaldo was awarded the FIFA
World Player of the year award, Lionel Messi came second.
Though Real Madrid
clinched the just concluded La Liga title, Barcelona were not left out as they
clinched the Copa del rey, which entailed both clubs having somewhat of an
exchange or swap of the 2010/11 domestic football year when Barcelona were the
La Liga Champions and Real Madrid the King’s cup, an exchange that indeed makes
Spanish football a delight to watch.
The picture below depicts Real Madrid players sequel to the La Liga triumph applaud their fans that has for long kept faith in the team.
The picture below depicts Real Madrid players sequel to the La Liga triumph applaud their fans that has for long kept faith in the team.
Image Source: realmadrid.com
References:
“List of Spanish football champions” Wikipedia
21 June 2012 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Spanish_football_champions>
Eddie, Griffin “Top 10 Most Expensive
Football Transfers” Soccer Lens 3 Sep. 2008. 25 May 2012 <soccerlens.com/top-10-most-expensive-transfers-in-football/5244/>
“Copa del Rey” Wikipedia 18 June
2012 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copa_del_Rey>
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