Falcao to AS Monaco. Negredo to Manchester City. Llorente to Juventus. Soldado to Tottenham Hotspurs. Higuain to Napoli. La Liga’s 5 best strikers after the two goal-scoring mammoths in Ronaldo and Messi, look to have collectively moved away for other leagues/teams/*cough* tax evasion *cough*. Most of us would remember Sergio Aguero’s similar stance a couple of years ago, when he signed for Manchester City. Diego Forlan followed him out of Atletico Madrid, when he signed for Inter Milan. Some other big names such as David Silva, Juan Mata, Santi Cazorla and Thiago Alcantara have all left Spanish shores in recent times.
So what is it that’s making genuinely good players leave Spain? Surely the Spanish league isn’t this bad! It’s so competitive. They’ve got Barcelona, Real Madrid, .. and .. wait, I’m forgetting.. umm.. ok fine, that’s all they’ve got.
As I write, Twitter tells me Alvaro Negredo had something to say about it in the recent press conference for his new club, Manchester City:
Negredo: “La Liga is only about Real Madrid and Barcelona”
— Espcore (@espcore) August 5, 2013