The Spanish Youth System V the English Youth system and the success of the Spanish national side
The World Cup started almost exactly a month ago with 62 teams vying for the top honour and now its only down to 22 men who will battle it out on Today (Sunday) at the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg to win the first ever World Cup for their country.
However looking at the individuality of the players and their backgrounds and where they earn their bread and butter it emerges as a battle between the Spanish La Liga and the English Premier League.
The Strength of the Spanish national side is a glaring testament to the Spanish youth system while the failure of the English side only points out to the ineptitude of the English youth system.
A the start of the World Cup 106 players were from the Premier league, 57 from the La Liga and 45 from the Serie A.
The English League claims to be the best in the world and it certainly is the richest but the English clubs went backwards in the Champions league last year and England’s failure in South Africa only casts further doubt over if the BPL is truly the home to world’s best players.
It is a gold mine for sure but with clubs in so much debt it is no longer about how rich the top clubs are but the answer lies in how poor are the lower clubs and it all counts towards the unyielding youth academies in the league.
For instance if you take the Sundays stating line up in the final between Netherlands and Spain, the Dutch have four player from the Premier league that will start: Nigel De Jong, Dirk Kuyt, Robin Van Persie and Johnny Heitinga.
When the list of the Golden ball nominees came it was a sobering reminder of the hype that there is about the English Premier League, out of the 10 five playing in the La Liga, three in the Bundes Liga one in Serie A and one in Ligue 1.
Spain after a slow start of the tournament finally hit top gear against Germany in the semi final and arguably has the most talented collection of players at this World Cup and yet their egos are kept in check.
Spain’s coaching camp in Poochefstorm is open to Public while you had to go thorough 4 security checks and a vehicle search to get to England’s training camp at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Complex in Rustenburg. English players used o be driven up to a large tent to interact with the media and the fans before being driven back to their five star hotel rooms under the watchful eye of umpteen security guards.
While Spanish players on the other hand stroll freely at the North West university Sports village totally at ease with themselves, not complaining of any boredom and demonstrating that clearly there is a way of handling the pressure of a big tournament.
David Villa and Wesly Sneijder could be seen posing for photographs. Puyol was seen talking to the press while Ramos signed for autographs for the fans that had come to wish Spain all the best.
All the previous Spanish teams had been undermined by regional and cultural differences between; Catalunya and Madrid this bunch of lads appear unified and majority of them play for a side from Catalunya.
Seven of the 11 that featured in the starting line up against the German play for Barcelona and it is only ironic to see that Spain’s charge for World Cup glory is lead by players from the Catalunya region, that has political and cultural differences with Madrid well documented, their history is very tense yet they rose above all else to be unified when they are called for national duty.
The English Premier league has only 40 % of the players that are English while 77% playing in the La Liga can represent the Spanish national side, in the end it only comes down to the home grown players in the respective league and this has been the mainstay of the sides that have been successful at this World Cup, look at Germany and Holland if you need further proof.
The golden generation of Spain is a fruit of years of youth development and their commitment to high footballing principles and tonight is their chance to make their mark on history.
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