La Liga

La Liga Facing a Crisis Without Big Stars

La Liga suffered a big hit in the last few days, with Lionel Messi deciding to leave Barcelona and continue his career in PSG. An already vulnerable competition that suffered enormously from COVID-19 chaos will face even more trouble in the upcoming nine months. After Messi’s departure, we are more than sure that the attention for La Liga’s games will decline.

 

However, all this might make the Spanish championship even more interesting, because now we don’t have dominant teams as in the recent past. Yes, the big trio, Barca, Real Madrid, and Atletico Madrid, still stand above all the other sides, but they are no longer super teams.

Bookies Underestimating Atletico

The current La Liga champions are the No.3 favorites to win the title in the upcoming season, which is nothing bad in our opinion. But when looking at the odds, the gap between them and Real and Barca is too big. We just want to remind you that Atletico kept its team intact, while on the other side, the biggest rivals had notable changes.

 

 

Real is in a better position than Barcelona, who lost Messi and is now a completely different team. After all, the Argentinian was arguably the best player in the world in the last decade, and there aren’t players who can fill in the gap after he left. Plus, even if there were, Barca doesn’t have the financial resources to sign them.

 

The reason for Messi’s departure was money, and Barca’s president, Joan Laporta, admitted that recently. 

 

“The negotiations with Messi have ended and it’s brought us here without an agreement because of the salary limit,” he revealed.

 

We need to mention Sevilla, who has an experienced and very talented crew. Don’t be surprised if they take a step forward and finish among the top three teams this season. If they have a certain dose of luck, they just might enter a title race.

La Liga Losing Star Players

The “Messi saga” put all the other transfers in the dark, and to be honest, there have been some notable moves, mainly from Spain to other leagues.

 

Sergio Ramos’s move to PSG is already forgotten, and this transfer, too, is a big minus for La Liga, who lost another incredible player and a superstar. These two were the captains of two of the biggest Spanish teams, meaning that the league took a big hit here.

 

On the other side, the most significant arrivals were David Alaba, who landed in Marid, signing for Real, and the duo that came to Barcelona, Sergio Aguero, and Memphis Depay. Even though these players have a world-class reputation, they are still under Messi’s and Ramos’s level.

 

When it comes to the most expensive summer transfer, Rodrigo de Paul arrived at Atletico Madrid from Udinese for almost £30 million.

Pedri - The New Star

The 18-year old Predri Gonzels Lopez is probably the biggest talent in the world now. Not only did the teenager successfully established himself as one of the key pieces in Barcelona’s game last season, but he had terrific EURO 2020 and Olympic Games campaigns.

 

The gifted central midfielder became the brain of the Spanish national team at a very young age. He would play 70 matches combined for Barca and Spain in the past 12 months and is now getting ready for more challenges.

 

 

Pedri recently revealed that once the opportunity for appearing in the Olympics came up, he immediately grabbed it, despite not having too much time to rest following EURO.

 

“I’d want to do both,” Pedri said, asked what is more important, EURO 2020 or the Olympic Games. “It’s true that the Games only come around once, but I want both.”

Barcelona's Fall

We risk offending an army of Barcelona’s supporters, but in our humble opinion, their favorites aren’t going to have a pleasant campaign, despite having Pedri and other big names. Without Messi, Barca has to figure out a new identity, which playing system to pick, and how to adjust to the new circumstances in general.

 

All this won’t be easy, particularly now, with the negative atmosphere surrounding the club. Once mentioning that Sevilla might enter the top three teams in the league, our pick for finishing behind them was Blaugrana.

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