Perhaps world football’s biggest myth is that the Premier League is the best football league in the world. In fact, this myth only exists in the British Isles and former British Colonies, including the United States.
In reality, more people around the world associate top football with La Liga’s two giant clubs: FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. People also consider Italy and Germany as top destinations for club football. Teams like Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan, and Bayern Munich attract top players from South America and around the world.
The myth that the Premier League is the world’s top league is a marketing scam that the Premier League tries to sell in the British Isles and the United States. If you want quick proof that the Premier League has never historically been the world’s top league, just consider that Pelé, Diego Maradona, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, and Lionel Messi never played there. Surprisingly, Cristiano Ronaldo did play in the Premier League for Manchester United, but the reason that he played there was because he impressed all of their players when he played against them as a teenager. This was something of a coup for the Premier League. To be fair, Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp amongst others shinned in the Premier League.
If you need more convincing that the Premier League isn’t the world’s top football league, consider how elite South American players from Brazil and Argentina essentially never played in the Premier League until they were offered too much money to say no to from oil sheikhs and oligarchs. Another interesting tidbit to consider is that Italy and Germany are two of the most successful countries in the World Cup, and yet their players also don’t go play in England. France due to it’s proximity to England does have its top players go play in the Premier League, and this is perhaps the strongest counterargument to the Premier League not being the world’s top club football league.
So the question is this: If most of the top South American, German, and Italian players don’t play in the Premier League, then how is it the top team in the world?
Style and quality of football are another areas where the Premier League is behind La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga, and even Ligue 1. English club football features lots of long balls, an abundance of crosses and headers, out of control running and passing, and dirty tackles. Recently, when Chelsea played Manchester United in the FA Cup, the British announcer and commentator didn’t even know that David Luiz’s striking technique for free kicks was called the folha seca nor could they recognize it as a striking technique that plenty of elite footballers have used. It’s obviously not a big deal to not know the Brazilian Portuguese term for the side-footed freekick, but they seemed to not know that David Luiz wasn’t the only player who has even done it. This advanced bit of skill simply baffled the commentators, who have also been equally confused when Marcus Rashford executes dribbling tricks like elásticos. Someone might have to check to make sure Rashford really is English because his dribbling and overall skill-set are truly world-class.
Recently, a depleted Paris Saint-Germain showed how elite one-to-two touch football played by technical players is far superior to a Manchester United side who have been whipping Premier League fans into a frenzy. What happened when PSG played Manchester United is that elite players from Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Germany, and France really showed the Premier League players how to play, and unfortunately for Manchester United, Paul Pogba wasn’t enough to beat PSG.
To be fair, the Premier League is full of excellent and exciting footballers from around the globe, including South America, but are the Premier League games really more exciting than games in other leagues? Next time you are on the fence about what club game to watch, consider that La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga, and Ligue 1 have most of world football’s top players, and just maybe those players’ teams really know how to play.