I’d say La Liga>Serie A>EPL>Bundesliga

Xavi and Busquets are non-negotiable. You can then decide between Zidane and Iniesta.

People assume oil clubs cheat all the time, when in fact it’s just them finding legal loopholes. Which UEFA allows.

One needs at least a super basic understanding of law. Legal matters are supposed to be written, and taken, as literally as possible. So if loopholes exist, then they’re not illegal to exploit. Not until the lawmakers plug the holes.

I find it funny how everyone’s complaining about oil clubs now that FFP exists (and they’re allegedly cheating it), but forgets about how Milan, Chelsea, United etc. used to outspend everyone through cash injections from the owners, when there was no FFP.

If you’re really interested, this might help.

Raw/unpasteurized milk is not inherently dangerous. Same way raw eggs, or fish, or meat, aren’t either. You either have pathogens or parasites in the food, or you don’t. Solid sanitation practices assure that you don’t.

In Europe at least, drinking unpasteurized milk is very common.

You’re not picking up anyone using football. You’re setting yourself up for disappointment.

I’d say it’s between Bayern and Barca. Bayern have the edge historically, but Barca had a greater influence on the game. Some of which you could argue was really Ajax’s influence through Michels and Cruyff, but then again they also took their ideas from somewhere else.

Barca have had bigger names. Maradona before they even won the European Cup, then in the 90s Romario, Rivaldo etc., R9’s best ever club season, then Ronaldinho was the biggest star in football for most of the 00s, bigger than R9 and Zidane, then Messi came.

Spain won 08-10-12 with a core of Barca players, playing to the strengths of the Barca players. Pep’s Barca made everyone else in the league adapt, and La Liga became the best league in the world. BdO podium of 3 Barca players. Pretty much every top manager in the world right now citing Pep’s Barca as an inspiration.

Great story too: in 2008, Mourinho was the hottest manager in the world. He had broken SAF and Wenger’s dominance in the EPL, and broken records. He had worked for Barcelona. Him getting the job looked inevitable, and everyone was scared of how good Barca would become. Instead Cruyff told Laporta no, hire the B team manager. So everyone thought huh, so they’re going through a rebuilding process after two trophyless seasons, they didn’t go for a big name. But they instantly assembled what most people consider to be the greatest team of all time. Won the sextuple and a billion trophies, but more importantly, changed the way football was played.

If you watch a Barca, Bayern, Milan, whatever game from before Pep’s Barca, you’ll notice how much open space there was on the pitch. We think of the defensive Italian teams from way back, but nobody really defended as a unit. Few years later, every team attacked and defended together. No more massive gaps, no more idle time for one compartment while the ball’s on the other side of the pitch.

Teams immediately tried replicating what Barca was doing. Chelsea bought Oriol Romeu hoping he’d be the next Busquets. Wenger saw it coming, he talked about it, and changed his French-based Arsenal with big, physical players to a more Spanish-style squad, based around Cesc, Cazorla, Arteta or small, technical players in general, like Wilshere and Nasri. Everyone wanted La Masia players, or Barca-type players.

And at the beginning, most copycat attempts failed. Because they all thought “alright, we get small, technical players and we play a possession game” was enough. Top 5 league managers tried copying Barcelona but couldn’t, because they couldn’t actually understand the tactics behind Barca’s game. Instead, the managers that did truly understand the tactics, perfected bus-parking. Doesn’t matter whether we see bus-parking as a bad thing or not, defensive tactics were forced to evolve massively as a reaction to Barcelona’s game. We’ve never seen anything like it happen in reaction to SAF, Jupp or Ancelotti’s football.

Bayern may have been the more consistent club, but they’ve never reached Barca’s peaks.

What’s the point of the comparison? I’m a Barca fan. Jude’s currently better simply through the fact that Pedri’s not even playing, he’s injured. Pedri’s been overworked, and this might affect his career in the long run.

Doesn’t matter that Jude’s currently outscoring Haaland and Mbappe. Jude’s clearly the better scorer, but that doesn’t make him the inherently better player. Pedri plays, or should play, deeper, so he’ll never be as flashy. Could still finish his career as the better player, provided he won’t keep getting injured.

I’m a Barca fan, but the EPL is easily the best league in the world right now. And it’s probably going to stay that way for a long time, because their revenue far exceeds everyone else’s. The best managers in the world right now are probably Pep at Man City and Klopp at Liverpool. De Zerbi at Brighton, Arteta at Arsenal and Ange at Spurs, also very exciting. The Prem hogs most of the talent.

It’s also the best marketed league, in every sense: the “production” of EPL games feels like a show, an event, with might appeal to you if you’re into American sports. Atmospheres generally great too, only Germany has better crowds out of the top leagues. Sound mixing on the broadcast is important too. The EPL gets it right, other leagues, not so much.

You don’t have to pick a team to support, it might come naturally. And if it doesn’t, that’s fine. I’d just try to catch every Man City game, because Pep won’t be managing forever, and he’s one of the greatest coaches of all time, probably #1.

Would also follow Tifo Football and Tifo IRL on YouTube for tactical explanations, football history, player analysis etc… The YT algorithm will suggest similar channels too. Just take everyone’s analysis with a grain of salt; football isn’t a science, and everyone says some dumb stuff once in a while.

You should always try to watch games like El Clasico/Real Madrid vs. Barcelona, Bayern vs. Dortmund, games between the Italian big 3 (Milan, Inter, Juventus), but if you wanna focus on one competition, one “storyline” so to speak, then it should be the EPL.

Also: you can use something like this to get an idea over which teams might be worth watching. Look up what these xG, xGA etc. values mean. They’re not a perfect indicator of what truly goes on in a game, but they’re nonetheless based on real life events, and aggregated by professional statisticians.

So for example if team A has scored 30 goals in 15 games, from an expected goals (xG) value of 35, while team B has scored 30 in 15 from an xG value of 25, then that means team A generally creates more chances, but is worse at converting them into goals. And chances are exciting. But it also means team B has more efficient finishers, and it’s also exciting to see players convert low value chances into goals.