Spain has a clear dominant position in the European and Latin American media when it comes to football. What El Chiringuito, Cadena SER or sports newspapers say, if it is not a holy word, is in the process of beatification. Reason…? No other country has as many specialized newspapers and hundreds of radio and television programs devoted to the number five. Marca, As, Mundo Deportivo and Sport are the first four, in terms of sales, resonance and readership. But not the only one. There are also Superdeporte (from Valencia), Estadio Deportivo (from Seville), L’Esportiu, the only newspaper of its kind in the Catalan language, based in Barcelona and Girona. La Grada, which publishes two editions, one about the activities of Atlético de Madrid and the other about the daily life of Espanyol de Barcelona. Mundo Deportivo has two editions in the Basque Country: Athletic Bilbao leads the news in Vizcaya, Real Sociedad in Guipúzcoa. There are also numerous digital newspapers, such as Espíritu Deportivo, which follows Real Zaragoza, currently in the Second League. And the most famous ones have websites and social media platforms with tens of millions of followers. And there are also international editions: As Argentina, As Colombia, Chile, Peru, Mexico, United States. Same with the brand.

Spanish football has a great penetration through the media also because it is a historically strong league, with a huge impact, considering that there are two clubs that play there that are the biggest world powers – Real Madrid and Barcelona – and others that have an enormous competitive quality like Atlético de Madrid, Valencia, Sevilla… Between Madrid and Barcelona they have 19 Champions Leagues out of 67 editions. A very high 28.35% of titles went to the Iberian Peninsula. And they reached the final 11 more times, counting the subtitles of the two giants plus those of Atlético and Valencia. The same is happening with the European League, in which Spanish teams add 13 crowns and 5 runners-up.

In both competitions, the Spanish dominance is irresistible. England, Italy and Germany follow, the same order in both. France ranks 7th in the Champions League (only 1 crown) and 12th in the UEFA Cup, as it used to be called, in which it has never celebrated a champion, it can barely show six finalists. At the level of the size of the clubs – and therefore the leagues – France is far below Spain. Even when it was difficult and bad football – 70 years – the Spanish league was a league of the highest level because of the enormous number of foreigners who shone in its institutions. It was always imported football. Di Stéfano, Puskas, Kubala, Cruyff, Koeman, Kempes, Maradona, Romario, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Zidane, Stoichkov, Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi, Luis Suárez, Benzema played there, just to name a handful of monsters. There were hundreds of cracks from all latitudes that shone in Cervantes’ homeland. With few exceptions, it has always been the strongest and most attractive league in the world.

France, with an audience perhaps split between football and rugby without being too importunate, was far from that excellence. In the UEFA table of coefficients for the distribution of places in international tournaments, Spain is second and France is fifth. Although last season Spain was almost equal: 18,428 points for Spain and 18,416 for the country of Napoleon.

This is a map of reality at the club level. Despite the supremacy in that field, it is embodied in Spain that the French championship is very minor and is derogatorily called “the league of farmers”, but it is little more than that. Many greats came out of that farm. Les Bleus they recently reached their third final in the last five World Cups. They were Euro 2016 runners-up and Nations League winners in 2021. But above all, it is the country that produces the most elite footballers in the world, even above Brazil and Argentina, historically the two most generous bellies in terms of cracks. The training phenomenon was born in the eighties, with a lot of football academies across the country. Thus, after that golden generation of WC ’82 with Platini, Giresse, Tressor, Battiston, Lacombe, Genghini, Bossis, Amoros, Six, Tigan, Rocheteau, it gave birth to countless talents such as Zinedine Zidane, Franck Ribery, Eric Cantona, Laurent Blanc, Lilian Thuram, Jean Tigana, Didier Deschamps, Fabien Barthez, Thierry Henry, Jean Pierre Papin, Youri Djorkaeff, Patrick Vieira, Robert Pires, Marcel Desailly, Karim Benzema, Hugo Lloris, N’Golo Kanté, Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappé… And about a hundred other notable farmers. Suffice it to say that it produced four Golden Balls: Platini (won 3), Zidane, Papin and Benzema. We do not count important values ​​such as Lizarazu, Patrice Evra, Varane, Pogba, Rabiot, Kingsley Coman, Kolo Muani, etc.

Spain has only had one Ballon d’Or in its history: Luisito Suárez, in 1960. In the generation of La Roja that won the Eurocup in 2008 and 2012 and the World Cup in 2010, there were great Spanish figures such as Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Piqué, Busquets, Sergio Ramos. However, after that magnificent wave, Spain returned to normal. There are no top players, which was shown in the last three world championships. They reproached Luis Enrique for creating a “team of a thousand passes”, which did not look at the goal in front of them. But it’s not style, but individuality, that’s why one failure followed another. Ultramadridismo, the vast majority in Spain, turned their backs on Luis Enrique’s team in Qatar because there were only two white elements: Carvajal and Asensio. But there was no more than a category that could be chosen, maybe Nacho. That’s why they nationalized the Frenchman Aymeric Laporte and he was the starter. Now Luis de la Fuente, the team’s new coach, has done the same with Robin Le Normand. The Real Sociedad defender is completing the citizenship procedure. The Spanish defense in Eurocop would be guarded by two Frenchmen.

Real Madrid, which has four farmers in its team (Mendy, Camavinga, Tchouameni and Benzema), presented on January 11, for the first time in its 121-year history, a lineup with eleven foreigners. It was against Villarreal.

France is the first European football power in terms of national teams, it is second in the FIFA ranking, while Spain is in 10th place. France is the main supplier of talent for England, Germany, Spain and Italy, the top four leagues. Its internal competition is less attractive than the Spanish one, it has fewer powerful clubs – only PSG, Olympique de Marserilla and its namesake from Lyon – but it is a very physical competition, with a large majority of Afro-descendants and dozens of footballers who will emigrate to play there. animate the best championship. Spain attracts more in the clubs, but has less strength in the national teams. Calling the French tournament the Farmers League is arrogant and hugely ignorant. (OR)