The Professional Football League in Spain has two main divisions. The First Division or the Primera División is otherwise known as La Liga or the League. It is the best professional league in Spain. It has 20 teams contesting in it and the lowest three teams are transferred to the Second Division. The top three teams from the second division then take the place of those three teams in the First Division.
Of the 20 teams in the La Liga, only three have maintained their position and have never been relegated to the Second Division. The three teams are Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao.
Many players from all over the world wish to join La Liga. It is considered to be one of the best and indeed, one of the most popular domestic professional sports leagues in the world. It only falls behind Bundesliga and the Premier League. La Liga saw an approximate attendance of 29,029 in the matches for 2007-2008 season.
This summer, the English Premier League (EPL) and even Italy and France have lost their top players to La Liga. Some are willing to settle for less and join teams that have not made it to Champion League level in the recent past just so they can play in Spain.
Little wonder that we see Kaka being transferred for the 2009-2010 season from Milan to Real Madrid for a sum 68.5 million Euros. He was offered a bigger fee by Manchester City but he turned it down for Real Madrid. Real Madrid has signed him on for 6 years for a sum of £56m.
Karim Benzema also follows suit from Lyon to Real Madrid. The other players who have been transferred to Real Madrid are Cristiano Ronaldo who has left Manchester United, Xabi Alonso from Liverpool, Raul Albiol, Esteban Granero and Alvaro Arbeloa.
Barcelona now has Zlatan Ibrahimovic from Inter Milan, Keirrison and Maxwell.
We see Atletico Madrid with Sergio Asenjo, Leandro Cabrera and Juanito.
Sevilla has Alvaro Negredo, Didier Zokora and Sergio Sanchez.
Nilmar and Ivan Marcano have gone over to Villareal.
Valencia sees Miguel Moya and Bruno in its team.
All the above mentioned players have been transferred for the 2009-2010 season.
The 2008 transfers were –
Rafael van der Vaart to Real Madrid.
Aliaksandr Hleb and Gerard Piqué to Barcelona.
Paulo Assunção, Gregory Coupet, John Heitinga and Tomáš Ujfaluši to Atlético Madrid.
Damián Escudero, Robert Flores and Jozy Altidore to Villarreal
Renan to Valencia.
Lautaro Acosta, Koffi Romaric, Christian Pouga and Abdoulay Konko to Sevilla.
Some players have left the success enjoyed by their previous teams and have settled for Spain. While it is true that La Liga is one of the best, some of its teams have not made it to the international challenges for some seasons. However, the players are still lured. May be it is the luxurious life, the glamour of Spain, the tax breaks that Spain offers, the popularity of the league or may be it is just for the pure thrill of playing in Spain.
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