One would think with Spain producing one great player after another, and the country dominating the world game, they would also have the most competitive league in the world. One would think wrong. The Spanish La Liga is about two teams and two teams alone - Real Madrid and Barcelona.
No other team even comes close to matching the top two's dominance. Valencia, who finished in third place last season behind Real Madrid and Barcelona, were 39 points behind the winners. That statistic says it all. There are no uncertainties in the La Liga, it is a two-horse race and will be until the TV money is shared around equally, like it is in the English Premier League.
The likes of Valencia, Athletic Bilbao and Atletico Madrid and players like Radamel Falcao and Fernando Llorente, if he stays, are only playing to finish third in the league or to win the Europa League, which is not bad at all, but not as good as winning the Spanish League title either.
So what do you expect this season? Exactly what we saw last, but only better. Real and Barca will go head-to-head yet again. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi will fight for individual and with it team honors once more time, with renewed vigour.
Real and Ronaldo won the title last year, going on an astonishingly consistent run and topping 100 points for the season - yes 100 points! In matches that see Real and Barca play other teams, it is not about the result; that, a vast majority of the time, is a foregone conclusion; it is about how many goals you can score and by what margin you can achieve victory.
Malaga looked like they might finally be the team to compete with the likes of Real and Barca, but that will not materialize. The rich owners from the Middle-east pulled their funding, and the club debt-ridden, are trying to find a new buyer. They have already sold their two of their best players - Santi Cazorla to Arsenal and Salomon Rondon to Rubin Kazan, with several more departures expected.
The charm of La Liga, however, is the two clubs and their astounding quality. The teams not only have the best players in Spain - by far the best team in the world in international competitions - they also have the best players in the world.
There is no disputing the fact that Ronaldo and Messi are easily the two greatest players of this generation. The records that the two seem to create are alarming, not just when you take the statistics, but with the consistency and ease they do it in.
Ronaldo is your quintessential dribbling powerful pacy player, who is also quite god in the air and brilliant at setpieces. Messi, on the other hand, seems to have all the time in the world with the ball at his feet, and glides along the field at will, with nobody capable of touching him at full flight. Both brilliant players to watch, with little separating the two.
Barcelona, however, have a small handicap this season - they lost their inspirational manager Pep Guardiola, who stepped down to take a one-year sabbatical. Guardiola's assistant Tito Vilanova has taken over at the helm and it remains to be seen how he handles the pressure. Vilanova will come up against the wily and most tactically astute manager Jose Mourinho, who became the first coach in history to win league titles in four different countries, and particularly in the top three leagues of England, Italy and Spain, after Real ran away with the crown last season.
Watching Barcelona, with the likes of Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Cesc Fabregas is a joy, as is enjoying the high pace game of Real with Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Gonzalo Higuain, Angel Di Maria and Mesut Ozil and more.
Everybody knows the outcome before a single ball is kicked. Barcelona and Real Madrid will finish in the top two. However, that will not stop the entire world from tuning in to watch the Spanish League, and particularly those two magical players - Messi and Ronaldo.
