As an American soccer fan, there is a multitude of choices offered to me, as I am not tied down to any league or city as my home. In American sports, I only support teams from Los Angeles because that is where I'm from, but with European sports, we can a la carte our favorite teams, players, and leagues based on other factors, such as team style or uniforms. The most natural choice for American fans when first getting into soccer is the English Premier League, as it is the most famous league in the world, the most top-to-bottom competitive, and is a natural transition to American fans due to its NBCSN television deal and common English language. However, I believe the obvious choice is not always the best, and I personally believe new soccer fans would get a more fulfilling experience if they choose Spain's La Liga.
The most common knock against La Liga is that the same two teams, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, win the league every year and that there is no drama at the top of the table when contrasted to the Premier League, where there are five contenders every year. However, this is inherently untrue when one looks at the historical evidence. There have been five different Premier League Champions since the year 2000, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City, and Leicester City. This may surprise the casual fans, but there have also been five champions of La Liga in that same time frame: FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, my beloved Atlético Madrid, Valencia CF and Deportivo La Coruña. In addition, Leicester's triumph in 2015-16 was a one-off miracle that began the season with 5000 to 1 odds to win the title, showing that there have only been four consistent contenders to win the title in the league. The counter argument is that Deportivo is Leicester's equivalent, as Deportivo won their only title in 1999 to 2000, but they would go on to finish second in the next two consecutive seasons, while Leicester finished 12th the season after winning the league. This shows there is more top-end competition in La Liga, even though both Leicester and Deportivo are currently mired in mid-table mediocrity.
There is also much more top-end talent at the top of La Liga. The best players in the world come to play for the Big Three teams of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético. Players such as Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Antoine Griezmann, Andres Iniesta and many more top players are on display every week in beautiful stadiums such as the Camp Nou, Santiago Bernabeu, Mestalla, New San Mames and Atleti's new 68,000 master class Estadio Wanda Metropolitano. Although English fans try to claim that Chelsea or Manchester City could compete in La Liga, I simply believe that this isn't true, as English clubs have consistently failed to defeat Spanish clubs in the Champions League, where all three of Spain's Big Three have made the final in the last three seasons. In addition, a Spanish club has won the Champions League for four consecutive seasons, and have the highest league coefficient ranking in the world.
Spain's La Liga has the best top end talent, best competitive balance at the top of the title, and the most exciting soccer in the world. Therefore, although English soccer may be the obvious choice for new soccer fans, I firmly believe Spain, and it's rich and competitive soccer culture, is the best choice when looking for a brave new world that lives outside of our United States sports universe.
