Is Barclays Premier League The Best European Soccer League?

     As we know, The Barclays Premier League is an England professional league for men's association football clubs. England primary football competition is its football league system contested  by 20 clubs. Each team plays 38 matches (meaning that each team playing in the league two times, home and away), totaling 380 matches in the season.Manchester City won the Premier League in 2011-2012 season with quite dramatic score. Though in the first half they lost 1-2 against QPR (Queens Park Rangers), in injury time with only 5 minutes extra, "Kun" Aguero scored the winning goal and ended the match 3-2 for Manchester city.  There are so many players in England League that become a legend, such as Steven Gerard. He has served Liverpool for 17 years and becomes one of the greatest players in Barclays Premier League history. Barclays Premier League has so many great managers if compared to other leagues in Europe, for example Sir Alex Ferguson, who is the manager for Manchester United. He has served Manchester United for 26 years with 38 major trophies. Jose Mourinho is known as Chelsea’s manager, but then moved to Inter Milan and Real Madrid. Mourinho gets trophies from Inter Milan and Real Madrid, but He admits that it’s more fun to be a manager in Premier League than the manager of other leagues because of the passion of the underdog teams. And recently, Jurgen Klopp chose to manage Liverpool, since he wants to feel the euphoria of the Premier League. England League is the best football league in Europe, due to several reasons such as its astonishing performance, its top players, and its excellence compared to other leagues in Europe.

   Barclays Premier League is famous for its astonishing performance. Recently, in 2014-2015 season, there is a team called Leicester City which was promoted to Premier League and tried very hard to compete with other clubs. They finished at 17, and almost relegated from Premier League. But now in 2015-2016 season, they’ve made a big amazing  result . They’ve made it to be at top 4 until now. This is very surprising performance for an underdog club. In Premier League, there is an event called “boxing day”. Premier League is the only competition which use this “boxing day” matches in Europe which take place during Christmas. According to Wikipedia, “boxing day” is a week when each club plays three games in a week - mostly with unpredictable results. If they are lucky on Christmas, there are possibilities to win all the three games. Even the underdog clubs are able to beat the top table clubs, such as Sunderland which can beat Arsenal, Southampton which can beat Manchester United, and many more. According to Barclays Premier League official website, in 2010-2011 season, Newcastle United produced a stunning comeback from 4-0 down to earn a draw which shocked Arsenal. In the second half, Newcastle United was able to scores 4 goals. The last goal was scored by Cheik Tiote which became one of the best goals in that season.

     There are so many top players playing in Barclays Premier League. Based on Premier League statistics, in each club, there must be several players who always improve their skills. In Manchester City, "Kun" Aguero, one of the best strikers in Premier league, so far has scored 90 goals in 136 performances. In Liverpool, there are two players called “duo Brazilian”, Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino, who improve their skills, something that makes their fans very happy. There is also Steven Gerard, a legend and one of the best football players in the world. He is a good captain and also a player who has served 17 years for Liverpool. Ryan Giggs is also one of the best players in Premier league history. He has served 24 years for Manchester United, and now he is an assistant manager for Manchester United. According to Barclays Premier League transfer website, Angel Di Maria holds the record of expensive fee transfer so far with £59.7m from Real Madrid to Manchester United. Other expensive players are Kevin De Bruyne with £54.5m from Wolfsburg to Manchester City, and Fernando Torres with £50m from Liverpool to Chelsea, while Raheem Sterling is paid £49m from Liverpool to Manchester City.

     There are some other top football leagues in Europe such as Bundesliga in Germany, La liga in Spain, and Ligue 1 in France. Bundesliga is a Germany’s first top flight football league, which is quite boring, because we all know that Bundesliga only has 2 big clubs, namely Bayern Munchen and Dortmund. Even La liga, which has big teams like Barcelona with their trio “MSN” (Messi Suares Neymar), where Real Madrid is with Cristiano Ronaldo, and Atletico Madrid, we can easily predict who will win the title.  However, unlike Barclays Premier League, which has many big clubs, in Premier League surprisingly the underdog team can make it to the top 4. For example Leicester FC in the last season they had to survive from the relegation zone, but in this season, they have made it to the top 4 zone until now. While Ligue 1 in France is very boring too, because there is just one big team that never lose in the league, namely PSG. PSG have won 3 league titles in a row. And in this season they might win and claim their 4 league title in a row.

     In conclusion, compared to other top football leagues,  in my opinion Barclays Premier League is the best football league in Europe, because they can result in unpredictable results. This has been proven by several football teams which made it to the top from the underdog teams.  Besides that, England League is filled with a lot of top players with very expensive fee transfer and makes it the most excellent league in Europe. However, this could lead to a never-ending debate which is often influenced by national pride and the aesthetics of the game in each country.

By : Fandy Ahmad