History of the Spanish La Liga

LFP's Primera Division or Liga BBVA - named so for sponsorship reasons, is among the most competitive football league systems in the world. Some would state that its the best attributable to the plethora of goals witnessed, however its domination by Real Madrid and Barcelona has led to a monopolistic trait mirroring Bayern Munich's situation in the Bundesliga. In addition to the Spanish League title, teams as well compete for the Copa del Rey. Supercopa de Espana entails the winners of the League against Copa del Rey winners. Teams that fail to make the cut in the league - ideally the three bottom teams are demoted to the Segunda Division. Currently, several prominent teams such as Real Zaragoza, Real Betis and Osasuna participate in the Segunda Division. Ironically, Real Betis earned their demotion through the exploits of the current coach of Barcelona - Luis Enrique. Their stadium - Benito Villamarin is currently the biggest in the Segunda Division with a capacity of more than fifty thousand fans. Only La Romerada and El Molinon come close to such a capacity. Back to the Liga BBVA. Since its inception, nine teams have won the league; Real Madrid - most titles, Barcelona, Sevilla, Athletic Bilbao, Atletico Madrid, Valencia, Real Betis, Real Sociedad and Deportivo la Coruna. The capital has three clubs in the league - Rayo Vallecano, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. Barcelona and Valencia have two teams each - Espanyol and Barcelona FC for the former, Levante and Valencia for the latter. During the 1950's clubs in the league could only accommodate three foreign players and so both Real Madrid and Barcelona cunningly twisted the rules by naturalizing Alfredo di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas and Laszlo Kubala. Among the legendary coaches to ply his trade in the Spanish league was Helenio Herrera - the legendary Argentinian who is compared to Jose Mourinho attributable to the fact that he craved for defensive formations. Oddly, there existed no official individual awards until the LFP awards were instituted during the 2008-09 season. The player and manager of the month award was inaugurated during the 2013-14 season. All in all, there are four unofficial awards in the Liga BBVA namely; Zarra Trophy, Ricardo Zamora Trophy, Pichichi Trophy as well as Trofeo Alfredo di Stefano. The league entails several derbies that include; Basque derby - Real Sociedad vs Athletic Bilbao, Valencia derby - Levante vs Valencia, Seville derby - Sevilla vs Real Betis, Galician derby - Deportivo la Coruna vs Celta Vigo, Derbi Barceloni - Barcelona vs Espanyol, Asturian derby - Real Oviedo vs Sporting Gijon, as well as the Madrid derby - Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid. All in all, none comes closer to the supreme El Clasico that pairs Real Madrid vs Barcelona. While Lionel Messi holds the record for most goals scored, Iago Aspas brags about the fastest hattrick. Francesco Gento has won most La Liga league titles, while Xavier Aguado holds the record for most dismissals. Athletic Bilbao holds the record for the largest win margin after they thrashed Barcelona 12- 1. Andoni Zubizaretta - the current Camp Nou sporting director, holds the record for most games without conceding and most competitive league appearances. Espanyol holds the record for most overall losses in the league, while both Real Madrid and Barcelona hold the record for most points amassed during a single season. Laszlo Kubala brags as regards the most golas scored in a single match while Cristiano Ronaldo holds the record for the fastest fifty and one hundred goals. Ronaldo, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi hold the record for the most number of opponents scored against in a single season. Barcelona's Camp Nou is the biggest stadium followed by Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu. Valencia's Mestalla, Atletico Madrid's Vicente Calderon, Athletic Bilbao's San Mames, and Sevilla's Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan fill up the top six slots consecutively. Despite the overall domination of Real Madrid over Barcelona as regards total titles sealed, La Masia talents outclass Castilla products by a far stretch. Liga BBVA has witnessed world class talents such as Brazilians; Ronaldo, Kaka, Roberto Carlos, Denilson, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Romario, Argentinians; Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi, Juan Roman Riquelme, Javier Saviola, Walter Samuel, Estaben Cambiasso and Gonzalo Higuain, Dutch; Johan Cruyff, Patrick Kluivert, Marc Overmars, Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf and Ruud van Nistelrooy, English; David Beckham, Michael Owen, Gary Lineker and Steve Macmanaman, Italians; Fabio Cannavaro, Christian Vieri, Antonio Cassano and Gianluca Zambrotta, French; Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry, Lilian Thuram, Laurent Blanc, Bixente Lizarazu, Karim Benzema Claude Makelele and Ludovic Giuly, Germans; Toni Kroos, Christoph Metzelder, Bodo Ilgner and Bernd Schuster, Portuguese; Cristiano Ronaldo, Simao, Miguel and Luis Figo. Natives have as well excelled in the league with prominent personalities comprising Raul Gonzalez, Xavi Hernandez, Telmo Zarra, Andreas Iniesta, Iker Casillas, Santiago Canizares, Carles Puyol, Xabi Alonso, David Villa and Fernando Torres. Many other prominent personalities have as well graced the Liga BBVA - Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Samuel E'too, Hugo Sanchez, Hristo Stoichov, James Rodriguez, Michael Laudrup - just to name a few, however currently the league has the world's most expensive player in the mold of Gareth Bale. Raymond Kopa, Alfredo di Stefano, Luis Suarez, Rivaldo, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Johan Cruyff, Hristo Stoichov, Lionel Messi, Luis Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo have all won the Ballon d'Or while playing for Spanish La Liga outfits.