El Clasico is the biggest rivalry in sports, featuring the biggest stars in the biggest venues with some of the biggest prizes in soccer generally on the line. So who are the El Clasico top scorers, the players who shine when the lights are brightest and the pressure is on? We made a list, and it has some pretty impressive names on it.
France’s Ligue 1 has given by far the most opportunities to Under-21 players this season, while German side Borussia Dortmund are the club to have handed out most minutes to youngsters.
A review of the top-five leagues by soccer statisticians Opta showed that Under-21 players have enjoyed a collective 62,046 minutes of game time in the French top flight in 2020/21.
The German Bundesliga is second with 34,993 minutes, while England’s Premier League (29,172), Italy's Serie A (23,225) and Spain’s LaLiga (22,893) round off the list.
It has been a strange season in Spanish football as both Barcelona and Real Madrid are experiencing down years, but Atlético Madrid manager Diego Simeone has seized on the opportunity to win a second LaLiga title for his club.
For a long stretch of the season, Atlético was nearly unbeatable. Following a pair of nil-nil draws early in the campaign, Simeone's side won 15 of 16 league games — the only misstep a 2-0 defeat to crosstown rival Real Madrid. This put the club 11 points clear at the top of LaLiga.
This list for the players with the most international goals in the history of soccer stretches from players who played in the 1940s to the present day. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi score at an incredible rate for Portugal and Argentina, respectively, but there are those from history who boast an even more impressive rate of scoring.
Americans have a long, but not necessarily impressive, history of playing soccer in Europe.
John Harkes was the first American to play in the English Premier League when he debuted for Sheffield Wednesday in 1991. Since then, many Americans have tested their mettle in England, yet very few have delivered truly impressive seasons.
Tim Howard was one of the better goalkeepers in the Premier League for a decade, Brad Friedel's Premier League run extended even longer, while Clint Dempsey and Brian McBride both had their share of impressive seasons.
Football was changed forever in the 1950's by a man named Charles Reep, a retired Wing Commander from the British Royal Air Force. After watching and meticulously analyzing hundreds of soccer games, Reep came to the conclusion that the majority of goals in soccer come from moves of three passes or fewer.
This simple deduction shaped British football from that point on, changing it from a game based on individual dribbling ability and guile into a long ball jamboree and war of field position. Thus, England became a country known for aerial duels and rough and tumble soccer.
Memories of the Premier League 10-15 years ago conjure up very specific visions, with the nostalgia usually centering around someone hitting the piss out of a classic Nike ball.
No 2000s soccer mixtape was complete without some random gangly defender hitting a 40-yard rocket to the top corner, Wayne Rooney burying a dipping half-volley or a center midfielder charging forward and doing unspeakable things to a one-touch shot from long range.
When Erling Haaland scored his 25th Bundesliga goal for Borussia Dortmund in his 25th game for the club the 20-year-old striker had certainly exceeded expectations but for the first time analysts were able to calculate by exactly how much.
Haaland had taken 73 shots on goal for an Expected Goals (xGoals) tally of 18.15, which means he had scored seven more goals than expected, underlining his world class efficiency in converting shots from difficult situations.
Not long ago, the American soccer landscape was a barren wasteland devoid of talent. Americans either played for boring MLS teams or obscure European clubs, always moving laterally and rarely improving.
Kids these days have Christian Pulisic at Chelsea and Sergiño Dest at Barcelona. We had a promising central defender at Birmingham City that now works at a financial company. Man, they have it easy.
While the Premier League is ascribed to be the most talented league in the world, the EFL Championship might be as difficult, if not more so, than the English top flight.
In terms of talent, the Championship is just a small step below the Premier League and there is little disparity between the top and bottom of the table. 23rd place Birmingham has beaten second place Brentford and fifth place Reading this season, while Derby County beat Norwich then went winless for two months and dropped to the bottom of the table.
