Each national football team has always had a domestic league as its base. When football was more of a game and less of a business, international transfers were rare, and most players performed in their domestic competitions. Nowadays, national teams with starting lineups full of individuals playing abroad are nothing unusual, especially for countries outside the world’s top leagues. However, there are some with which the situation is completely opposite, like the best national teams in football, such as England, Germany, Italy, or Spain, where the majority of players entertain the audiences in their own homelands. In those cases, national team head coaches mostly rely on top clubs’ representatives.Quite remarkabel this, that for the first time since 1928 Spain today put out a starting eleven with no players from either Real Madrid, Barça or Atleti.Instead players from 9 different clubs, most, two each, from Real Sociedad and Arsenal. https://t.co/8VqDhnQJms— Alexandra Jonson (@AlexandraJonson) October 15, 2024 Nevertheless, the proof that it’s not always like that comes from the Spanish national team’s XI the manager Luis de la Fuente chose for the UEFA Nations League match against Serbia, which included no Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Atletico Madrid players for only the fourth time in La Furia’s 104-year-long history! The only time that happened was 96 years ago in three games at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic Games, where Spain was represented solely by players from Basque clubs.Of course, had it not been for the injuries, Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo, and Dani Carvajal – or at least one of them – would have been starters. However, this way, Barca’s Pedri and Pau Cubarsi, as well as Atletico’s Rodrigo Riquelme began the game on the bench, while no Los Blancos’ player had even been called up!Footballing rulers of Europe show no mercy towards confused SerbiaTruth be said, La Liga had only four representatives from three different clubs in the XI – Dani Vivian (Athletic Bilbao), Alex Baena (Villarreal), and Martin Zubimendi and Mikel Oyarzabal (Real Sociedad). An equal number of starters came from the English Premier League – David Raya and Mikel Merino (Arsenal), Marc Cucurella (Chelsea), and Pedro Porro (Tottenham), while the French Ligue 1, Saudi Pro-League, and Italian Serie A had one representative each – Fabian Ruiz (Paris Saint-Germain), Aymeric Laporte (Al-Nassr), and Alvaro Morata (AC Milan).The European champion is without a contractClearly, a situation like this scarcely happens, and perhaps this won’t recur in hundred years, but when they come about, they remind everyone that, despite they immense greatness, those giant clubs like the trio from the title, are not the only ones and that without players of Sociedad, Villarreal, Sevilla, Real Betis, Athletic Bilbao, and other “overshadowed” sides, there cannot be a national team.##NAJAVA_MECA_8414742##
