Ireland Coach Giovanni Trapattoni mentioned after the Spain - Ireland Friendly game days back, that this Spain was better than the legendary Brazil of Pele. A real honour coming from a man who is a walking Football History book & with huge experience.
There is no doubt that Spain has & is ruling World Football since 2008 with Euro 2008, FIFA World Cup 2010 & Euro 2012 titles. If Spain can add the upcoming FIFA Confederations Cup it would be a cherry on their cake, although the history breaker & "immortal status" would be to retain World Champions title by winning the FIFA 2014 World Cup. Difficult but possible with this generation of Spanish Football players.
There are many reasons why Spain now dominates World Football, one being obvious, the gathering of an exceptional once in a lifetime generation of class players like Iniesta, Xavi, Ramos, Pique, Casillas, Silva etc & etc. But another reason is the exportation of Spanish Football Players to overseas to foreign Football Leagues.
This until recent times was not a common practice for Spanish Football Players, it was very rare because they were timid & full of non-confidence due to lack of language skills, lack of foreign culture & very close family ties. Take the very last signing by Manchester City, wing Jesus Navas, he has overcome a serious problem of anxiety attacks eveytime he was far from home. The proble was so severe that it threaten to halt his International Football career. Now the man goes 1000s of kilometres the practice his profession.
The above image shows a handful of Spanish players overseas who are part of the Spanish National Team, back there are many others like Michu ( Swansea ) , Javi Garcia ( Man City ) , David de Gea ( Man Utd ) & so on, just to mention a few.
This jump overseas has given Spanish players new, different Football styles & culture & when they all return to the National Team, Spain as a Football squad benefits from the richness & the elimination of a past inferiority complex.
There will be more exports. Iago Aspas of Celta will join Liverpool FC next season, Adrian & Cañas of Betis go of to England, young Thiago of FC Barcelona is rumoured for Man Utd & Joaquin of Malaga goes off to Italy next season. This is good, for their personal growth & experience & for Spanish Football, where we hope will continue to give us plenty of joys in the next coming years.
That English Club ARSENAL has signed Spanish International & MALAGA FC defender MONREAL for 9,3M GBP is old news. From here we wish the player luck & send a message over to the Arsenal fans that this is a very good buy. Monreal joins other Spaniards at the Club like Arteta & Cazorla with many more scattered across other English Premier League Clubs.
It now is a familiar story to read about Spanish Football Players making a jump out of Spain to play in overseas Clubs. But it was not like this at all until recent years. This "phenomenon" is new as traditionally Spanish Soccer players preferred to stay in Spain even if that meant not playing at all.
The reasons for being reluctant in this aspect, in my opinion, were two: cultural & lack of prestige overseas. The first comes from a lack of International awareness & primarily from not being able to dominant a foreign language. This last is still a problem in Spain as very few ( relatively ) speak well other languages especially English. The decades of European isolation under Dictator Franco ( 1939 - 1973 ) created a "bubble" that due to propaganda reasons had everyone believe that Spain was the centre of the World & languages was not a bonus. This along with strong family ties lead to a low desire to leave & an inferiority complex - or scare - with everything related with outside Spain. Basically without knowledge of overseas cultures & language leaving home was not an option. Said this, paradoxically those who could not earn a living from Football immigrated by the their hundreds of thousands lead by need.
The second aspect is the lack of knowledge of Spanish Football players overseas. The explosion of the current generation of Spanish Football Players has placed Spain & its Footballers in the Nº1 World Football position, just like Brazilians back in the 1950s - 80s. The incredible achievements of winning the Euro 2008 - World Cup 2010 - Euro 2012, along with dominating European Football at Club level has turned Spanish Football Players into high valued assets that every Club wishes to have in their squad.
The Spanish Football pioneers in making the jump overseas are many & now househlod names here & in Europe. Remember the wave the went to Liverpool FC ? Coach Benitez, Xabi Alonso, Arbeloa , Reina & Torres, which gave the Club a European Title ? Arteta to Everton, Cesc Fabregas to Arsenal, Mata to Chelsea, Silva to Man City, De Gea at Man Utd, Raul Gonzalez to Schalke 04...now Bojan to MIlan, Michu at Swansea, Cazorla & now Monreal to Arsenal...the list goes on & on.
Overcoming cultural & personal barriers has in return bettered Spanish Football & more so the Spanish National Team. Those Internationals playing overseas have brought back "new ways" of playing with has enriched the National side & has played a part in their recent success.
Monreal is just the last that has endeavoured to play away from home which will enrich is profession Football career & his personal life. New horizons, new adventures & new friends are nothing to be sacred about, & return we back home gain in the new Football ideas won & to be applied locally by those that left & later returned.
