Quote:
Originally Posted by Nuje
That's quite inaccurate. I believe Jagger's avatar would be a more accurate destination for a team every player dreams of playing for.  ...but really, there are a ton. In England, it's typically one of those 2 as they both have a ridiculous amount of awards in their history. Arsenal and Chelsea are in the same level, but with less history, although Arsenal has been in the top level of English football for longer than anyone else. Other teams around the world with a large amount of prestige include Barcelona & Real Madrid in Spain, AC Milan and Inter Milan in Italy, Bayern Munich in Germany...these are teams that almost every year qualify for the champions league (although AC Milan didn't participate in it this year, I believe they are qualified for next year).
Also for example, oftentimes, players will want to play for their own countries, because a German player for example grew up watching Bayern Munich, and while winning the English Premier League would be a great prestige, it's the German league trophy that he watched his heroes hoist, and would like to do the same. If you wanted a club trophy like the Stanley Cup, then the UEFA Champions league is probably the one you're looking at. While the club world cup takes the winners of all the champions leagues, it doesn't tend to get talked about as much, since the best players usually end up in Europe quickly due to the money they have. |
In addition to the players personal desires most players begin their professional careers in their home countries due to the ability of home clubs to sign them to youth contracts and work them through the academy system. The situation spoken of above with Macheda is pretty rare, you don't see many young guys (ie. under 18) leave one European nation to sign with a club in another. It's more common with young players from outside of Europe as the teams in South America, Asia, Africa etc. don't usually have the ability to keep elite talent at home for very long.
Q: Define Confusion
A: Fathers day in Liverpool