No, not the NFL. Two European football leagues, the Bundesliga in Germany and Ligue 1 in France get started this weekend. In the Bundesliga, Wolfsburg came out in fine form to defend their championship by beating Stuttgart 2-0 last night. The English Premier League starts next weekend and Italy’s Serie A on August 22. Spain’s La Liga, with the refurbished, multi million euro nuevo Galacticos of Real Madrid begins play on August 30th.
Incidentially, my favorite European football team is Real Sporting de Gijon, a team from the north of Spain that is playing in La Liga for the second straight season. Sporting was in the relegation zone at halftime of the last game last season, but managed to win and avoid relegation. Why do I follow a team that just spent a decade playing in the second division in Spain? Simple – sports economist Placido Rodriguez of the University of Oviedo was the president of Sporting several years ago.
