Quantity & Quality: What Italian Soccer Provides That Other Leagues Don't

The casual football(soccer) nut hears the often used phrase "best soccer nation in the world" and immediately thinks "Well, that's quite simple. It's England or Spain. Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid to name a few." Surely those clubs remain among the top clubs in Europe. Nobody is disputing that. However, looking at a much wider spectrum in world football, do those two nations provide the best, most competitive soccer? Well, I am here to say that for over the past few years, one league has made its way all the way to the top and that is Serie A.

Serie A, over the past few years, has become not just a "Milan/Juventus/Inter" Scudetto race but a league where Milan, Juventus, Inter, Napoli, Roma, Lazio, Fiorentina and even little ol' Catania compete for a spot in a major European tournament. The exciting and perhaps more frightening aspect of it all is that fewer clubs remain labeled "an easy 3 points opponent." Serie A is different from any other league in Europe (alright, South America as well) in that each match day provides fans with a potential upset. How often did we see a "Manchester United v QPR" or "Barcelona v Getafe" type fixture and utter "Why on Earth is this game being aired on a major network?" Perhaps the same amount of times as the number spot Inter placed last campaign.

Italian soccer is suave, finesse and sometimes referred to by anti-calcio fans as "slow developing," which is simply false. Serie A truly doesn't get the credit it deserves when discussing soccer at the water cooler with that lone Norwich City fan who was just sent in from England to tell you how to construct a perfect blog. A competitive league is supposed to have depth in the amount of clubs that can compete for a place in a UEFA tournament. The aforementioned clubs (Milan, Juventus, Inter, Napoli, Roma, Lazio, Fiorentina and Catania) are the blueprint for competitive Italian soccer. Want to hear something that will make you smirk? Serie A gets picked apart by PSG, Paris Saint Germain and oh, P$G, every summer and remains as competitive as ever. Serie A sits atop Europe as the most competitive league and its not going anywhere anytime soon. Get used to it folks.