5 La Liga players who could star in the Premier League next season
With just the finals of the Europa League and Champions League to go in the 2018/2019 season, the attention of most football fans has been turned to the transfer window.
Although yet to get into full swing, there have already been some inroads in the window, with Borussia Dortmund undoubtedly being the pacesetters, having announced the arrival of three players to their squad as they seek to build on their second-placed Bundesliga finish last season.
The Premier League is by far the most watched and followed league in the world, with their advanced marketing and revenue model meaning there is significantly more interest and funds in England than the rest of the world.
Following closely is the Spanish La Liga which does not have the same financial clout, but boasts the presence of two of the biggest, most successful and most followed clubs in the world - Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Both leagues have an abundance of world-class players plying their trade in their domestic leagues and a common sight each transfer window is players trading both leagues.
Indeed, we have witnessed numerous players swapping La Liga for the Premier League and vice versa, with the world record fee for a player's transfer being broken twice (in 2009 and 2013) when Ronaldo and Gareth Bale left the land of the Queen for the allure of representing Los Blancos respectively, while players like Sergio Aguero, David Silva, Xabi Alonso, David de Gea, to name a few, have gone on to achieve legendary status in the Premier League from La Liga..
This summer window is bound to not be any different, as the transfer tabloids are awash with speculations linking a host of La Liga stars with switches to the Premier League. In this piece, we shall be taking a look at four La Liga players who could switch to the Premier League during this transfer window.
#5 Gareth Bale
Gareth Bale arrived at Real Madrid in the summer of 2013 as the world's most expensive player, with Florentino Perez sanctioning his purchase for the sum of £86.4m.
The Welshman had dazzled in the EPL with Tottenham and it was expected that he would bring this level of performance with him to the Santiago Bernabeu.
However, six years on and it has not largely panned out like that for the two-time PFA Player of the Year.
Despite winning a plethora of titles and showing his brilliance on occasion, the 29-year-old failed to fully win over the notoriously demanding fans of Los Blancos, as they saw him as not doing enough to justify his huge wages, while the fact that he is still not fluent in speaking Spanish did not augur well with a lot of people.
Things got to a head during the recently-concluded season, as Gareth Bale was made the scapegoat of Real's underperformance, failing to take the mantle in Ronaldo's absence.
Zinedine Zidane has all but stated that he has no plans for Bale moving ahead and with reports suggesting that Manchester United and Tottenham are interested in his services, a return to the Premier League could be in store for him.