Why LaLiga & Beyond

Ever since I started writing about Spanish football, the question I have been asked most is: why Spanish football? At points it’s even slightly got under my skin, as if I should automatically watch the Premier League growing up in the United Kingdom despite being from Wales.

Over time though, the question has been on my mind and I think, ahead of the 26/27 season and my third season on Substack, it’s time to write down the why and why I set up LaLiga & Beyond.

Like many kids growing up in a cold European country, Spain was where we headed in the summer. A week or two spent in Menorca or Mallorca, or even the Canary Islands, was almost a staple for many my age growing up.

You think you’re seeing Spain and soaking in a culture but, in truth, Spain was giving you what you expected from your holiday. Flamenco dancing in Menorca is as alien to the local culture there as it would be if we started putting Flamenco in the Eisteddfod in Wales.

The first real glimpse I got of the depth of Spain came from S4C. Sgorio, a Welsh language football show on the channel, used to show highlights from across Europe. The name Numancia, for a start, sounded so different and it was somewhere I couldn’t find on my map of Spain, yet their name instantly pricked my ears.

Secondly, this was not the Spain I saw on holiday. The pitch had snow by the side and everybody was wrapped up. How could a place I knew as so hot be that cold? As a kid, it just blew my mind that a country could have such extremes.

It was the first sign that Spain was far more than the stereotypes you experience on holiday and it was something that stuck with me. In the 90s, LaLiga had these exotic names. It wasn’t just Numancia but Extremadura and Logroñés, bloodying the noses of the big sides, while big teams like Betis, Sevilla and Atleti were all in a state of flux.

Growing up in Wales is a blessing and a curse. Not a lot happens and the “excitement” of the world always seems to be happening somewhere else. If anywhere within a 30 mile radius was mentioned on TV or in the newspapers, it was mind blowing. We also grew up somewhere that was peaceful, quiet and, most importantly for inquisitive kids like me, exposed us to the best of the world.

Sgorio would give us highlights from the Bundesliga, Serie A and LaLiga amongst others. When your own domestic league isn’t much to write home about, you look elsewhere for the quality.

It is always a source of enjoyment to see so many from Wales subscribe to the account. I think many, whether it was through Sgorio, John Toshack (John Benjamin if you’re Spanish) or even Gareth Bale, had exposure to Spanish football and, like me, fell in love with it.

Where I was probably different growing up was that while many were attracted to the Galácticos or Ronaldinho and his Barcelona team, I was looking at clubs like Rayo and that red sash, or Albacete and the fact their nickname was clockwork cheese in English. They just seemed so different to anything you saw in England or Wales.

As a kid of the 90s, I didn’t realise that Depor were not meant to be reaching Champions League semi finals year after year or that Villarreal hadn’t always been a LaLiga stalwart. While friends were being Thierry Henry, Ruud van Nistelrooy or Roy Keane, I was trying to be Juan Román Riquelme or Diego Tristán.

That’s not to say I didn’t love the Premier League but, as a kid who loved football, I was obsessed with football no matter what level or country it was played in. The greatest individual performance I ever saw live came from a meeting of the Premier League and LaLiga as Man Utd hosted Real Madrid.

3-1 down from the first leg, Man Utd had it all to do but Ronaldo Nazário had other ideas and his hat trick and performance showed the best of both countries. It showed the technical advantage LaLiga then had over the Premier League and it also showed the incredible crowds you get in England, with Ronaldo walking off to a standing ovation.

After years of visiting Spain for football or holidays, in 2019 I got a job in Gibraltar that allowed me to do something I had wanted to do for most of my life: live in Spain. The first thing I did, like most who move to a new country, was turn on the TV and try to understand the culture.

From the outside, I always thought the obsession with the big two was just because those were the best known clubs internationally. What I quickly grasped was that the focus on the big two is even greater within Spain. Channels like Gol would dissect everything about the big two.

You would have lip readers watching the bench and the game, body language experts, replay after replay of controversial decisions either for or against the big two. They would take up 90% of the discussion on shows.

Many ask me, well what about Atleti? They barely get a mention in my experience and, when they do, it’s more focused on Diego Simeone than the club itself. The more I lived, travelled and spoke to people across Spain, the more I understood why so many supported the big two and why so many others felt a sense of injustice around coverage.

It was simple things but the coverage was so different from the UK to Spain, every taxi driver seemed to have the radio on a football debate show like Cadena Ser, TV channels were dedicated just to football and while in the UK you found the sports news at the back of a paper in Spain entire papers were dedicated just to football.

Being just a couple of hours down the road from Seville and experiencing games at the Sánchez Pizjuán and the Villamarín, I just couldn’t understand how great clubs like Betis and Sevilla got such little coverage outside of the city.

My first year in Spain, I used long weekends off on the shift rota I was on to explore Spain. I would head up on an internal flight to the Basque Country, Cantabria or Madrid and take in games.

I would also, when I could, take in my local team, Real Balompédica Linense, the club who sit in the shadow of the Rock of Gibraltar.

I went to a Cadiz game that kicked off at 12 on a Saturday and was amazed to see a sold out away end of Depor fans despite being the other end of a vast country.

Eventually, I started going to Málaga games and became a season ticket holder. I started off covering Spanish football by writing about Segunda. It was an experience I loved with a great group of people, but I felt constrained and unable to talk freely and focus on what I wanted to do.

Slowly, the idea of LaLiga & Beyond was growing on me. I love LaLiga but I also love Segunda, Primera Federación and even lower down the leagues.

Eventually I went for it. I was worried LaLiga & Beyond might be too niche. Starting on Substack and social media was an absolute grind, but I had built up a small base of followers.

I started to see that my worries were off the mark. Many, like me, had been craving to know more about Spain and about clubs who don’t get the day in the sun they deserve. Slowly but surely, a base of subscribers and followers started to grow.

What amazed me the most was how many subscribers and followers came from Spain itself. I knew from experience the lack of reporting but never expected them to come to an English language account to scratch that itch.

As we head into the 26/27 season, across socials and Substack, over 10,000 now follow the account, with over 1,200 on Substack. They’re numbers that I would never have believed, but more than that it’s the community that’s built up over time.

I love interacting with so many of you week to week, discussing the latest happenings in Spanish football and your thoughts on the state of the game. From discussing clubs like Lleida at the very bottom of the league system all the way to the very top, with Spain becoming world champions this summer.

Ahead of the season, why not join up for the full LaLiga & Beyond subscription? For the cost of a cerveza grande a month, you gain access to every article and exclusive audio content, which will become a bigger feature in the season ahead. You’ll also be supporting independent journalism and helping to ensure the weekly free newsletter remains possible.

I would love to hear from you on why you got into Spanish football or fell in love with Spain. Let me know by leaving a comment or replying to the email, whichever you’d prefer. It will help me understand more about the content and interests you have ahead of the season.

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The last word goes to Spain, a country I love and that has given me so much. I got to move to another culture and embrace it, both good and bad. It gave me a wife, a son, a beagle and a lifetime of memories.

I am a proud Welshman but I have, and always will, love Spain for everything about this diverse and beautiful country, and I hope that if you don’t already, you’ll join me on the journey and fall in love with Spain as well.