Sunday, 3rd February, 2013
Former Arsenal star Aleksandr Hleb believes that the German Bundesliga could soon overtake England’s Premier League as the top league in which to play.
Hleb has pointed to the imminent arrival of former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich as a big boost for the Bundesliga; Guardiola was expected to head to a club job in England for next season.
And the BATE Borisov midfielder, who has turned out in both England, with Arsenal and Birmingham, and Germany, with Stuttgart and Wolfsburg, can see the Bundesliga overtaking the Premier League, though he does admit the Premier League is currently the best league in the world.
"I think that the German championship is in second place after England", he told Russian daily Izvestia.
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"However, if the Bundesliga continues to progress at the same rate and attracts stars of the calibre of Guardiola and [Franck] Ribery, in the near future the Premier League will be left behind.
"In my view, Germany has already overtaken Spain. In Spain, there are only three or four strong teams, and then the rest can fall into the abyss.
"In Germany there is always an intense struggle for every spot in the league. See how the German clubs have done in the group stage of the Champions League. Schalke, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich not only took first place in their group, but also showed beautiful and spectacular football."
The Bundesliga did recently take a fourth Champions League spot off Italy, with Serie A’s top three now that country’s only qualifiers for the top tier tournament.
However, in the Bundesliga vs the Premier League battle, last season Chelsea edged out Bayern Munich to win the Champions League, in Munich.
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