Breaking down the best soccer leagues in the world: Premier, Serie A, LaLiga, MLS...

The spending power of the Saudi Pro League over the summer months has dominated the football landscape as deep pocketed Al Hilal, Al Nassr, Al Ittihad and co. have acquired the likes of Neymar, Kante, Otavio, Mahrez, Bono, Henderson and even emerging talents such as Spain’s Gabri Veiga who turned down the chance of Champions League football with Serie A champions Napoli in favour of a move to Jeddah based Al Ahli.

Despite its emerging power the Roshn Saudi League is still some way off the pace when it comes to the best in the world and according to the latest figures from Opta. The SPL is ranked at 27 in the Top 30. This showing will inevitably change with future reports with the Saudi government determined to create a league that is talked about in the same conversation as existing elite European competitions such as the Premier League, LaLiga and Serie A.

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Premier leading the way

The Premier League is the dominant league globally and in recent years, the English top-flight has begun to pull away from their rival European leagues due to the vast riches of the league and member clubs. That dominance has been seen in European competitions in recent years. In five of the last six seasons, there has been an English side competing in the Champions League final with three English winners. Manchester City won the competition for the first time ever last season and are probably the strongest side in Europe right now. Meanwhile, West Ham United won the Europa Conference League last campaign.

Completing the podium

It’s not LaLiga who comes second in the ranking but the German Bundesliga which ranks as the second strongest league based on the average rating of their clubs in the Opta Power Rankings. Bayern Munich are leading the way with the reigning German champions ranked second, but RB Leipzig (seventh) and Borussia Dortmund (10th) also rank within the top 10 to help boost the Bundesliga.

Spain’s top flight do secure the bronze medal with an overall average team rating in the Opta Power Rankings of (84.1) which trails the Bundesliga with (85.4) with the highest rated La Liga club being Real Madrid’s (93.2).

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What are Opta Power Rankings?

Opta’s Power Rankings is a global team ranking system that assigns an ability score to nearly 13,500 domestic football teams on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world. The Power Rankings are updated daily and currently rank teams from 183 different countries and 413 unique domestic leagues, providing a truly global rating system in men’s football.

Power Rankings: Top 30

MLS vs Liga MX

It was widely accepted that MLS teams were the dominant force in the recent Leagues Cup competition which saw a Leo Messi inspired beat Nashville SC in the final. Mexican sides underperformed with many south of the border complaining about excessive travel (Monterrey alone clocked up more than 11,000 miles throughout the tournament) and questionable refereeing decisions going the way of the US teams. Rayados and Queretaro flew the flag for Liga MX but exited the competition in the semi-final and quarter-final stage respectively.

Incidentally, only one Mexican club is placed inside the top 100 of the Opta Power Rankings, with Monterrey in 95th. The Philadelphia Union are MLS’s highest ranked club clocking in at 160th place.