Why European Soccer is the -insert superlative- sport ever... Part 1 of 7ish? Maybe?

Yah yah I know I haven't been blogging. I know all two of you have been waiting patiently for this...

So anybody who knows me knows I love soccer. Something probably no one knows is the number of Saturday and Sunday mornings I've been up at 5:30am to catch a English afternoon game. Although I played in high school I really fell in love with soccer during my mission. So without further a due(sp?), my series on the 3-5ish top reasons (depending how many I ideas I got) soccer kicks the stuffing outta every North American sport.

1. Player contracts

So because theres no collegiate soccer in Europe it's all about clubs. So that North-West London soccer team you started with when you were six well have a professional/semi-pro team or that you can graduate to if your good enough and keep playing with them you're whole life. Of course if you're good enough then you're gonna want to move up in the world which is where it get's interesting. Bigger club's scouts will spot you and offer your club, which owns you if you're under contract, a transfer fee which the club gets to keep. This past season over 100 million dollars was spent on one players transfer fee. The smaller club then has money which it can spend on improving it's on squad, facilities, etc. to make itself a better team. So the emphasis get's put on developing talent and scouting players in the youth at bargain prices. And the better a player plays the bigger salary he gets. Everybody wins.