Eye on La Liga: El Clasico blockbuster boasts best-ever cast

This coming Saturday, the eyes of planet football will be focused squarely on the action taking place in Madrid, as Barcelona travel to arch-rivals Real to contest an El Clasico fixture for the ages.

Never before in this game of such magnitude have we borne witness to such a glittering array of stars on either side. Like a real-life football version of ‘The Expendables’. for Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger read Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. And Gareth Bale, Neymar, James Rodriguez, Luis Suarez, Toni Kroos and Ivan Rakitic too.

The list goes on, reading like a ‘who’s who?’ of the world game, with ‘galactico’ signings over the summer supplementing an already hugely impressive cast.

El Clasico has always woven a rich and interesting tapestry throughout Spanish football of course, but this particular edition, perhaps more than any other, should be every bit as jaw-dropping as any Hollywood blockbuster.

With more sub-plots than a Dan Brown novel, this is one page-turner that will keep you interested until the last knockings.

As a start point, Barca’s recent confirmation that they would stand squarely behind the Catalan parliament’s decision to hold a referendum on independence won’t have sat at all well with 80,000 Madridistas.

Whether it goes ahead is a moot point at this juncture, but it would be wholly inappropriate for off-field matters to overshadow the main event.

That said, with rumours rife of a La Liga-approved presentation for Messi should he have broken the 60-year-old all-time goalscoring record, the locals might just as well direct their ire on a political level.

Can you honestly imagine it? The best player of a generation, perhaps ever, receiving intentional reward and kudos in the back garden of his team’s fiercest opponents.

It would be unprecedented and, dare I say it, a little distasteful from a league that continues to score PR own goals at a rate of knots.

Messi himself has already asked that Barcelona don’t make too much of a fuss when the record falls. You’d imagine the same is required of Javier Tebas and his cronies.

Perhaps the form of Madrid’s very own leading man, Ronaldo, can take the edge off of a proposed acknowledgement in any event. Despite evidently still struggling with a knee concern, his run of goalscoring form is Oscar-worthy.

Three hat-tricks in 15 days as part of a double-figure haul at such an early stage is every bit as impressive as anything the Argentine has served up this season.

He and Real continue to batter most teams into submission, while Barca have gone about their business in a more studious fashion.

The Catalans have at least begun to rid themselves of their Achilles heel of an inability to defend high balls or set pieces, although, as Gerard Pique showed against plucky Eibar, concentration levels need to be attended to before the curtain goes up at the Santiago Bernabeu.

When their lack of focus is exposed, it threatens any aspirations of continued success the Blaugrana may have.

Real have been expert at posing that very question as recently as at the same venue last season, despite an eventual Barca win.

Luis Enrique will be hoping for more of the same and, with no league goals conceded by his side at this stage of the campaign, Barca have a wonderful platform to build from.

It’s yet another astonishing statistic that helps to write the extensive narrative surrounding this fixture.

Lights, camera, action.

— The writer is a freelance football journalist