Typically the debate over the greatest league in the world centres around the Premier League and La Liga but for 15 year-old Gooner Sam, Serie A deserves more than a fleeting mention…

The Spanish and Italian first divisions are two extremely different leagues, in style and in substance. Many people insist that La Liga is the better, more exciting league, whereas Serie A is boring. However, in my opinion, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

I think the reason people jump to the clichéd ‘La Liga is amazing, Serie A is boring’ myth is for two reasons. Firstly Barcelona and Real Madrid, two of the world’s most glamorous clubs, play in Spain and secondly Serie A used to play host to a lot of clubs who deployed very defensive tactics. This idea was also influenced by the Italian national sides of 2006 and 2010, who weren’t the most exciting around.

However, England’s national team is very boring at times (perhaps an understatement) yet the league is full of exciting, quality foreign players who help make it one of the most exciting leagues in the world. This shows how inaccurate judging a league on its national team can be.

It’s a little similar in Italy. While there are still players from the previous Italian era of football knocking about who somewhat tainted it’s reputation (the likes of Gattuso perhaps) there’s also been a new epoch of exciting, talented Italian players emerging. Players like Pazzini, Quagliarella and Giovinco all ply their trades in Serie A.

On top of those players, you have exciting foreign players like Napoli’s attacking triumvirate of Hamsik, Lavezzi and Cavani – the latter absolutely lit up the league last year – while the likes of Samuel Eto’o and Alexandre Pato continue to enchant. Recent additions like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Robinho and Hernanes also brought a significant increase in the flair on show in the league.

As an unfortunately infrequent watcher of European football, I found myself enchanted by Napoli last season. During one of my lazy days, I decided to see what was on ESPN and upon seeing Napoli were playing Lazio, decided to stick around. I remembered enjoying playing as Napoli on FIFA a few years back, so my 15 year old brain immediately chose its allegiance based on that fact alone.

The first half was quite a cagey one. Both sides had a lot to lose and didn’t seem to want to go for it initially. A moment of individual brilliance from Stefano Mauri saw Lazio break the deadlock, and they went in 1-0 ahead at the break.

What happened in the second half took my breath away.

The situation was that Napoli, who weren’t given a chance in the title race by pundits in Italy had to win to keep their title hopes alive. Lazio were also still in with a shout of Champions League qualification. When André Dias flicked home a free kick to make it 2-0, Napoli seemed dead and buried, as did their title chances – a loss would surely leave Milan out of reach.

However, the home crowd got fully behind their men and soon the deficit was reduced; just minutes after the second goal Andrea Dossena nodded home from a set piece to half Lazio’s lead. Two minutes later in a frantic second half, Napoli’s player of the season, Edinson Cavani headed in at the back post to make it 2-2. Everything was set for Napoli to take all three points with just less than half an hour to go.

But the script took another dramatic twist only a few minutes after the fourth goal – Cristian Brocchi’s powerful strike bounced over the line, but the goal wasn’t given for Lazio. This only seemed to spur them on however, and a minute later, an own goal by Napoli defender Aronica put Lazio back in front.

Cavani then decided enough was enough, and that he was going to win the game on his own. With ten minutes left, he won a penalty single-handedly and converted to send the Napoli faithful into raptures. If that wasn’t enough, on 87 minutes he was put clean through to score the winner; and he duly obliged – sensationally lobbing the goalkeeper with all the calmness in the world, completing his hat trick and in doing so became Napoli’s highest league goalscorer in one season.

This frantic game showed me that the myth of Italian football being boring was just that – a myth. I continued to watch Serie A whenever I could, and was enthralled each time I did. After I watched the season review, I regretted not watching it more before the Napoli game.

It was quite handy that I got into Serie A because I’d needed a European league to watch alongside the Premier League. I had fancied the German league, but it seems to be rarely on English television and I only watch streams if it’s an absolute must watch. My other feasible alternative was La Liga, which I used to watch a lot but in all honesty I’d found it become boring, and I’ll explain why.

The two main clubs shown on English television in La Liga are Barcelona and Real Madrid, and they just become predictable in that it’s just a matter of waiting for them to score. If I’m not emotionally invested in either team I see play I want an exciting, competitive game and when I have watched La Liga, it’s not been competitive at all.

Secondly, a lot of play acting is involved in the Spanish game – something Italian football is infamous for, but in truth I saw more of it in La Liga than Serie A. On top of those reasons, something else I look for in a league is passionate fans. I like nothing better than the roar of fans after a goal, and La Liga just didn’t satisfy that for me, whereas in Italy the fans are crazy.

The Napoli game also showed me what an incredible talent Edinson Cavani was – I’d hear a lot about him but his “take the bull by the horns” attitude was quite brilliant to watch and appropriate too, considering his nickname is Matador. His knack of dragging his team over the line in whatever way he could reminded me of a certain Thierry Henry, which automatically made Cavani my favourite Serie A player.

Napoli didn’t manage to win the league of course, but it was a breath of fresh air from the predictability of La Liga. It was pretty much clear from day one that Barcelona would win the league and Real Madrid would come second. The title race in Italy however, had more twists and turns than a Milan alleyway. (I presume they have twists and turns, I’ve never actually been to Milan)

Also a breath of fresh air is the approach of clubs like Udinese. They signed Gokhan Inler, Alexis Sanchez and Cristian Zapata for a total of €4.5 million. They sold all three this season, and the combined fees could reach €61.5 million. Despite losing three players of undoubted quality, it was a great business move which means they can reinvest in the squad. Makes a change from the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid buying players for the sake of it.

Of course, this is all subjective; I’ve not seen as much of La Liga and Serie A as I perhaps should have to make the claims I have, so what I’ve said may seem like generalisations and ideas not based on much proof, but these are the conclusions I’ve come to having watched and read a lot about both La Liga and Serie A recently.

Sam regularly writes the “15 year-old Gooner” blog about his beloved Arsenal as well as guesting on a host of fine football sites. You can follow him on Twitter @15yearoldgooner and catch up with the rest of his excellent work on the 15 year-old Gooner.