I've always enjoyed having a native English speaker write on La Liga, and Phil Ball has been great. But it looks like he will be taking a break. From Camp Nou catharsis: And last but not least, next week's column will be my final one for the present season. Cue cheers and popping of champagne corks. It's not that they've done a Schuster on me (although seven million would be nice) but rather that I've accepted a job in the Middle East for the next six months and am taking the family out for a temporary change of scene. Of course, I fully intend to watch La Liga with the aid of my trusty digibox and satellite dish, but reporting on things from afar wouldn't be quite the same. I've been writing this column non-stop now for eight years, and my only objective has been to try and reflect what it's like on the ground here. Spain is a special place, and Spanish football contains spices that you simply cannot taste if you're not here. That's all I've tried to do over the years - convey the taste in words. I'm afraid that I won't be able to do that from my desert hideaway. So I'm taking a sabbatical, and if they'll have me back, the column will start up again on the opening day of next season. I promise to write the occasional piece from the desert, especially when Villarreal make it to the Champions League final. Next week, if you'll excuse the indulgence, I'll do a retrospective of these last eight years. Hasta la vista, or at least until next week.
I've always enjoyed reading his La Liga columns on soccernet.com. I also enjoyed his book 'Morbo'. Hopefully he'll be back.
yeah, bummer he's taking a break. I can read all the Spanish sites, but he has a way of cutting through the obvious bias of the big dailies (Marca, Mundo Deportivo, AS) and more clearly articulating the issues, not to mention filling in some of the context for a lot of the deeper issues (since context is everything in Spain). His voice will be missed while he's gone, because there aren't a lot of other English language points-of-view on La Liga coming from inside the country. Anyone know of any other sources like Ball?
