Aron Johannsson in Iceland

Yeah, and in fairness, it's based exclusively on the performances of a country's clubs in the UCL and Europa League so it isn't a 100 percent accurate gauge of a country's quality. Who knows, for instance, if the bottom half the Polish league is better than the bottom half of the SPL.

But for now, it's the ranking of record and until they come up with a better one, it's the one we use.

https://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/country/#/yr/2021

 

Should be based on average height of the players

 

Poland should be the prestige league east of Germany but no $$$$ for it to be.

Maybe Lewandowski will retire and splurge some $$$ into his former clubs.

 

I concur. A few years back one of their clubs made the CL groupstage.

 

Maybe his gf/wife is doing research in Poland.

 

Polish club football is Europe's biggest underperformer. Poland has a huge population (38m) that is about 2x bigger than the Netherlands, 3x bigger than Belgium, and 4x bigger than Austria and Switzerland.

Since Widzew Łodz made the Champions League in the mid-1990s, a Polish club has only qualified for the group stage once (Legia Warsaw, 2016-17).

 

Maybe it's all those jokes....

 

And way poorer per capita. Money is not irrelevant here. Ukraine is a fair comparator as they are both poor eastern European countries. Similar populations. How is Poland doing compared to the Ukraine?

 

Doesn't Ukraine have like two superclubs funded by a billionaire?

 

Does the question then ultimately just come down to how much money you can launder and at what volume?

 

If he wants to go broke in a hurry . . .

 

How about adding GNP per capita to the mix? Even on a PPP basis*, Polish GNP per head is about half of those countries.

Five years under the Nazis and 45 years under actually-existing socialism tends to have that effect on an economy, which impacts a league - badly.

 

Not to mention major brain drain for a few decades. Tons of Polish moved to the UK in the last 15 years.

 

well partly...it also comes down to how good your domestic pool of players is....and other factors as well....past success begets future success. So clubs that have done well over the past years will be more likely to continue to do so....also foreign player restrictions play a part...we have seen italy slide down the list in terms of top tier countries lately...they dont allow nearly as many foreigners as germany...who has like 4 teams in the knockouts of UCL this season.

 

At this point soccer is so full of dirty money, I'm ashamed of being a fan.

 

I would not call that socialism. It was communism imposed by the Soviet Union.

 

Which is why I used "actually-existing socialism". It was the post-war Soviets' preferred term for their "system"

 

Polish clubs have participated in the CL group stage three times. Ukrainian clubs have participated in the CL group stage 32 times.

Shakhtar won the Europa League in 2009 and Dnipro were runners-up in 2015. Ukrainian clubs reached the SF on three other occasions.

One Polish club reached the Round of 16 in the UEFA Cup / Europa League on one occasion, and Polish clubs have reached the Round of 32 on six other occasions.

Anyway, Ukrainian clubs are sometimes run by mega-wealthy shady characters from eastern Europe and Polish clubs don't have access to that. But there are lots of eastern European countries with roughly similar financial profiles to Poland, but with much smaller populations, and Polish clubs don't do demonstrably better than them.

Of course money matters a lot — Polish clubs are never going to be serious competitors coming from a poorer nation. Their record is still quite poor, taking this into account.

 

Wasn't there a Czech club or two that used to qualify regularly for the CL back in the 00s along with Rosenborg from Norway and some clubs from the Balkans?

 

Poland it is:

Exciting times! Very happy to sign for @LechPoznan pic.twitter.com/CY6fj04osc

— Aron Jóhannsson (@aronjo20) February 12, 2021

 

Interesting photo:

Wszystkie formalności dopięte i @aronjo20 został nowym zawodnikiem Lecha ✍️🏼 30-letni napastnik związał się z Kolejorzem kontraktem do końca tego roku 🔵⚪️ #KolejNaTransfer

Jest też opcja przedłużenia współpracy o kolejne osiemnaście miesięcy - do 30 czerwca 2023 roku. pic.twitter.com/qqnxwfuwmz

— Lech Poznań (@LechPoznan) February 12, 2021

 

Love trivia. I give up, who?

Aron to Lech isn’t all that bad. Perhaps he gets some Europa experiences and forces a call up USMNT to help in a pinch!

 

I just spent too much time trying to find a picture of him in a Lech Poznań jersey. No dice!

 

Had to google it, not who I thought it was. Crazy that was his ONLY European experience too; in 2021 he'd definitely have more options in Europe.