I am defining a "top euro league" as the EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Serie A, and the Eredivise. Clint Dempsey (Fulham) 10 goals Chicharito (Man Yooo) 7 goals Who else do we have scoring some goals?
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method4/crank2010.html has the five season rankings through 2009-2010 with the Eredivisie tenth and http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method4/crank2011.html has the five season rankings from 2006-2007 through the incomplete 2010-2011 season with the Eredivisie ninth. The Portuguese league is better than the Eredivisie for both time periods and the best league not mentioned in the original post for the latter period. For the period through 2009-2010 the best league left out was Russia.
Here are the Premiership totals, with all totals from all competitions in parenthesis. I may have forgotten a couple players. 9 (10) - Dempsey 7 (11) - Hernandez 5 (7) - K. Jones 3 (3) - Fuller 2 (2) - Holden 1 (4) - Spector 1 (3) - Vela 1 (2) - Hoilett
Well blame UEFA if you feel that way. Those lists are what UEFA uses to allot spots in the Champions League and Europa League.
Results tend to disagree with you. Russian and Ukranian team have been doing quite well in Europe. Zenit St. Petersburg won the 2008 UEFA Cup. Shakhtar Donetsk won it in 2009. And, of course CSKA Moscow won it in 2004. The UEFA coefficients, of course, only rate the top teams that make Europe. And the top of the Russian and Ukranian teams are very good. In this year's Champions League, Shakhtar won their group..............ahead of Arsenal. Spartak Moscow finished 3rd in their group, but beat the French champions Marseille in France. Rubin Kazan drew with Barcelona. Most Americans don't watch the Russian and Ukranian leagues, so "assume" they're not that good. But the Russians are pouring billions into their clubs, and it's the league on the rise. Same with the top 2 or 3 Ukranian clubs. If the Dutch aren't careful, Turkey could pass them in the UEFA coefficients as well. Another underestimated league. As far as recent American scorers in Europe go............the best has been Michael Bradley scoring 16 goals in the 07-08 Eredevisie season. Earnie Stewart, an actual striker, scored 17 for Willem II in 90-91.
Considering Russia was sixth for 2005-2006 through 2009-2010 and is seventh for 2006-2007 through 2010-2011 so far, can you call Russia "on the rise"? If Russia falls from sixth to seventh that will cost them a spot in the Champions League.
By the same criteria your using one could argue the Mexican League is the second best league in all the Americas because Chivas(an all mexican team) reached the final of Libertadores. Despite having less teams in Libertadores than the the Argie and Brazilian leagues and while Mexico´s best clubs are in the CCL.
Mexico is actually 3rd if you use a UEFA style rating. Also the year Chivas made it to the Final, Mexico had 5 teams in Libertadores. the 3 usual spots and San Luis and Chivas due to the flue outbreak in 2009.
You could actually make a reasonable argument that Mexico is the second best league in the America's. I don't know if you'd be right, but people can and have made that argument. I hope you saw Shakhtar Donetsk of the Ukraine beat Roma yesterday IN ITALY. The only way I can make a rational comparison of clubs/leagues.........is when teams from those leagues meet in a meaningful competition. That's why I frame it in terms of European competition. Anything else is based on guesses and assumptions. Anyway, it doesn't matter. We've gotten off the point of this thread.
I think Argentina and Brazil get 5 spots + 1 if they are the defending champions. http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copa_libertadores#Clasificaci.C3.B3n Yes the get 4 spots in group and 1 in the elimination (2 go to elimination if the defending champ is from their country). So the Max they can have is 4 group + 2 in elimination for a total of 6 teams.
Updates people Chicharito now has 10 league goals. bringing his total to 14 goals with Manchester United this season. Clint Dempsey has 9 league goals How many goals does Ruiz have?
What is the record for most goals by a Concacaf player in the EPL in a season? Chicharito 10(14) Dempsey 9(10) Ruiz ?