LONDON - Before Spanish soccer began its annual holiday break this week, the big (and leading) teams of Barcelona, Atletico and Real Madrid all dug in to win tumultuous contests in La Liga.
Barça's was the great escape of the season. The Catalan giant was rocking in Getafe. It was two goals down Sunday inside a quarter of an hour, and it had no Messi or Neymar to conjure up goals, no Xavi to control the midfield and no Puyol or Victor Valdés to steady the defense.
No stars, no problem. The solution lay, as it so often does, with products of Barcelona's academy. First Pedro stepped up to strike three goals in nine minutes, goals comparable to many that Lionel Messi has fired in the past. Then Cesc Fàbregas scored twice, both with input from the irrepressible Pedro.
At 5-2, Barça called a truce and stopped punishing Getafe's temerity in exposing its defensive frailty. It will be interesting to see whether Barcelona, backed by money from Qatar and Nike, shops in January to buy some defensive backbone, because the rest of the team isn't doing badly.
It stands atop the league by virtue of having scored more goals than the second-place team. That, for the moment, is Atlético Madrid, whose greater defensive grit, together with 19 goals from Diego Costa, has allowed it to match Barcelona's record of 15 wins, one draw and one defeat so far.
Real Madrid? Five points off the pace, and perhaps distracted by Real's obsession with attempting to bring home the Champions League trophy for an unprecedented 10th time. Cristiano Ronaldo continues to accumulate goals, scoring 27 times in 19 league and cup matches this season.
Gareth Bale, not yet at peak fitness, has nine goals. Karim Benzema, Isco and Ángel Di Maria also contribute goals.
Nevertheless, Real had a bit of luck Sunday in winning, 3-2, at Valencia, where Ronaldo's goal should have been ruled offside.
But Valencia might reflect the true situation in Spanish soccer. It is mired in debt. It plays in a stadium that has long been considered unfit for modern times, yet it cannot afford to finish the new one that stands half-built nearby.
Such are its liabilities to the bank and to the autonomous Valencia regional authority that it has had to sell off its finest players. One by one, David Villa, David Silva, Jordi Alba and others have departed, and the fees barely cover the interest on debts that rise rather than fall each year.
Even the European Commission is pushing to outlaw government aid to Spanish clubs. The commission claims that seven clubs - including Barcelona, Real Madrid, Valencia and the Basque clubs Osasuna and Athletic Bilbao - contravene European regulations by being propped up with regional government loans, bank guarantees or favorable taxation.
It seems the European Union is all for foreign investment pumped into top English clubs, but it wants to stop Spain's regional assistance to soccer.
And in that light, Valencia made an announcement before Sunday's game at the old Mestalla Stadium. The club president, Amadeo Salvo, told reporters that the Singaporean billionaire Peter Lim had made an offer that would wipe out the 300 million euros in debt it owes, inject immediate cash for the team to buy players in January and give €130 million, or about $175 million, to finish building the Nou Mestalla stadium.
Salvo said he and his fellow directors had trawled Asia and the Middle East trying to find a backer. The president stopped short - just - of suggesting that Valencia has found its Santa Claus in Singapore.
'Mr. Lim called us and came to Valencia to meet with the board, the vice president, and the foundation,' Salvo said, referring to the Valencia Foundation, which owns 70 percent of the club's shares.
'He promises,' Salvo continued, 'to get rid of the debt and build a competitive team by investing an important amount. Before we accept the offer, which is among the biggest two or three in the world of club football, we need to hear from the bank.'
Bankia, the club's main creditor, asked for four to six weeks to evaluate the bid. Lim, who is estimated to be worth about $1.6 billion, asked for a decision by Jan. 15.
His haste is soccer related. Lim bid in the past to buy Liverpool and showed interest in Glasgow Rangers, and he understands that Europe's soccer allows trading of top players only in the summer months or in the January window.
'Peter Lim's aim is to build a competitive team to fight for titles in Spain and Europe,' Salvo said to reporters in Spain on Sunday. 'He wants Valencia to play in the Champions League. It's a historic opportunity. It will solve all of Valencia's problems.'
The clock is ticking. The Singaporean, 60, said he was ready to commit between €30 million and €50 million for new players in the final two weeks of January if the takeover is finished by the middle of the month.
By then, the league will be back up and running after the Christmas and New Year break. Oh, and Valencia will have a new coach and new technical director responsible for hiring new players.
Valencia hired a Serbian coach, Miroslav Djukic, last June and fired him Dec. 16. Another short-term appointment. Another couple of million euros added to the debt once he is paid off. Another ramification in the downward spiral of a club that 10 years ago was the last outsider to break the hegemony of Barcelona and Real in the league.
The prospective new coach, Juan Antonio Pizzi, and the new technical director, Roberto Ayala - both Argentines who once played for Valencia - should be introduced later this week, once they agree to contracts.
Pizzi first has to extricate himself from his current employment. He had just managed San Lorenzo, the Buenos Aires team supported by Pope Francis, to win the Argentine league. There presumably is a buyout clause that will enable Pizzi, the former striker, to take his leave, and he was in Valencia on Sunday, watching, no doubt already aware of what awaits him in 2014.
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