The Kings League is back in action
After just over a month, football has returned to the Kings League with more action, new rules and renovated teams.
The first split ended with a bang thanks to an almost full Camp Nou that hosted 92,000 fans for the Kings League ‘Final Four’. El Barrio were crowned winners despite finishing 8th in the regular league, which was the last spot that gave access to the play-offs.
Now the second split is on its way after the first set of fixtures took place last Sunday. Yet some squads are practically unrecognisable due to the transfer window in April that saw too many players change team.
Some squads are now shorter than others (they all started in January with 10 drafted players). Although they must have a minimum of 8, aside from ‘players 11 & 12’ each club can hire. But now they’ve included the possibility of signing a ‘player 13’ for each game if the club has enough money left in its fictional budget that resulted from the transfer market.
More football veterans
Many well-known ex-footballers that adapted really well to the Kings League such as Joan Verdú, Nico Pareja, Alberto Lopo or Alberto Bueno, will continue to appear week in, week out.
But new faces have already taken interest and ultimately taken part, whereas others are expected to debut soon.
David Barral has been one of the latest signings for this competition. He retired quite recently from professional football, in late 2022, yet he played 8 seasons in LaLiga for Sporting Gijón, Levante and Granada, scoring a total of 46 goals.
He’ll play in Iker Casillas’ team (1K) together with Marc Torrejón and Borja Fernández, two other ex-LaLiga veterans.
Borja played most of his career for Valladolid, but started with Real Madrid and also spent time at Mallorca, Eibar and Getafe in Spain’s first division. Whereas Torrejón played for Espanyol and Racing de Santander in LaLiga before moving on to the Bundesliga in Germany.
But the most striking name is definitely Djibril Cissé, a Champions League winner with Liverpool. He’s been in and out of retirement, although last January he said he wanted to return to professional football, to the point he was willing to play for free. Cissé scored 96 goals in 209 Ligue 1 matches and wants to reach the 100 mark. Yet it seems he hasn’t been able to convince any French team, so maybe he’s decided to give the Kings League a shot to try and get more exposure… Although his debut with Los Troncos will have to wait until the second matchday.
New rules and a change in the play-off format
It’s very hard to keep up with all the different rules if you don’t follow the competition regularly, given new ideas are introduced almost on a weekly basis.
Some of the latest inclusions are that in the last two minutes of the game all goals count double or the possibility for teams to buy an extra card such as a penalty or a 2 minute sanction using that fictional budget mentioned before.
Another change introduced is regarding the standings. Before they would only count wins and losses (given there are no draws in the Kings League) but now there will be a points system instead. A win is 3 points, a loss is 0 points and a draw after full time means each clubs gets 1 point. But because there are no draws, whoever goes on to win the penalty shootout gets an extra point.
Furthermore, the play-off system now allows 10 of the 12 teams to qualify, instead of 8. The regular league winner goes straight to the ‘Final Four’, whereas the 5th-10th play each other in the first play-off round. The winners then go on to meet those who qualified from 2nd-4th in a second play-off round and then the three victorious teams will meet the regular league winner in the ‘Final Four’.
The Queens League has arrived
This weekend was also the Queens League debut, which will take place every Saturday.
The level between all the new squads was pretty balanced and there were many entertaining matches to enjoy and some spectacular goals. In fact, the best goal of the weekend, Kings League included, definitely came from its female counterpart. Paula Moreno’s missile from the halfway line is one of those goals she won’t forget.
Goals aside, there were other standout names such as Melanie Serrano who played for F.C. Barcelona until 2022. In fact, she’s the women to have worn the Barça shirt in more official matches in the history of the club with 516.
Ruth García, also ex-Barça and Levante, is another of the big names involved in the Queens League, together with Ana Romero or Alicia Fuentes, among others. So the Queens League has also attracted a lot of talent from women’s professional football and is off to a good start.