Diego Forlan writes a weekly column for The National, appearing each Friday. The former Manchester United, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid striker has been the top scorer in Europe twice and won the Golden Boot at the 2010 World Cup. Forlan’s column is written with the assistance of European football correspondent Andy Mitten.

Athletic Bilbao are the only team in the Primera Liga who have not bought a player in this close season.

They don’t have the same choice as the rest as they use only Basque players, but as far as I know I’m one of the few who was entitled to play for that great club.

My grandmother came from San Sebastian and emigrated to Buenos Aires when she was 15. Then she crossed the River Plate to move to Uruguay.

Athletic won’t win the league this season, but they will be in or around the European places, which remains impressive given their limited talent pool.

The title will stay with one of the top three from last season, though Real Madrid have only won one of the last eight Primera Ligas.

They are the European champions and they have not made any superstar signings, but it is always better to have a settled and successful team than to make too many changes.

Where do Madrid need to strengthen when they are already so strong? Madrid play the second best football in Spain and probably the world.

They try to dominate games, they attack, they are creative. They do this against every team, except when they play Barcelona, because they know Barcelona would punish them for being too attacking.

More Primera Liga previews:

• Barcelona: Andre Gomes adds depth to title-or-bust season

• Real Madrid: Inactivity mar Real Madrid off-season

Barca still play the best football in the world, they are still the favourites to win the league and the Uefa Champions League.

In Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez, they have the best attack in the world.

Who is going to stop them when the league starts? They put five goals past Sevilla this week alone, a Sevilla team who have been one of the strongest in Europe in the last decade.

My old club Atletico Madrid could stop Barca. They can’t play like the Catalans, so they play to their strengths. They defend well, they counter attack, they score from set pieces and they score from virtually all of the chances they create. A 1-0 win will do just fine for Atletico.

They can’t buy the very best players at the peak, so they have to be wiser and smarter in the transfer market, like getting the best emerging South Americans.

They signed Sergio Aguero when he was still a teenager because he would be too expensive when he was 25.

They signed Diego Costa when few had heard of him. Or Jose Giminez. Maybe Matias Kranevitter, who is on loan from the club at Sevilla this season, and Angel Correa will also become stars in the future.

There are so many attractive reasons for a South American player to play at Atletico.

Diego Simeone is hugely respected; his style of football is one which resonates with South Americans too.

Madrid is closer culturally to South America, there are no language issues. When I played in Madrid there were whole groups of South American footballers.

I expect Atletico to be among the best in Spain and in Europe again, but while I can’t see anyone in Spain breaking into the top three there are still some excellent teams in Spain.

Sevilla, who have had an incredible decade, have a new coach, the Chilean Jorge Sampaoli.

He’s new to Europe and I hope fans are patient with him. He did a superb job for Chile, replacing the popular Marcelo Bielsa and leading them to their first Copa America title.

He has to integrate new players and get his team playing to his system. Sampaoli’s sides like to play the ball from behind, but sometimes with too much risk.

I noticed that when they played Real Madrid in the European Super Cup last week.

More Primera Liga previews:

• Atletico Madrid: Stable, confident Atletico will be near top again

• The rest: Outside of Big Three, how will the best of the rest fare?

Atletico signed Nicolas Gaitan, the Argentine midfielder who came from Benfica. He’s got pace and he scores.

They lost Kevin Gamiero to Atletico and will miss his goals. Hopefully his replacement, another Argentine, Luciano Vietto, who is on loan from Atletico Madrid, will score them.

He was excellent at Villarreal but didn’t get enough chances or goals at Atletico last season.

Sevilla’s sporting director Monchi is a shrewd recruiter. He also finds players in South America, Daniel Alves being one of the first.

They have signed Ganso, the Brazilian who started out at Santos with Neymar. He was talked about as being at the same level as Neymar, but while he did well at Sao Paulo, he didn’t have the spectacular success of the man who has gone on to be a star at Barcelona.

Ganso has fine technique and skill, but, like my old teammate Juan Roman Riquelme, he’s not a big runner.

Villarreal finished fourth last season, but they lost their manager Marcelino just two weeks before the season. I was surprised, especially as they had a Champions League qualifier to look forward to.

They have lost Eric Bailly to Manchester United and striker Roberto Soldado will be out after a cruciate injury, but I know their new coach Fran Escriba.

He was Quique Sanchez Flores’ assistant when I was at Atletico Madrid. He is a decent guy with sound judgement and he will have Alexandre Pato, the Brazilian who has joined my old club.

I hope a move to Villarreal can do for him what it did for me or Giuseppe Rossi or Riquelme. Pato is talented, but he has had huge injuries.

He just needs to be playing regularly and playing well, but Villarreal is a positive place to concentrate on your football, a small club with big ideas away from the bright lights.

I didn’t go to Athletic Club, but I will go abroad to continue my career. India. Mumbai City. I can’t wait to play, learn the culture and live in my eighth football country. I’ll tell you all about it in another column next week. But first, let’s enjoy the start to La Liga.

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