Football is a truly international game, as the global interest in the recent World Cup demonstrated very clearly. For many people, especially those living outside the biggest footballing nations, that internationalism is condensed down all too easily, and the end result is that, no matter where you go in the world, you’ll bump into a lot of people who cheer for a team based in England, Italy or Spain, with a few scattered fans of German and French clubs beyond that. And that’s a shame, because football is so widely played.

Whether your interest in watching football is to see a lot of goals scored, to place bets on the games at in2bet.com.cy, or to check in on the best players, it is always worth having an interest in a team or player from a less money-saturated background. Not least because if you’re a Manchester City fan, you become used to winning all the time and anything less than blanket success can be disappointing. Picking another team – even if you’re just looking for someone to support alongside your main team – makes football more interesting, and that’s why we’re going to look at some of the more diverse leagues in world football.

Norwegian Eliteserien

Perhaps the most-followed footballer in the world right now is Erling Haaland, who has scored huge numbers of goals in England, Germany and Austria with some of Europe’s wealthiest clubs. But imagine you’d seen him play before he moved to the big leagues. Haaland was a prodigy when playing for Molde in Norway’s top league. At the age of just 17, he scored four goals in one game against the league leaders Brann. Norway has been a breeding league for some top-class players, also being where Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard got his start. Better yet, the league runs from March to November, so you’ll have football to follow when the bigger leagues have their summer breaks.

South Korean K-League

There was once a time when South Korea used to turn up to the World Cup, lose three times and head back home before anyone had a chance to learn much about their players. That ended spectacularly in 2002 when the Red Devils reached the semi-finals, and South Korean football has been developing ever since then. In players such as Son Heungmin and Lee Kangin the Asian nation is now providing players to top European clubs, and the K-League – currently dominated by Ulsan and Jeonbuk – is riding a wave of Korean sports renaissance that is also being seen in music, film and TV.

Czech First League

It’s fair to say that the Czech national team has fallen a little from the high perch it occupied around the start of the 2000s when players like Tomas Rosicky and Pavel Nedved were at their peak. However, Czech club football is well worth watching; it’s technically excellent and the First League is one of the highest-scoring in all of Europe. The best players from this league tend to be scouted heavily by big clubs throughout Europe, with Adam Hlozek making a move to Bayer Leverkusen after an excellent 2021/22 season. So if you want to appear knowledgeable about some of the stars of the future, this is a great league to follow.