#3 Atletico Madrid
One would associate mid-table clubs in this list, but Atleti deserve their place. They have greater financial depth, but it has been used commendably at the Vicente Calderon.
Atletico won the league in 2014, however they immediately lost their star forward Diego Costa to Chelsea. As a replacement, they acquired Antoine Griezmann from Real Sociedad and groomed him into becoming one of the top 3 players in the world!
Costa was not the first high-profile striker to leave Atleti. Radamel Falcao and Sergio Aguero, who were brilliant in Spain’s La Liga, left for Monaco and Manchester City, respectively. But Atletico replaced them quite well. David de Gea, Arda Turan, Diego Forlan, Mario Mandzukic were a few other stars to leave the Spanish capital. But they replaced them with Thibaut Courtois, Yannick Carrasco and Costa. Like for like? You bet.
Atletico broke the Barca-Real dominance in 2014 and it was no fluke. They made the Champions League final twice and were title challengers in each of the past two seasons.
