anyone who thinks this rivalry didn't split the world is delusional, madrid and barca literally defined an entire era of football with their dominance. the competition was real, the stakes were real, and ur denial of that just proves u werent paying attention.
honestly the el clasico rivalry did split fanbases globally, i watched grown men in budapest nearly fight over messi vs ronaldo at a cafe and it was the most european thing ever.
The rivalry objectively dominated global football discourse for two decades-just look at the combined 13 Champions League titles between 2009 and 2018. That's not opinion, that's verifiable dominance that made every other matchup feel secondary.
if real madrid and barcelona hadn't existed, we'd have invented them anyway because football needed this exact fault line to survive. the world literally reorganized itself around who you supported, and honestly that's the point everyone misses about why merchandise sales exploded.