Eighteen matches into the season and Juventus are undefeated and sitting in first place. Everything seems rosy red, or pink (like their away shirt), in Turin. While Juventus find themselves in an ideal situation heading into the second half of the season, their rise to the top has been much due to their own good work as it has been to many of their rivals' failure to truly assert themselves as.

Last week, the new FIFA version of the Balon d'Or was handed out, and an interesting thing took place: all three players on the podium (Lionel Messi, Xavi, and Andres Iniesta) were all Barcelona players. But even more than that, all three had been produced by Barcelona's famous Cantera youth system.