alt Hacker NewsIn Spain soccer is culturally important - not economically central. Everyone in the world knows teams like Real Madrid or Barcelona. On the other side Spain is home of major telecom and banking multinationals, high-speed rail networks, renewable energy... the startup ecosystem is strong in many cities.
Also european countries are deeply competitive in areas like industrial automation, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, telecommunications infrastructure, renewable energy systems, scientific instrumentation, petrochemicals etc.
Tourism is strong because the immense cultural heritage.
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I think a good example of how this plays out is the way Gulf countries are buying European soccer clubs and Museums.
Countries that are economically conscious of a future time where they will be left producing nothing (oil replacement) are seeing the european model as inspiration
Your examples such as telecom and banking are supposed to support and grow out of a real economy, not replace it
> Everyone in the world knows teams like Real Madrid or Barcelona
I promise you that if you go canvas a random selection of North Americans you would be astonished at how many do not recognize "Barcelona" as anything but a city. Football is really not very popular there. Though in recent years it is slowly becoming a bit more watched.