For a professional footballer, playing in the UEFA Champions League is the equivalent of travelling first class. Doing so in other club competitions, naturally, rank as second class travel.

But the Europa League, Europe’s second tier competition, brims with a lot of first class talents who, most likely, will not look out of place in the premier competition and even add spark to it.

Here they are:

Radamel Falcao (Atletico Madrid)

The Colombian striker is every manager’s object of desire. Luminaries of the game like Pep Guardiola (former Barcelona coach) and Fabio Capello (former coach of England) consider him as the best out-and-out striker in the world. It will require a degree of blindness to disagree with the assessment. Chelsea fans are unlikely to be afflicted by such. The Colombian’s hat-trick reduced the European champions to rubble in this year’s Super Cup clash. Since arriving Europe, Falcao has scored profusely. With 17 goals, he broke Jurgen Klinsmann’s record of 15 goals in a single annual international club football European competition UEFA Champions League/UEFA Europa League campaign. While at Porto his goals won the Portuguese powerhouse a UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League title and ensured triumph (unbeaten) in the 2010-2011 domestic league season.

He continued doing the business after joining Spain’s Atletico Madrid in a £34 million move. In three season in Europe, he has scored over 100 goals. Falcao’s goals ensured that Atlético Madrid maintained a 12-match winning streak in a single Europa League season, becoming the first team to do so.

He also became the first player to win two consecutive European titles with two different teams (the Europa League with Porto and Atletico Madrid), while at the same time becoming the top scorer for the two teams.

Luis Suarez (Liverpool)

On his day, Liverpool’s Uruguayan forward is a world beater. Apart from being able to play across the front-line, El Pistolero (the gunslinger) has searing pace and impudent skills and the strength of an ox. Prior to his £22.8million transfer from Ajax Amsterdam, he built a reputation as great goalscorer, plundering 111 in 159 appearances. He has not managed to deliver such hefty returns in a Liverpool, where he has been widely criticised for profligacy in front of goal. But he has managed to be a scorer of great goals. Being a little more clinical will not hurt his case.

Stefan Jovetic (Fiorentina)

Liverpool fans cannot claim not to know him. He famously put their team to the sword with two well taken goals at the group stage of the 2009-2010 UEFA Champions League. Injuries have curtailed the... go to www.youthng.com