In the world of international football, 12 years is not a long time to go without a major trophy. Yet the aftermath of Spain’s tiki-taka inspired period of dominance between 2008 and 2012 has felt like a never-ending cycle of mistakes being repeated and Spanish attempts to win silverware ending in familiar and often embarrassing fashion.
To understand why, it’s perhaps worth going back first to a group stage exit at Euro 2004 or perhaps a 3-1 defeat to France in the round-of-16 at the 2006 World Cup when a Spanish eleven featuring the likes of Iker Casillas, Carles Puyol, Sergio Ramos and Xavi crashed out with star forwards Raul, Fernando Torres and David Villa all also starting that match.
While after this summer’s triumph, Spain are now the most successful team in Euros history, back then they were the continent’s great underachievers, having won just one major title – the 1964 European Nations’ Cup, the second edition of the tournament which saw only four teams take part. Their World Cup record was even more miserable with Spain only once making it into the last four.
Producing talent has never really been a problem for a football-mad country, home to some of the biggest and best clubs on the planet. Try as they might, getting that talent to come together to form an effective national team was a puzzle that Spanish national team coaches throughout the ages would fail to solve.
Aided by a generation of world class talent in virtually every position, it was a code that was finally cracked by Luis Aragones in 2008 and Vicente del Bosque in 2010 and 2012. Spain reigned supreme, using a passing style that brought the best out of their many small, but technically gifted midfield players and invariably forced even the strongest of opponents into submission.
It’s therefore entirely natural that the Spain teams at subsequent tournaments would largely try to replicate the football that had delivered three straight major trophies for a nation that had only previously reached one major final.
As the golden generation aged, Del Bosque’s reign fizzled out much faster than many anticipated with a group stage exit at the 2014 World Cup and a round-of-16 defeat to Italy at Euro 2016.
As the mediocrity and in many cases apathy towards the Spanish team returned in a country where the relationship between football fans and their national side is a complicated one, so too did some of the in-fighting and off the pitch issues that had previously plagued La Seleccion.
Julen Lopetegui was sacked just one day before the start of the 2018 World Cup as details about his deal to take over at Real Madrid became public. Fernando Hierro took temporary charge and oversaw a shock round-of-16 exit against Russia, in a match dubbed ‘death by 1000 passes’ with La Roja completing 1008 passes to their opponents’ 192 before losing on penalties.
Then came the Luis Enrique era, with the former Real Madrid and Barcelona player promising a fresh approach. Euro 2020 and a trip to the semi-finals was a promising step in the right direction, but it too ended in familiar fashion with Spain losing a World Cup round-of-16 tie against Morocco on penalties, again completing more than four times as many passes as their opponents but only managing one shot on target across 120 minutes.
Enter Luis de la Fuente who had spent most of Spain’s decade of pain coaching the country’s youth teams. An U19 European champion in 2015, an U21 European champion in 2019 and an Olympic silver medalist in 2021, the then 61 year old had an impressive CV when it came to underage football, but was almost completely unproven at the highest level having not coached a senior team since an ill-fated 11-game spell at Alaves, then of the third tier, in 2011.
In short, it was not an appointment that captured the imagination of the Spanish public with little confidence that he’d be the man to resurrect the fortunes of the senior team.
Early results and performances did little to restore that belief either. In just his second match in charge, De la Fuente oversaw a desperate 2-0 qualifying defeat in Glasgow against Scotland with many already beginning to question whether he’d even make it as far as the Euros, let alone win it.
The next international get-together was an altogether more successful affair with Spain beating Croatia on penalties to win the Nations League to seal a first trophy in 11 years, albeit a major one.
It wasn’t as though that success was enough to win too many hearts and minds and it’s worth noting that the wingers that started the Croatia game were Yeremy Pino and Marco Asensio with Jordi Alba and Jesus Navas the starting full-backs.
For different reasons, only Navas would make it to Euro 2024 as back up to Dani Carvajal at right back, but some of the foundations for a glorious summer in Germany were already being laid.
The Nations League saw De la Fuente put his faith in Luis Enrique’s number one Unai Simon rather than Kepa Arrizabalaga who had started the opening Euro qualifiers. He also plumped for a central defensive partnership of Robin Le Normand and Aymeric Laporte, two French-born players who have remained the preferred pairing despite the latter moving to play his club football in Saudi Arabia.
Another favourite of De la Fuente, but until this summer not so much the Spanish public or media, was Fabian Ruiz who partnered Rodri at the base of midfield in the Nations League final and excelled at Euro 2024 in the same role.
The spine of De la Fuente’s side was starting to emerge and his willingness to ignore public criticism and stay loyal to certain players was most evident in the continued selection of Alvaro Morata up front, with the Atletico Madrid man also taking on the captaincy despite the barrage of criticism that has come his way over the years from supporters.
Even during the unqualified success of Euro 2024, De la Fuente was having to defend Morata, who by all accounts did a fine job behind the scenes in the leadership role, claiming before the semi-final against France “the treatment he receives as a player representing our national team is totally unfair”.
“He is an example for everyone. I am extremely grateful to Morata for his attitude as a footballer and as a person” he continued.
While he initially appeared deeply unsure as to the make-up of his best team with Iago Aspas, David Garcia, Dani Ceballos, Iñigo Martínez, Alejandro Balde, Pedro Porro and Joselu among those to start for Spain during De la Fuente’s first international break, he soon made quick progress on that front and opted for more continuity than Luis Enrique whose school of thought tended to be much more reactive to club form.
Although less confrontational and less engaging than his predecessor whose press conferences were often edgy affairs, De la Fuente has proven to be a far tougher character and a far better and bolder coach than anyone could have anticipated when he took the job in December 2022.
He’s been able to block out the considerable outside noise and focus on getting the big decisions right, something he’s had an incredible knack for doing over the past year.
Some of those decisions may seem obvious now on the back of seven straight victories at Euro 2024, but things were far less black and white in the build up to a tournament that La Roja were the dominant and deserving winners of.
Without doubt the biggest of those calls was to go all-in on both Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal, two immensely talented young wingers who turned just 22 and 17 respectively in the days before the final.
Both players started six of Spain’s seven matches in Germany, only sitting out the largely academic final group game against Albania. The duo have been absolutely integral to Spain’s ability to finally move on from the era of tiki-taka and adopt a more aggressive, more exciting approach to football that has yielded such impressive results, but to pick both to start at this tournament was not an obvious call.
Between then Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams scored only 10 goals in LaLiga 2023/24. Alejandro Grimaldo scored that number alone from left wing-back for Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga, yet unlike many of his rival coaches at the Euros, De la Fuente opted for the players he thought would give his team the most balance and resisted the urge to shoehorn players in based on club form.
That meant Marc Cucurella rather than Grimaldo at left-back, another big call that the Spain boss got right with the Chelsea man having an outstanding tournament on the back of an underwhelming club campaign.
While history teaches us that winning one tournament is no guarantee of success two or four years later, it’s hard not to be left with the impression that Spain are now in a really good place to go on and target a second World Cup win in 2026, not least given the state of their main European rivals this summer who almost without exception underperformed and underwhelmed.
With Brazil in disarray and Argentina talisman Leo Messi set to be 39 by the time that tournament swings around, Spain have a talented young squad that should in theory be better in two years time.
La Roja actually finished the final of Euro 2024 without arguably their best three midfielders with Pedri and Gavi both already out injured, while Rodri had to be replaced at the break. With Dani Olmo showing signs that he’s now ready for the “big move” that has long been touted and Lamine Yamal already looking like he could be world football’s next genuine superstar, Luis de la Fuente will have an embarrassment of riches to work with when everyone is fit.
If anything, this summer’s triumph came well ahead of schedule and what comes next may be even more exciting with a home World Cup also part of the longer-term picture. Ridiculously, Lamine Yamal will still only be 22 when that tournament kicks off in 2030.
Whether the man now dubbed Don Luis de la Cuarta is still at the helm then remains to be seen, but the 63 year old has silenced all of his initial doubters and deserves so much credit for finally lifting La Roja out of their post golden era slump in the most impressive fashion in Germany.
