Como a Espanha construiu uma fundação que produziu uma nova geração de estrelas

There may not be a clear favorite on Sunday when Spain and Argentina meet in the FIFA World Cup final, but there are very discernable differences in the way each team arrived at this point. 

For Argentina, Lionel Messi is the star. He is the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer with 21 goals. In 2022, he was the tournament’s best player with seven goals and three assists. Entering Sunday, he has eight goals and four assists at this World Cup.  Unquestionably, Messi has a supporting cast with Argentina that consists of global stars. But Messi is the star. 

On the other side, it is a completely different approach. 

For Spain, there are world-class players on the roster, but the team is the star. Even with a player such as Lamine Yamal, who was recently a finalist for the Ballon d’Or as an 18-year-old, no single player is above the team or its system. Instead, every player fills a role within that system and sticks to that role.

Former Paris Saint-Germain, AC Milan, and Inter Milan star forward and now FOX Sports analyst Zlatan Ibrahimović put it succinctly immediately following Spain’s 2-0 win over France in the World Cup semifinal. 

“If I speak about Spain, I don’t speak about one star,” Ibrahimović said. “The team is the star. When they shine, they shine collectively — even if you have Yamal. This is not a team that is dependent on one player. It is not an individual performance. It is a team performance. Everything they do is as a team.”

The Foundation Of Spain’s System

At the heart of this team is a system that has been evolving for many years. From 2004-2008, Spain was coached by Luis Aragonés. Then, from 2008-2016, La Roja was led by Vicente del Bosque. Those years saw Spain achieve unprecedented success, winning the Euros in 2008 and 2012 along with the World Cup in 2010. Those teams were led by a wave of talent that included David Villa, Fernando Torres, Cesc Fàbregas, Andrés Iniesta, Gerard Piqué, and Carles Puyol.

At that time, Spain (and Barcelona) developed and perfected the “tiki-taka” style of playing which featured constant short passes, players forming triangles to have multiple passing options, and a heavy emphasis on possession with a high tempo. For that generation of players, it worked. But, like all things, it ultimately came to an end. 

Replacing that generation was difficult as Spain failed to get out of group play at the 2014 World Cup and then were bounced in the round of 16 in 2018 and 2022. But following the 2022 exit is when Spain’s team took huge steps in its evolution in hiring Luis de la Fuente to coach the first team. 

It was a bold hire for Spain because, despite now having gone three World Cups without winning a knockout game, Spain decided to remain on the same track and go with an insider.

De La Fuente’s Fresh Approach

De la Fuente was promoted from within Spain’s after having successfully coached Spain’s youth teams since 2013. Prior to that, he had been unsuccessful in coaching stints at the club levels in Spain and Portugal. 

But with Spain’s youth teams, de la Fuente had been building something special with a new generation of Spanish players. He won the Euro U-19 championship, and then he moved up an age group and led Spain’s U-21 team to the Euro U-21 championship. His last stop before the full national team was the 2020 Olympics (held in 2021) with the U-23 team, which he led to the silver medal before losing to Brazil in the final. 

When he moved to the first team, he knew what was working. Despite him being an insider, he had his own ideas. He didn’t want to get rid of Spain’s high-tempo and quick passing style, but instead wanted to breathe new life into it with tactical tweaks. 

He had Spain to be more direct and get the ball into the attacking third more quickly. De la Fuente also wanted to create overloads centrally to open space up for wingers to have more room to operate in one-on-one situations. Then, on defense, there is a commitment to the team’s shape to close space and win the ball back.

But de la Fuente has also not been acting alone. Other managers of Spain’s youth national teams during his time also at the youth level were also creating the same system. Just as the players work together, the Spanish coaches were as well. 

Santi Denia was also a Spanish youth national team coach during that era when he was hired in 2010. When de la Fuente was hired as the full team manager, Denia was hired to replace de la Fuente with Spain’s U-21 team and also the Olympic team for 2024.

The 2024 Spanish Summer

Working in unison, de la Fuente and Denia created an incredible summer of 2024 for Spanish soccer. 

First there was the full national team at Euro 2024 where de la Fuente’s team won all seven of its games to win the title. The road was extremely difficult. Spain won all three of its group stage games against Italy, Croatia, and Albania without conceding a goal. Then, in the knockouts, it rolled past Georgia, hosts Germany, France, and then England in the final.

As for the Olympic team, Denia won the gold medal playing essentially the same system. In the knockouts, Spain defeated Japan, Morocco, and then France in the gold medal game. 

Just as important as winning the Euros and the Olympic gold medal was for Spain, also important was that Denia was able to develop players who were able to make a seamless transition to the full team due to playing the same system. 

Five players from the Olympic gold medal team made the World Cup team, including key players Pau Cubarsí and Álex Baena. It would have been six if star forward Fermín López hadn’t suffered a broken foot just before the World Cup. 

“Luis is a master of managing a team: he understands how players tick, he knows how to guide them, and he senses who should start each match,” Denis told FIFA recently. “He adds his own twist to an established model, taking into account the players’ profiles. That has delivered results for the association in recent years and helped us win titles. We believe in that model, and Luis believes in it more than anyone.”

The 2026 World Cup Run

De la Fuente was able to help create and implement a new system and style of play that was consistent within Spain’s youth team and several of the country’s clubs. That helped to make it easier to name a roster for the 2026 World Cup. 

But it was also not without controversy. When the roster was named, it did not consist of a single Real Madrid player. LaLiga rivals Barcelona, meanwhile, sent eight players onto the World Cup team. 

In Spain, it was highly controversial and almost unthinkable to have Real Madrid absent from La Roja on the biggest stage. For de la Fuente, he said the roster was “perfect” and that “it’s the 26 players we wanted.”

Once again, it was de la Fuente’s belief in the system. 

“The best players aren’t just at Real Madrid, Barcelona, or Atlético. There are very good players at other clubs,” de la Fuente explained before the tournament. “As we have a deep understanding of Spanish football, we pick the ones we believe best fit our system.”

The past two months have proven de la Fuente to be correct. In the first seven games of the World Cup, Spain has not lost and has shockingly conceded just one goal. Its only blemishes were a 0-0 draw against Cape Verde and a goal conceded in a 2-1 win over Belgium in the quarterfinal. 

Former French World Cup winner Thierry Henry, who now serves as an analyst for FOX Sports and knows de la Fuente’s system well. He coached France’s U-23 team at the Olympics which lost to Santi Denia and Spain in the gold medal game.

“The Spanish team finds a way to be successful at every level,” Henry said after Spain defeated France. “Women’s football, youth tournaments, the Olympics — I lost a final against them — time and time again they are coming. Identity and philosophy, they all play the same way at every level. The coach was the youth team coach normally, but because he knows the system and all the players know the system, you can see that it is a team with stars in it but first and foremost, it is a team effort. Today, we were not in the game because mainly because when the Spanish team gets the ball, they don’t give you the ball back.”

“I also want to give credit to the whole system of what they put in place, because Spain never used to win like that, and now they win at every level.”

Spain and its impressive system will now be put to the ultimate test – against a Messi-led Argentina side that is reigning World Cup champions and two-time defending Copa América champions.