EURO 2024 | France opponent analysis: Spain
07/09/2024 03:57 AM
France face Spain in Munich on Tuesday with both looking to reach the final of Euro 2024. From the manager to the most famous culinary delight and in-depth profiles of the whole squad, here is everything you need to know about Luis de la Fuente’s side. This piece was written pre-tournament by David Álvarez, Juan I. Irigoyen, Ladislao Moñino, Jon Rivas, Rafael Pineda and Juan L. Cudeiro for El País as part of GFFN's partnership with The Guardian's sports network.
Prospects
Spain arrive at the Euros in Germany with much better prospects than could have been imagined 18 months ago when they lost to Morocco on penalties in the Last 16 of the World Cup by Morocco and replaced Luis Enrique with Luis de la Fuente. The national team had shown a worrying lack of imagination in Qatar and, instead of appointing another coach with a high-profile club career, the Spanish football federation looked within and hired a coach had spent most of his career with the Spain youth sides. However, the experiment did not start well.
De la Fuente’s side lost the second game of the Euro qualifying campaign, 2-0 against Scotland at Hampden Park, and the coach came under a lot of criticism. There was even speculation that he would lose his job so early into his spell. However, Spain’s next games were in the Nations League finals against Italy and Croatia, two teams they are due to face in their group in Germany.
Italy were defeated 2-1 after a late goal from Joselu in the semi-final and the tournament then won on penalties against Croatia. The success gave the team – and the coach – a platform from which to build. The project has felt very stable since then and has proceeded serenely. De la Fuente has also learned from his mistakes, for example not repeating the mistake of making eight changes, which he did for the Scotland defeat. He has also shown that he is capable of playing a more direct football than that criticised in Qatar, without losing control of the game, mainly because of the calming influence of Rodri in the middle of the pitch. The wingers are more involved and he is not afraid to use a pure striker like Joselu.
Spain won their remaining qualifying games but lost the supremely talented Gavi on the way after he picked up an ACL injury against Georgia. There are also big question marks around Pedri, who has had his own injury problems and not been at De la Fuente’s disposal, while the first-choice No 9, Álvaro Morata, has struggled this spring. However, despite all these problems, it feels as if Spain are travelling to the Euros with a very good foundation and should count among the favourites.
The coach
Luis de la Fuente does not have a long list of elite clubs on his CV – although he represented Athletic and Sevilla for several seasons as a player – but he has proved to be the perfect choice during a turbulent time for the Spanish Football Federation. Luis Rubiales, the president who hired him, resigned after planting an unsolicited kiss on Jenni Hermoso after the Women’s World Cup final and is now involved in several legal cases. During one of the national team squad get-togethers, civil guard officers entered the offices of the Spanish FA next to the pitch where the players were training. De La Fuente has maintained his calm and has kept the group united with a simple phrase. “If you came to play for the national team you have to be good and you have to be committed.”
The icon
Rodri has become the key player in the transition from Luis Enrique to De la Fuente. The former deployed him as a centre-back in Qatar while the latter uses him as the conductor of play in midfield, just like Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. “He is the best in Europe,” said the Catalan after the 2023 Champions League final and added: “a fantastic midfielder.” He was chosen as the MVP of the win against Inter (having scored the winner) and was also the MVP of the Nations League final against Croatia. He has become one of the leaders of the team, the player who dictates the pace with which the team plays on the pitch.
One to watch
Lamine Yamal may only be 16 years old when the Euros start (he turns 17 on 13 July), but he is already emerging as a key player for this Spain team. In fact, this past season he was a rare goodfeel story for Xavi Hernández’s Barcelona. “He surprises you every day,” says De la Fuente. Despite the fact that he is still quite an erratic player he continues to be an absolutely decisive forward, capable of breaking through the lines easily and with a very good goalscoring record.
The maverick
This Spanish squad does not have a player with the personality to rock the dressing room or shock the rest of the world with a controversial comment in a press conference. There is one player, however, who always seems to be in the spotlight, even if he doesn’t want to. Álvaro Morata has played for European powerhouses such as Real Madrid, Juventus, Chelsea and Atlético, but throughout his career his ability to score goals have been questioned. It doesn’t matter that he has scored more than 200 senior goals. He has been booed and received death threats from his own fans but De la Fuente is unmoved: Morata remains his captain.
The spine
Unai Simón (goalkeeper), Aymeric Laporte (defender), Rodri (midfielder) and Álvaro Morata (forward). Simón was already the No 1 when De La Fuente took over and he is not about to be dislodged now. The same goes for Laporte, who has kept his place as the leader of the defence despite his transfer from Manchester City to Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia. De La Fuente really values his experience. Nobody questions Rodri’s place and Morata still has the coach’s trust up front. One thing to remember about these four players is that they are leaders on the pitch, but also in the dressing room.
Probable starting XI
4-3-3 – Unai Simón – Carvajal, Le Normand, Laporte, Grimaldo – Olmo, Rodri, Fabián – Lamine Yamal, Morata, Nico Williams.
Celebrity fan
They say about Rafa Nadal that, because he opted to play with a racket, the world lost a magnificent footballer. He is the nephew of the former Barcelona Dream Team footballer, Miquel Ángel Nadal, and always likes to kick a ball when he can. Despite that link, though, the 22-time grand slam winner supports Real Madrid – as well as La Roja of course. When Spain won the World Cup in 2010, Nadal was one of the first people to sneak into the dressing room to celebrate with Casillas, Iniesta and Xavi and the rest.
Culinary delight
No game is complete without a good beer. If you are in a bar or in the stands the ideal scenario to follow a competition like the Euros this summer, especially in a hot country such as Spain, you absolutely must ask for a caña with a nice foamy head. If you are watching at home it is enough to have a nice little bottle of beer, say a quarter of a litre or so. As well as having a fresh, crisp beer, you need to get your stomach ready and what better way to compliment the drink than with a bowl of patatas bravas (fried potatoes with a spicy sauce on top) or an ensaladilla rusa (salad with mayonnaise, tuna, olives and carrots), which despite its name is even more Spanish than a potato omelette.
Spain player profiles
Unai Simón
11 June, 1997
Goalkeeper
Athletic Bilbao
Since Luis Enrique entrusted Simón with the goalkeeper’s gloves in November 2020 only injuries have kept him out of the national team, and he has been first choice for the last two major tournaments. Despite being considered one of the best goalkeepers in the world, and for the first time this season keeping the most clean sheets in La Liga, he has never contemplated leaving Athletic. “I’m embarrassed to have to answer this question again and again,” he said. “I will stay in this team until they kick me out.” He is one of the key figures in the Athletic dressing room, and though he did not play in the team’s successful Copa del Rey campaign he was the first to offer support to his understudy, Julen Agirrezabala, before the decisive penalty shootout in the final and one of the most joyful players as the team celebrated their first major trophy in 40 years.
David Raya
15 September, 1995
Goalkeeper
Arsenal
David Raya took an unusual route to the elite. When he was 19 he was playing in England’s fifth tier, on loan at Southport from Blackburn Rovers, whom he had joined from Cornella in a kind of exchange programme, set up as a result of the ultimately unsuccessful transfer of the full-back Hugo Fernandez to Lancashire. Southport were convinced by his quality but were troubled by his height: “The coach told me to hang from the ceiling to see if it would make me grow more,” he told the journalist Alvaro de Grado. He went on to spend a couple of seasons on Rovers’ bench before becoming their first choice following relegation to League One in 2017, and he was signed by Brentford two years later. After their promotion to the Premier League, he received his first call-up from Luis Enrique, who preferred him to David de Gea and took him to the World Cup in Qatar. Still, his rise continued, and last summer he arrived on another loan deal at Arsenal, where he was to fight for the goalkeeping jersey with Aaron Ramsdale, who had been included in the Premier League team of the year the previous season. It took four games for him to become Mikel Arteta’s first choice.
Álex Remiro
24 March, 1995
Goalkeeper
Real Sociedad
When Kepa Arrizabalaga lost his place in the Real Madrid team Andriy Lunin was not the only beneficiary. Remiro was called up for Spain for the first time in November 2023, when Kepa was injured, and he has kept his place in the squad, playing for the first time against Colombia in March. A run of strong seasons since he signed for Real Sociedad on a free transfer in 2019 have earned him his place with La Roja. Remiro plays the drums and the piano, takes part in litter picks – “It gets me so angry when I see rubbish on the floor” – and has launched a scheme to promote positive parenting and provide emotional support to children playing sports across the Basque Country. “We need to provide youngsters with more guidance around mental health,” he said.
Jesús Navas
21 November, 1985
Right-back
Sevilla
Navas is the only remaining member of the Spain squad that won the World Cup in 2010 and continues to play at a high level at the age of 38. After three successive fourth-place finishes Sevilla’s results have been less strong in the past two seasons but Navas still excels, now as captain, with his crosses from the right flank key to their tactical plan. “Navas is my right eye and an exemplary footballer,” Luis de la Fuente, the Spain manager, said last November. His contract at Sevilla expires this summer and his future is not clear – the club are willing to let the player decide if he wants to continue for another year, a right he has earned across the 21 years since he made his debut for them in 2003, a run broken by a four-year spell at Manchester City. Navas has become a symbol of Sevilla and of Spanish football, but this will be his last major international tournament.
Dani Carvajal
11 January, 1992
Right-back
Real Madrid
In a profession that by its nature attracts ultra-competitive personalities Carvajal is one of the most competitive. So badly does he cope with defeat that for a while he stopped playing Fifa because he got so annoyed when he lost. This fear of losing is obvious when he plays, and in the way he prepares to play. For years he was troubled by muscular injuries, which forced him out of two Champions League finals as well as several international tournaments, but he never stopped fighting for a fully fit future. “Someone might have cast an evil eye on me, but I tried everything,” he said. The solution he found involved changing his diet, and he is now gluten-free, wheat-free and nightshade-free [covering foods including tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and potatoes]. “The injuries were a tunnel with no exit. I ate well, I looked after myself, but nothing changed,” he said. “I asked a nutritionist for help, and from there everything changed.” Without these foods, which contributed to the inflammation of his muscles, Carvajal is flying. He has just completed his best season, with five goals and six assists for Real and another couple of assists for the national team.
Marc Cucurella
22 July, 1998
Defender
Chelsea
The Marc Cucurella of Eibar, Getafe and Brighton is not the same player we see now at Chelsea. The most energetic left-back that Spain has produced in recent times seems to have become rather unbalanced. The same irrepressible energy that propelled him to a lucrative move to Chelsea now appears to make him frantic. As a coach at Chelsea said: “The £55m they paid for him hurt him.” The pressure of the large fee paid by Todd Boehly and co seems to make Cucurella want to justify it in everything he does, and the harder he tries, the more mistakes he appears to make. Like César Azpilicueta, he needs to stay calm to give his best. Can his Euros selection help him to reset mentally?
Alejandro Grimaldo
20 September, 1999
Left-back
Bayer Leverkusen
A graduate of Barcelona’s youth system and once one of their most promising youngsters, Grimaldo moved to Benfica aged 20 because Jordi Alba was still in his prime and blocking his path to the first team. Across seven seasons in Portugal he established himself among the best left-backs in Europe, but none of the continent’s established giants tried to sign him. Instead it was Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen who tabled a bid for him last summer. “He is a very athletic full-back, with great quality, tactically excellent. He’s dangerous in attack, and has a lot of experience and ability,” said Simon Rolfes, Leverkusen’s general manager. Only last November he made his international debut against Cyprus, but his performances for Leverkusen – where he has claimed 12 goals and 19 assists – have made an unanswerable case for him to be Luis de la Fuente’s first-choice left-back.
Robin Le Normand
11 November, 1996
Centre-back
Real Sociedad
Born in Brittany, Le Normand started at Brest before moving to Spain in 2016. He feels more French but has settled well in Spain. “I like the rhythm and the way of life here much more,” he said. “You can go out at any time and there’s something happening. I come from a village. In France it’s different. Here the shops are still open very late, you can go out for a late drink with your friends, then there’s the heat, the food …” With no sign of a route into the French national side he decided to accept the Spanish Football Federeration’s offer to facilitate dual nationality and a call-up to the Spain side. He lives in Astigarraga, a village near San Sebastian that is famous for its cider and home to the Sagardoetxea, the region’s cider museum – “They also love cider in Brittany,” he says – and likes to play the piano, and to sleep: “Only two things every day are non-negotiable: training and siesta.” In Aymeric Laporte there is another Frenchman in Spain’s defence but when together in the national side they don’t speak French: “We get by in Spanish,” he said.
Aymeric Laporte
27 May, 1994
Centre-back
Al-Nassr
Although he was born in Agen, spent five seasons at Manchester City and now plays in Saudi Arabia, Laporte feels like a Bilbao native. When his son was born he was playing in England, and he took advantage of an injury that was keeping him out of the side to travel with his wife for the baby to be delivered in the Basque capital, in a private clinic overlooking the San Mames pitch. His wife is currently living in Bilbao, because they both want their children to grow up there, so it seems possible that when his contract expires he will return to play for Athletic. He does not seem very happy in the country where he currently plays. “There are a lot of players who are unhappy,” he said. “They do look after us but not enough for my liking. In Europe, they pay you a good salary, but they take better care of you. Let’s be honest, many of us have come here not only for the football. In terms of quality of life I expected something different, because here you spend three hours a day in the car because of the traffic.” Despite his exile, De la Fuente continues to count on him.
Dani Vivian
5 July, 1999
Central defender
Athletic Bilbao
There are not too many footballers like Vivian, an old-school, 6ft tall centre-back with lungs to spare and, above all, character. At the age of 20, while playing on loan for Mirandés in Spain’s second division, he was made captain. Only those with great personalities are given such significant roles so young. He quickly became a leader in the dressing room and back at San Mamés, he is stepping up again. “I think I have to do it,” he explains. “I feel comfortable. There always have to be players who assume that role and I like it.” He is the mainstay of a defence that rarely concedes. Now aged 24 he will get the chance to show what he can do on the international stage.
Nacho Fernández
19 January, 1990
Centre-back
Real Madrid
At the start of the season, Nacho thought his first campaign as Real Madrid captain would also be his last at the club where he has been since the age of 11. Throughout the season his performances seemed to gently decline, perhaps in preparation for a move to a lesser side, but when the pressure was at its greatest, in the decisive moments of the Champions League semi-final against Bayern Munich, we saw the best of Nacho again, a player often overlooked but always reliable. “In my understanding of football there are two types of defenders, optimistic defenders and pessimistic defenders,” Carlo Ancelotti said. “He is a pessimistic defender because he always thinks that something bad might happen. That’s why he stays focused for 90 minutes.”
Rodri
22 June, 1996
Midfielder
Manchester City
Already the best midfielder in Europe, Rodri has just completed his best season. Perhaps there has been no icing on this cake, as there was when he scored the Citizens’ historic goal in last season’ Champions League final, but his stats again reflect that he continues to grow as he moves away from being a simple defensive midfielder to something more complete, and he has doubled both goals and assists compared with last season. With the national team, he is the group’s undisputed leader and the player who embodies and sustains Spain’s belief that they could reach, at least, the final four. “Rodri is the best. In his position he is the best,” Pep Guardiola said recently. “He can do everything. He has the quality to read the game, he has the right mentality, he is always ready. Rodri is top, top. Other teams don’t have players like him. Rodri is very good at many things: he has presence, physical play, everything. He is very complete. He was an incredible signing for City.”
Martín Zubimendi
2 February, 1999
Midfielder
Real Sociedad
For years Martín Zubimendi has been a kind of traffic light in Real Sociedad’s midfield: when he turns on the red light his teammates stay back, when he is amber they proceed with caution, and when he turns on the green light it’s all systems go. That is why the midfielder from San Sebastian has been courted from time to time, most frequently by Barcelona, who until not so long ago had Sergio Busquets protecting their defence, a player who Zubimendi said had “done a great deal of harm” to people in his position, “because he did things the rest of us didn’t do, and we had to learn to do them”. Zubimendi was once a ball boy at Anoeta, Real Sociedad’s stadium, but used to be so bewitched by the game going on in front of him that Claudio Bravo had to snatch the ball out of his hands. Now he sees football like a game of chess – a game which, incidentally, he plays with Unai Simon on the national team’s training camps. The Athletic goalkeeper normally wins because, Zubimendi says, “he practices more than me”.
Mikel Merino
22 June, 1996
Midfielder
Real Sociedad
Merino is the Swiss Army Knife of midfielders, one who can be used for a multitude of tasks. Whether you need someone to deliver an exquisite assist, to cut out an opponent’s pass, to crash through anyone who gets in his way or to head in a cross like a centre-forward, he’s your man. Football runs in the family: his father played for Osasuna and Celta Vigo, and though his mother forbade him from giving his son a football, the child’s genes demanded it. “I was stealing them in the street from other kids,” he said, which is more or less what he continues to do now. After starting out at Osasuna Merino was recruited by Borussia Dortmund when (just) in his teens, then joined Newcastle under Rafa Benitez, before moving to the Basque Country in 2018. He is a massive fan of formula one, to the extent that he owns a simulator – “just a cheap one” – on which he practices his driving. “I know almost all the circuits from playing on the simulator,” he says. “I’ve been following F1 since I was a kid. It takes a couple of laps to remember them.” He also has a pressotherapy machine, which massages his limbs to help remove toxins and which he uses after games as part of his wind-down routine. “I find it hard to sleep because we take caffeine before the game,” he said. “So when I get home I eat as much dinner as I can fit in my body, drink lots of water and go in the pressotherapy machine with my legs up, and I use the time while I’m doing that to watch the game. Then I take a sleeping pill.”
Fabián Ruiz
3 April, 1996
Midfielder
PSG
In his second season at PSG Fabián Ruiz made light of the predictions that he would become bench fodder after the arrival of Luis Enrique, the coach who first called him up for the national side and then forgot all about him after Euro 2020. He has not been a guaranteed starter, but he has played frequently, especially in the Champions League, for which he was a starter in all the knockout games. His performances for the Parisians have helped him return to the Spain side under Luis de la Fuente, who has believed in his abilities since Ruiz was one of his key players for the Under-21s. Ruiz grew up in Los Palacios, 30km from Seville, and was signed by Real Betis as an eight-year-old. When his parents told the club that they could no longer afford to bring young Fabian to training every day they got round the problem by giving his mother, Chari, a job as a cleaner. She stayed in the role until her son left for Napoli in 2018.
Álex Baena
20 July, 2001
Midfielder
Villarreal
Álex Baena is often compared to Santi Cazorla. Both players left home as teenagers to join Villarreal; both became midfielders known more for their intelligence than athletic prowess. Like the former Arsenal player Cazorla, Baena does his thinking before he receives the ball – and usually makes the correct decision about what to do when he receives it. He is a great competitor, too. Perhaps he only needs to become more mature and understand that he needs to be a role model for teammates as well as supporters.
Pedri
25 November, 2002
Midfielder
Barcelona
Pedri is the face of Adidas’s advertising campaign in Spain ahead of the Euros, but in many ways, the story of his last few seasons has been more cock-up than pin-up. Since he burst onto the scene in 2020-21, with Xavi gushing that “Iniesta is the greatest talent I have ever seen in Spanish football, and Pedri is close to him”, the 21-year-old has been dogged by injuries. In that season, between Barcelona and the national team, he played 73 games and his body said enough. In three seasons since then he has missed 75 matches, most with muscle injuries. He returned from the most recent in April, just in time for the Champions League quarter-final against Paris St-Germain, and following Barça’s elimination from that competition had one goal in mind: Germany 2024. He is the face of Adidas, and also of the future of Luis de la Fuente’s team.
Fermín López
21 May, 2001
Midfielder
Barcelona
In La Masia, Barcelona’s famous academy, few had faith in Fermín López. They didn’t believe he had the right physique, or enough ability. Last season he went on loan to Linares, in Spain’s third tier, and was outstanding, scoring 12 goals in 37 league games. When he returned he was expected to play for Barça Atlétic, again in the third tier, but he caught Xavi’s eye during a pre-season tour of the United States and his future changed. In the end, he only played once for the reserve team and has been either on the bench or in the starting XI for all but one of Barcelona’s senior league and cup games. “I’m thrilled with him,” Xavi said in October. “He’ll be in this team for years, and I don’t say that lightly. His mentality is spectacular. He’s always listening, always thinking. When you tell him things, they go in and he applies them.”
Nico Williams
12 July, 2002
Striker
Athletic Bilbao
The youngest member of the Williams family is one of the jewels of Spanish football. Despite his young age he is an established and essential member of the Athletic side, and many clubs around Europe have taken note of his qualities. When Athletic won the Copa del Rey this season Williams was widely considered the man of the match, and he has formed a genuinely exciting forward line with his brother Inaki, nine years his senior. Their mother, Maria, was pregnant with Inaki when she and their father Felix set off from Ghana and walked barefoot across the Sahara in search of a better life in Spain. Inaki has chosen to represent Ghana and says he will approach the Euros “with some popcorn, and enjoy”. For all the fraternal love – “I am very proud to see how he has grown, how he is becoming a man and how he triumphs,” Inaki said – they also fight sometimes, such as in this season’s game against Alaves, to the evident delight of their teammates. “We’ve been like this our whole lives. If I don’t have these kinds of arguments with my brother, who am I going to have them with?” Inaki said. “Even though we’d won it got a bit out of hand. Our mother told us off.”
Ferran Torres
29 February, 2000
Forward
Barcelona
Torres avoided the pressure of playing for the national team under Luis Enrique, his father-in-law, but has had no choice but to deal with that of being a €55m signing for Barcelona, who brought him back to Spain from Manchester City in 2022. Mateu Alemany, the former Barça director of football, called him “my boy” when he negotiated with his City counterpart, Txiki Begiristain, but the striker prefers to be known as “the shark”. “At the time [I came] I wasn’t ready for the pressure. It came on me all of a sudden. It’s like you go into a spiral, and I realised I was in a bottomless pit,” he said. He has since become “an indestructible Ferran” after an encounter last summer with an MMA star: “I went to the US on holiday and I met Ilia Topuria and his entourage and I saw how they made him believe he was the best, gave him that unconditional support and I saw the confidence he had. I went on that trip as one Ferran and came back as another.”
Joselu
27 March, 1990
Position: Striker
Club: Real Madrid
In May 2022 Joselu had just been relegated to the second division with Alavés and travelled to Paris to watch the Champions League final in a Real Madrid shirt, just like any other fan. He went to support the team in whose youth academy he trained and for whom his brother-in-law, Dani Carvajal, played – their wives are twins. A year later he was relegated again, with Espanyol. Fast forward another year and he led Real to the Champions League final with two goals in the semi-final, after coming off the bench in the 80th minute. “My dreams are not as beautiful as today has been,” he said. He has had a few good ones recently: he has come to the national team late, making his debut a few days before his 33rd birthday and coming off the bench to score two goals in as many minutes against Norway.
Álvaro Morata
23 October, 1992
Striker
Atlético de Madrid
Midway through this season Morata had already scored 19 goals for his club and seemed at the peak of his powers, but his form waned and he reached his lowest ebb in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund, when in the first minute he missed a one-on-one and collapsed to the turf. He was substituted at half-time. A few days later Morata contracted a rare viral illness called trigeminal neuralgia, which causes intense pain in the muscles of the face. In the final weeks of the season, there were days when he could not even go out to train with his teammates because of the pain. Nor could he play golf, the sport he says relaxes him and helps him to escape the pressure and leave bad feelings behind. He feared for his place in Spain’s squad for the Euros, but Luis de la Fuente reassured him that his place was secure, even if he has not always been in Atlético’s starting XI.
Lamine Yamal
13 July, 2007
Striker
Barcelona
Lamine Yamal has been the sensation of the season, for Barcelona and in Spain. The young striker captivated his teammates and shattered records. “He was born with a special talent,” said Sergi Roberto, Barcelona’s captain. “He is a difference-maker, he will mark an era,” said Xavi. The son of a Guinean mother and a Moroccan father, Yamal has made the leap from Barcelona to the Spain side and broke another record in the process, at 16 years and 57 days becoming the youngest person to play and to score for Spain. “He’s a beast of a talent,” Xavi said. “How he works, how he fights, how he helps the side. He has no ceiling. He doesn’t get tired. We are looking at something special.”
Dani Olmo
7 May, 1998
Forward
RB Leipzig
“Football is won with the ball at your feet,” says Dani Olmo, who Luis de la Fuente expects to be one of Spain’s key players at the European Championship. The national team coach has always had his eye on Olmo, even after he left Barcelona for Dinamo Zagreb at the age of 17: the Spain coach, then in charge of the Under-19s, never failed to call him up. His versatility is key: De la Fuente can use him as a winger on either flank, as a central playmaker, as a midfielder or as a false nine. His father, Miquel, who is a coach, is responsible for preparing him to be able to play in all these positions. Olmo comes into the competition without a trace of the injuries that hampered him in the first part of the season, which he finished in fine form. Both Barcelona and Liverpool are said to be keeping a close eye on him at the Euros as they polish their summer plans.
Mikel Oyarzabal
21 April ,1997
Striker
Real Sociedad
In March 2022 Oyarzable sustained a cruciate ligament injury in training that kept him out until the last day of that year, and had some Real Sociedad fans wondering whether he could possibly return to his former self. This season he has provided the answer. Although his club signed several strikers first to cover his absence and then to play alongside him, Oyarzabal has once again been the key player in their forward line. “The doctor who did the operation told me that I would be back on the pitch in eight months, but that I would be recovering for two years,” he said, a perspective which meant he did not put undue pressure on himself. Neither did Imanol Alguacil, his coach, and little by little he has made his way back to his best, and into the national team. “Mikel, for us, signifies this connection we have with our people and our land,” says Roberto Olabe, his club’s sporting director. “He has also shown the other side of football, the more bitter side, the difficulty of a serious injury. He has given us a lesson in motivation, composure and focus on returning to play. We are proud that Mikel represents us to the world.
Ayoze Pérez
29 July, 1993
Forward
Real Betis
Proving it’s never too late, Pérez has earned his first Spain call-up at the age of 30. After a decade in England, at Newcastle and then Leicester, the Betis forward has had a great second coming in Spain. He has scored goals but above all his fast interplay helped unbalance opponents and qualify his team for next season’s Europa Conference League. A very versatile footballer, he can play on either wing, as a centre-forward or as a midfielder. “It’s his moment and he’s going to take advantage of it,” said Luis de la Fuente after naming Pérez in his squad. For a player whose 54 goals in England never convinced previous Spain coaches to pick him, it is just reward for always believing. “I had a hunch that I could go to the European Championship,” he said.
