The Spanish national team is the gold standard, and frankly they have been for a long time now.
That hasn’t always been the case though.
To trace the recent history of success for La Roja, all you have to do is look back to Barcelona since 2008, when the Pep Guardiola era revolutionized the game.
Since then, Spain has won three Euro championships and one World Cup. Without Barcelona, though, none of that is possible.
In fact, if you want to understand the difference between Barcelona and Real Madrid, looking at the influence that the Blaugrana has had over the national team is a great place to start.
It’s not that Real Madrid didn’t have great players who made an impact during those early years when Spanish football was making a name for itself. Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, and Xabi Alonso were integral parts of the starting eleven in South Africa in 2010. The point is, they were playing Barcelona football, and played with that style to great success all the way to the finish line.
Now, sixteen years later, there’s a new generation in Spain, but the Barcelona DNA continues to reign supreme.
Luis de la Fuente’s two most important players are without a doubt Lamine Yamal and Pedri.
After that, he’ll be relying greatly on the likes of Dani Olmo, Gavi, Ferran Torres, Pau Cubarsí, Eric Garcia, and hopefully, if he’s smart, Joan Garcia. Sadly, Fermin Lopez will miss out on what would have been a big role on the world’s biggest stage.
For as much tension as there has been been Luis de la Fuente and Hansi Flick over managing minutes, the truth is, Spain will look a lot like the Barcelona team that Flick has been developing over the past few years.
There’s only so much any national team manager can do to put their own stamp on a team that they spend so little time with. When eight of your most important players play for the same club, it’s inevitable that they will have outsized influence on the way the team plays. And if you’re De la Fuente, why would you mess with a system that has worked so well for both Spain and Barcelona over the years?
Of course, the biggest star of the show will be Lamine Yamal, the new face of global football.
The young superstar has already led Spain to a Euro title. If he can turn around and carry Spain to a World Cup trophy two years later, he will be able to call himself a legend of the game by the time he turns 19 years old on July 13.
At the same time, we should appreciate what Barcelona continues to do not only for Spain, but for football worldwide.
Spanish managers are the hottest commodity for a reason. They are from the country that continues to do the best youth development, and of course, many of those ideas are cooked up at La Masia, before they proliferate across the country, and then across the continent.
At the moment, no other club comes close to architecting the game the way Barcelona does.
Beyond the academy, they have Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique, and now Hansi Flick to thank for carrying the torch of excellence, and making Barcelona, and Spanish football writ large, the best of the best that the game has to offer.
At the World Cup, the influence of Barcelona will be felt on the Spanish national team, and even beyond.
In spite of the unsavory behavior of FIFA, football continues to be a light of hope during dark times where the world’s greatest players showcase the art of the game.
If you want to be entertained, watch Spain, and when you do, remember where all of that beauty comes from.
