A fourth Euro trophy for Spain. The Spanish football squad, nicknamed “Roja”, won the Euro 2024 last Sunday after beating England 2-1 in the last minutes of the game. Spanish striker Nico Williams, Ghanaian roots, scored the first goal of his team. The pass came from Lamine Yamal, his young teammate (17 years old) born from a Moroccan father and a mother from Equatorial Guinea.
According to a lot of football followers and fans, the best team of the competition won the tournament. Spain, whose players kept on proposing an appealing strategy on the pitch, won every single game they played in this Euro 2024. The team coached by Luis de la Fuente beat Croatia (3-0), Italy (1-0), Albania (1-0), Georgia (4-1), Germany (2-1), France (2-1), and at last England in final (2-1). It looks like they deserved this trophy.
In this bright success, players like Rodri, Fabian Ruiz, Laporte, Williams and Yamal were essential. The Spanish success is the success of a team, and not a single player’s one. The victory of the team that won the most over the last decade is a collective victory, which is a good feeling in the midst of growing individualism. Players like Carvajal, Simon and captain Alvaro Morata, who recently signed for Milan AC, played a major part in this success as well.
Thanks to this trophy, Spain becomes the most crowned nation in the Euro. The “Roja” won it four times now (1964, 2008, 2012, 2024). Spain also won the World Cup in 2010.
The upcoming World Cup in 2026 can be an opportunity to witness the predominance of the Spanish over the rest of the world, provided the hopes and good things observed in this tournament are confirmed in two years’ time. Players like Jesus Navas and Carvajal may retire from international football by then, but no doubt Yamal and Williams will be there to defend the colors of Spain (and Africa).