Once Spain’s backroom staff had finished outlining the plan — the tactical details, the positioning, the little adjustments that could turn Sunday into a cherished memory rather than a painful one — Luis de la Fuente stepped in with his own message.
“Gentlemen, we have an appointment with history,” the 65-year-old Spain coach told his players before extra time kicked off. Later, he explained the thinking in that moment: “We want to be there first, and then in the extra time, I just said, ‘Look, we are doing a great job. The match is controlled, but this is a final, and we are up against Argentina. So, if we are not careful, we might concede a goal. And we kept our focus up until the last minute.’”
That focus carried Spain all the way to the World Cup title.
(Photo by ANP via Getty Images)
Across 120 minutes in the midday heat, La Roja dictated the final. At times, Spain looked less like the better team than the only one imposing itself on the match. Argentina, the 2022 World Cup champions, did not register a single attempt on goal in regulation or extra time. Spain kept pushing, and on their 20th shot, Ferran Torres finally found the breakthrough, beating Albiceleste goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez.
Still, when the final moved beyond a scoreless 90 minutes and into the added half-hour, nothing felt settled. Penalties were close enough to shape every decision, and Argentina still had Lionel Messi — the same Messi who had inspired a dramatic two-goal late comeback against England in last week’s semifinal.
“The first idea was to keep Messi at bay, but also the other players,” de la Fuente said. “We wanted to keep them away from our goal.”
Spain did exactly that.
But they still had to finish the job. They needed a hero to do it. On a team full of bigger names — teenage sensation Lamine Yamal, former Ballon d’Or winner Rodri — Torres stepped up and became immortal, joining 2010 icon Andrés Iniesta in Spanish lore as a World Cup-winning goalscorer.
“I didn’t think too much,” Torres said afterward. “I saw the ball coming to me, and I shot it with the power of all the Spanish people.”
“I’m so happy for him to have scored this goal,” de la Fuente added. “He will make it into history. He has already made history, and he deserves it.”
The breakout game many suspected Yamal might have in this final never materialized. The Barcelona ace, who turned 19 during the tournament, had a quiet World Cup, though he came close to scoring on a late free kick on Sunday, only for Martínez to snare it. No matter.
(Photo by Maddie Meyer – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
Yamal is still a world champion in his first appearance on soccer’s grandest stage. And while his efforts only resulted in one goal over La Roja’s eight games en route to glory, his contributions didn’t go unnoticed by his teammates.
“I would like to express my sincere gratitude for his play,” the coach said of Yamal. “This [World Cup] will help him to mature and be even better in the future. He’s really sacrificed for the greater good, and this is very important in our sport.”
So is winning — especially at this level. De la Fuente, who began his post-game press conference by thanking God for Spain’s triumph, never wavered from his belief that his players would come out on top.
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“Today, we were convinced that this was our final,” he said. “I think it was a very complete game. If it wasn’t for the keeper, maybe we would have had a larger margin, a larger win.”
He’ll take it. All of Spain will.
It’s just the second World Cup title for the country despite its dominance of Europe at club level, though La Roja has been doing lots of celebrating since de la Fuente took charge in 2022. They’ve now claimed three titles since then, winning the UEFA Nations League in 2023 and the European Championship two years ago. Now they’ve capped it with the biggest prize of all.
“We’ve won everything, in all the categories, and we came to the conclusion [today],” de la Fuente said.
“Once we finished the game, one of the players who’s been here the longest, said, ‘Coach, now what else is there to win?’”
Spain’s Best Moments 2026 FIFA World Cup™ 🇪🇸
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