Oyarzabal roars in silence, Spain’s quiet match-winner at Wembley | OneFootball

Oyarzabal prefers to keep the volume low, yet his goals keep turning heads. According to AS, he shuns the spotlight. At Wembley he came off the bench and calmly lifted over Trafford to make it 2-3, sealing the comeback.

He is comfortable in the background, so he grinned when asked about a Ballon d’Or snub, saying it was not his thing. On the pitch he roars quietly, finishing as Spain’s top scorer at the World Cup with five, after a slow start against Cape Verde then a starring turn versus Saudi Arabia, a brace against Austria and a penalty that opened the scoring against France.

In Chattanooga he outlined his view of the centre-forward role, one De la Fuente has prioritised. He said he reads the game, sometimes helps by staying out of the way, and accepts a striker cannot be on the ball every minute.

As Morata began to lose prominence, the coach earmarked the role for Mikel. He had already been decisive from a supporting position, scoring in the 1-2 against England at Euro 2024, then quickly closed any debate about starting and the false-nine tag by playing like a true nine.

Since 2025, only Erling Haaland on 26 and Kylian Mbappé on 18 have more than his 15 Spain goals across the Nations League, World Cup qualifying, the play-off and the tournament itself. He is De la Fuente’s leading scorer with 25 and sits sixth on Spain’s all-time list with 31, behind Silva 35, Morata 37, Torres 38, Raúl 44 and Villa 59. He may not feature in Ballon d’Or chatter, but for Spain he is always there.

Source: AS

“Artificial intelligence was used to assist in creating this article based on reporting from the original source quoted.”