Spain’s young, relentless champions turn towards 2030 on home soil | OneFootball

Fresh from lifting a second World Cup in New York, Spain’s focus is already shifting to what comes next under Luis de la Fuente.

According to El Periódico Mediterráneo, players asked what was left to win and the coach answered that the task now is to win in September, stressing the squad’s tireless nature.

Since 2023, Spain have won the Nations League, Euro 2024 and this World Cup, and were runners-up in last year’s Nations League on penalties to Portugal. They are 38 official matches unbeaten since 28 March 2023, the longest run ever in international football.

Across this cycle they have beaten every former world champion except Brazil, whom they have not faced in official competition since 2013. France have fallen three times, with draws limited to Netherlands twice, Serbia, Portugal, Türkiye and Cabo Verde.

Fabián Ruiz has not lost any of his 50 Spain appearances. Unai Simón is the least-beaten World Cup-winning goalkeeper, conceding only to Charles De Ketelaere in the quarter-finals, and he holds a 650-minute shutout streak at the tournament; Álex Baena is the first player to win a World Cup, Euros and Olympics, all within two years.

The next targets are Euro 2028 in the UK and Ireland, then the 2030 World Cup co-hosted with Portugal and Morocco, the first time holders will stage the event. Spain could become the seventh nation to win as hosts, after Uruguay, Italy, England, West Germany, Argentina and France.

This title came with the tournament’s sixth-youngest squad, average age under 27. By 2030, Lamine Yamal will be 22 and Pau Cubarsí 23, while core figures such as Pedri 27, Gavi 25, Nico Williams 27, Rodri 33 and Simón 32 should be in range; only Aymeric Laporte 36 and Fabián 34 may be beyond peak, yet not necessarily out of contention.

There is depth too, with Fermín, Pablo Barrios and Samu Aghehowa missing New York through injury, and talents like Dean Huijsen, Yerson Mosquera, Jesús Rodríguez and Jon Martín emerging. De la Fuente, who will turn 69 during 2030, is contracted to Euro 2028, wants to continue through the next cycle, and the RFEF will grant him an extension in due course.

Source: El Periódico Mediterráneo