Over the past 18 months, we’ve looked at each World Cup-winning side in turn, right back from the first winners, Uruguay in 1930.

Since then, there has been Italy in 1934 and again in 1938, Uruguay in 1950 and West Germany in 1954, before Brazil recorded back-to-back successes in 1958 and 1962.

Then came an England win in 1966, another Brazil title in 1970, a second West Germany triumph in 1974, Argentina’s first in 1978, Italy’s third in 1982, Argentina’s second in 1986, West Germany’s third in 1990 and Brazil’s fourth World Cup in 1994, before France joined the party on home soil in 1998.

In the 21st century, Brazil celebrated an unprecedented fifth title in 2002, Italy won a fourth in 2006, Spain got involved in 2010, Germany won their fourth in 2014 and France won their second in 2018,  before Argentina’s third in 2022.

Now it’s time for Spain to join France and Uruguay on two World Cup wins.

Introduction

They might not boast the superstar attackers such as Brazil in 1970, they didn’t provide the legendary moments of Argentina in 1986, and they didn’t win the final as comfortably as France in 1998.

But Spain’s World Cup-winning side of 2026 should be considered among the most convincing winners in the history of this competition. In eight games, they only conceded one goal, never trailed at any stage, and controlled matches in midfield without being negative or unambitious.

By the end — partly thanks to Argentina’s primitive approach in the final — they were overwhelmingly popular winners.

The manager

In a tournament with more ‘star name’ managers than usual — Mauricio Pochettino, Carlo Ancelotti, Thomas Tuchel — the final was a clash between federation men who have achieved almost nothing at club level: Luis de la Fuente’s Spain overcame Lionel Scaloni’s Argentina.

As a player, De la Fuente was a workmanlike left-back who played a role in Athletic Club winning back-to-back La Liga titles in the early 1980s. As a coach, he spent four years with the club’s youth teams, had a forgettable spell in charge of Alaves and then started to work for Spain, leading them to under-19 success in 2015, under-21 success in 2019 and the Olympic silver medal the following year.

Appointed after the 2022 World Cup, De la Fuente won the Nations League in 2023, the European Championship in 2024 and now the World Cup in 2026. He’s basically won the lot, and it’s still somewhat difficult to characterise him as a coach or point to any key tenets of his philosophy.

Luis de la Fuente gets his hands on the World Cup trophy (Reuters/Dylan Martinez)

But he is 100 per cent Spain, and knows the quality at his disposal. “In my opinion, and I say this with the greatest of respect to everyone, we have the best midfield in the world,” he told the Guardian midway through this World Cup win.

“We have two players per position who are the best players.”

Star player

In an era where there has never been greater focus on individuals, and in a tournament where all the star names — Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappe — seemed to dominate their sides’ attack to a staggering extent and produced a great battle for the Golden Boot, Spain were defined by their teamwork rather than their individualism. In attack, Mikel Oyarzabal and Alex Baena understood the system well but were not recognised as truly world-class operators.

On the right, Lamine Yamal (who turned 19 midway through the World Cup) was heralded as the new Messi, but came into the tournament still recovering from injury. There were moments of magic, but only one goal and no assists to show for his quality.

Eventually, the Golden Ball award went to Rodri, who won the equivalent award at Euro 2024. This was something of a surprise: bookmakers had him at 66/1 in the group stage, when he looked sluggish at times, and 13/2 before kick-off of the final, by which point he’d produced some stronger performances.

He and all of the back four would be in consideration for a best XI of the tournament, but none of the attackers were on the individual level of the players who were fighting for the Golden Boot.

That was the beauty of it all.

Spain goalkeeper Unai Simon sweeps the ball away from Kylian Mbappe in the semi-final (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Tactics

In basic terms, Spain played the system and style they always do; De la Fuente seems able to switch players in and out without any difference to performance. But there were some subtle and important changes.

For example, when Spain only managed a goalless draw with debutants Cape Verde in their opening game, they had many of the same problems as when Spain lost 1-0 to Switzerland in their opening game en route to 2010 success: no width, no penetration. Gavi was used on the left of the front three, and often ended up in the same positions as his Barcelona team-mate Pedri.

From the second game onwards, there was no Gavi. Baena came into the side to stretch the play and provide more forward running. Another crucial change was the introduction of Dani Olmo, just as he came into Spain’s Euro 2024-winning side midway through the tournament in place of the injured Pedri.

Olmo played as a No 10 rather than a midfielder, was outstanding at finding space between the lines, and allowed Spain to play more vertical passes. It’s a shame that Oyarzabal dragged his finish wide against Portugal, as this would have been a perfect demonstration of how Spain cut through the opposition quickly thanks to Olmo’s positioning and ability to play an unfussy first-time pass in behind.

Meanwhile, for the quarter-finals onwards, Fabian Ruiz — probably Spain’s best player at Euro 2024 — replaced Pedri and popped up in the box to open the scoring with a rebound. These changes — Baena’s forward running, Olmo’s ability between the lines, Ruiz’s ability to crash the box — made Spain more direct and more fearsome, and turned a cautious side in possession into a consistently threatening one.

Spain pushed their full-backs very high — Pedro Porro and Marc Cucurella were both excellent in the 3-0 round-of-32 win over Austria, which was this side’s best performance. Porro scored in that game and in the semi-final win against France. Aymeric Laporte was probably the tournament’s outstanding centre-back; Pau Cubarsi played alongside him and was named the tournament’s best young player.

Oyarzabal, while not a traditional No 9, wasn’t really a false one either. Although the graphic below depicts him deeper than Olmo, he didn’t tend to get involved in play as much as you’d expect from a Spain striker.

For example, he didn’t touch the ball for half an hour against Cape Verde. He and Ferran Torres, who replaced him in the final to great effect, feel more like winger-turned-strikers, rather than midfielder-turned-strikers as Spain have often previously deployed.

You might be surprised to learn…

It will probably be forgotten that Unai Simon would have been most people’s third-choice Spain goalkeeper going into the tournament. Arsenal’s David Raya was probably their best player en route to Premier League success, while Joan Garcia had an excellent season for Barcelona.

But Simon conceded only one goal in eight matches. The primary reason is that he had very few shots to save — 10 shots on target in eight matches, with only Belgium’s Charles De Ketelaere beating him. But his aggressive sweeping way outside his box was crucial against both France and Argentina.

The final

Probably not the worst World Cup final on record, but surely the most disappointing.

On paper, Spain versus Argentina seemed perfect: European against South American champions (and World Cup holders), Yamal versus Lionel Messi, a team all about control versus a team who turned on the style in bursts.

But Sunday’s final in New Jersey was incredibly flat. Spain dominated possession, as expected, but Argentina offered absolutely nothing in the way of counter-attacking threat.

Scaloni’s surprise selection of Nico Gonzalez down the left flank provided them with some verticality, but he was sacrificed at half-time for an extra holding midfielder, Leandro Paredes, who got himself booked within five minutes as Argentina reverted to a physical, destructive approach.

They didn’t have a single shot in the initial 90 minutes, and when midfielder Enzo Fernandez was dismissed for a second booking, it seemed a matter of time before Spain found a breakthrough.

Enzo Fernandez received a second yellow for this foul on Pau Cubarsi (Al Bello/Getty Images)

Spain, in truth, weren’t at their best; Olmo probed between the lines, Yamal showed some nice touches and there were flashes of their trademark one-touch passing football to get into dangerous positions, but they never carved out a clear opportunity until extra time.

Their best chance of scoring came from crossing the ball, an underrated aspect of this side’s play. Pedri chipped in behind for fellow substitute Nico Williams, who couldn’t get enough contact on the ball. Then Williams crossed for Mikel Merino — another substitute — who flicked a header wide.

And then Porro’s slightly overhit cross was intelligently nodded back by Williams for Torres — yet another substitute — to smash home. Argentina still hadn’t managed a shot by that point, and most of the world breathed a sigh of relief.

The defining moment

It’s tough to judge this now.

Torres’ goal was the type of emphatic finish that feels worthy of winning a World Cup final. Maybe Spain never quite produced a picture-book goal to concisely summarise their style and quality. Maybe other sides provided the moments, and Spain were about constant control.

Ruiz’s rebound against Belgium came after a nice move down the right, and there were also two good goals rounded off by right-back Porro: an unmarked run into the box and headed finish to round of an extended passing move against Austria (although Spain had half-lost the ball twice and had to win 50-50 tackles to keep possession) and then a clever one-two with Olmo to complete the 2-0 victory over France.

Were they definitely the best team?

As often seems to be the case in World Cups, the winners’ greatest challenge probably came in the semi-final. France were the favourites going into that stage and offered more attacking firepower: Mbappe, Michael Olise and Ousmane Dembele. Spain were the slight underdogs, but their midfield control and cohesive attacking patterns of play meant they dominated the match and were surprisingly comfortable in the second half.

They, rather than a scrappy Argentina side, were the side you could argue were close to Spain’s level over the course of the tournament. But Spain defeated them fair and square.