De la Fuente’s World Cup winners ‘an example for Spanish sport’

Syndicated reporting provided by Stats Perform and reviewed by the SoccerNews editorial team.

Luis de la Fuente hailed Spain’s World Cup winners as an “example” for the entire country to look up to, following their 1-0 final victory over Argentina.

Ferran Torres came off the bench to score the only goal as La Roja triumphed in extra time on Sunday, mirroring their previous World Cup final success against the Netherlands in 2010.

Argentina saw Enzo Fernandez sent off in second-half stoppage time following a dismal foul on Young Player of the Tournament Pau Cubarsi, having earlier been booked for flailing his arms at referee Slavko Vincic after failing to win a free-kick.

The 2022 champions did not have a single shot until the 117th minute, becoming the first team on record (since 1966) to fail to have a shot in normal time of a World Cup final.

Aside from one late chance for Giuliano Simeone, Spain were in complete control of the game, racking up 20 shots and hitting the target on 12 occasions, while accumulating 1.94 expected goals (xG) to Argentina’s 0.17.

Spain are only the fourth team to win the Euros and the World Cup back-to-back, after West Germany (Euro 1972 and 1974 World Cup), France (1998 World Cup and Euro 2000) and La Roja themselves (Euro 2008, 2010 World Cup, Euro 2012).

And De la Fuente showered his players with praise following their success, telling RTVE: “These are players with exceptional talent. 

“I’m very proud to have made this journey with them; it was an honour. I’m very moved. 

“It’s wonderful, we have a generation of players who are an example for Spanish sport, for young people, for all of Spain. Together we are stronger.

“We should have scored earlier but there were a lot of saves. But it’s a World Cup final, against Lionel Messi… you have to suffer. We had to show that we were ready to suffer.”

2 – Spain’s Ferran Torres was just the second substitute to score the winning goal in a FIFA World Cup final, after Germany’s Mario Götze in 2014, which also came against Argentina.

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) July 19, 2026

Cubarsi was not the only Spain player to land an individual prize as they swept the tournament awards, with Rodri winning the Golden Ball and Unai Simon claiming the Golden Glove. 

Spain are now unbeaten in their last 38 matches in all competitions, the longest ever run by any men’s European national team (W29 D9).

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