Here are three statements that, even if debatable, still hold broadly true.
Statement one: Real Madrid are the best club side in the world.
Statement two: Spain have been the best team at Euro 2024.
Statement three: Statement one bears no relation to statement two.
That is not to say, however, that Real Madrid lack presence at this tournament. On Sunday evening, their latest superstar, Jude Bellingham, scored a late, late equaliser for England against Slovakia. That goal may not have sparked fears in Spain about the dangers of facing the Group C winners in the final — but it did prompt another reaction.
Across Spanish social media, one phrase began to trend: ‘Real Madrid ADN’ (DNA in English). The implication: even when not wearing Madrid’s crest on his chest, Bellingham has the potent and seemingly inbuilt gift to warp games to his will, something Madrid have been doing for decades, not least on their way to winning this season’s Champions League.
But it was not just Bellingham. Thirteen Madrid players travelled to Germany. As well as Bellingham’s overhead kick, 19-year-old Arda Guler has fired Turkey to their first quarter-final in 16 years, Antonio Rudiger and Toni Kroos have been at the heart of Germany’s impressive performances, new arrival Kylian Mbappe is battling a broken nose but back starring for France, while Luka Modric did all he could to drag his nation into the knockout stages.
The Croatian may have failed, but what is more Real Madrid-coded than having a penalty saved, only to almost instantly render that miss meaningless by scoring fewer than 60 seconds later?
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They have all shown Real Madrid’s mettle. Yet when it comes to Spain, European champions in 1964, 2008 and 2012, that DNA is MIA.
Maybe this is a slight over-exaggeration. There are traces of influence. Dani Carvajal starts at right-back for club and country, and has justified his place among Spain’s young stars — the 32-year-old even scored his first international goal against Croatia. He has also helped Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal throughout the tournament — not that this is a 16-year-old who needs shepherding.
But Spain’s other two players who were part of Madrid at the start of the Euros, Joselu and Nacho Fernandez, are backup players for Spain, just like they were at the Bernabeu, and have since signed for Qatar’s Al Gharafa and Saudi Arabia’s Al Qadsiah. Though they are seen as important cultural influences for Spain, channelling Madrid’s mentality into a young squad, their on-field impact is limited.
Spain’s manager Luis de la Fuente has no connection to Real Madrid and, unlike the Barcelona-flavoured sides of 2008 to 2012, club-level success has had very little tactical influence on the national team.
Back then, Barcelona’s tiki-taka style was absorbed by a Spain squad who won three successive major tournaments. That legacy is still reflected now. Look at Real Madrid’s pass map from last season’s Champions League final.
Compare that to Spain’s group-stage win over Italy.
With the caveat that these are just snapshots from individual matches, they still display a wider point. Despite the fact that both teams structure their attacks around creating one-vs-one opportunities for their wingers, Spain play a positional game with the balance spread across the pitch (look at their symmetry against Italy), while Carlo Ancelotti sets up his Madrid side with far more freedom, often manifesting in a strong left-sided bias. Spain (and Barcelona) are about control, whereas Madrid are about opportunism and ruthlessness.
This distance between Real Madrid and the national team is not entirely new. Think about Spain squads this century — Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos are towering figures, but you have to go back to Raul, who retired from international football in 2006, to find a significant attacker.
Three years ago, Luis Enrique did not name a single Real Madrid player in his squad for that summer’s Euros, a decision that was described as “an aberration” by parts of the Spanish press. It may have been a shock, but the selection made sense.
When, politically at least, support for Real Madrid and Spain sits together more easily than support for Barcelona and the national team, it is surprising that the latter historically has far stronger footballing connections.
Some of it is circumstantial — while players need to be exceptional to break into either’s first-team squad, Barcelona’s financial issues mean they have been forced to be more reliant on academy prospects or cheaper domestic purchases over the last five years. Madrid, on the other hand, have tended to use their academy products as less glamorous ‘glue players’.
“The biggest explanation is how each club is financially,” Carvajal told radio station Cadena COPE in March. “When you’re not in a good situation you have to get people from below. If you have a shot at signing Jude Bellingham you have to sign him, which may have closed the door on (Madrid prospect) Sergio Arribas.”
However, sources within the Spanish FA (RFEF), speaking anonymously so they could discuss member clubs openly, have a slightly different explanation. For them, much of it is stylistic.
While Barcelona and Spain share several tactical principles within the youth ranks, they argue that Real Madrid has an alternative philosophy. At Madrid’s academy, informally known as ‘La Fabrica’ (The Factory), the focus is on developing a “total player”, a term coined by the executives and coaches, who is adaptable across styles.
The method is highly successful, through a wide-lens view at least, with a recent report from CIES Football Observatory finding that Madrid had formed the most players across Europe’s top five leagues (44). More than 50 players in the 2022-23 La Liga were on the books of Real Madrid’s academy at some stage, as illustrated by the graphic below.
However, Barcelona’s model places the highest value on reading the game and circulating the ball — a philosophy shared by the RFEF across its sides — meaning that the national team, especially at youth level, are far more likely to pick La Masia products. With De la Fuente a veteran at the RFEF, having previously coached the under-21s, this puts Barcelona players at an advantage.
The same source stressed that there is still a good relationship with senior figures at La Fabrica, especially with Abian Perdomo, the club’s head of methodology, but explained that it does not match the historical and proven relationship between the RFEF and Barcelona.
But there is a nuance in the Spain squad.
Despite this relationship, De la Fuente’s Spain of Euro 2024 is not as Barcelona-centric as it has been. There are just four Barcelona players in this squad: Pedri, Fermin Lopez, Yamal, and Ferran Torres. That compares to eight Barcelona players who represented Spain at the 2022 World Cup, and seven who appeared for them at each tournament between 2010 and 2014.
Among the four at Euro 2024, Pedri was developed at Las Palmas rather than Barca, while Yamal, for all his brilliance, is not a paradigmatic Barcelona winger.
In this Spain team, arguably their two most influential players this tournament — Rodri and Nico Williams — were developed at Villarreal and Atletico Madrid.
Overall, 16 clubs are represented in De la Fuente’s squad — double the number of the 2010 World Cup.
It is worth remembering that, despite a recent glut of youth academy prospects, there was a gap in La Masia youngsters after the Pep Guardiola era, with only Sergi Roberto becoming established between 2010 and 2019.
However, that has not affected this iteration of Spain, with De la Fuente evolving the RFEF’s traditional interpretation of Barcelona’s system. This tournament, he has taken parts of it that he likes — such as organisation while in possession, the balance of their attack between left and right, and complex interplay on the flanks — while taking advantage of the profiles of his wingers to add directness on the flanks. Basically, he wants Yamal and Williams to attempt one-vs-ones when they are high up the pitch — and has less of a phobia about them losing the ball if it does not work.
By spreading his players across clubs, De la Fuente has also been able to develop the culture of the national team. Part of his focus, explored by The Athletic’s Pol Ballus last week, has been on building relationships, eliminating any toxicity around the team.
In part, Real Madrid’s Dani Ceballos was left out after old tensions surrounding a derby were raised with Barcelona’s Gavi, who is injured, at a previous training camp. De la Fuente has happily picked experienced players, such as Ayoze Perez, who may not be at an elite club, but who understand their roles as mentors within the squad.
After Yamal assisted Carvajal for Spain’s opening goal of the tournament against Croatia, back home, much was made of the pair’s celebrations together, with the view that it showed how harmony had overcome club allegiances. Without large factions of players from each club, that mood is easier to produce.
Historically, there have been great international teams who have been formed by the nuclei of great club sides — Hungary and Budapest Honved in the 1950s, the Netherlands and Ajax in the 1970s, Barcelona and Spain in the early 2010s.
But that does not have to be the case. France have always drawn their talent from a wide range of sources, so too Brazil and Argentina, whose players are often scattered across Europe.
We may be in a situation where Real Madrid have won six of the last 11 Champions League final, yet do not influence their national side — and that’s fine.
Additional reporting: Guillermo Rai and Tomas Hill Lopez-Menchero
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(Top photo: Spain before their match against Georgia; by Stu Forster via Getty Images)
