Luis de la Fuente named Spain's 2026 World Cup squad on Monday, and for the first time in the country's 92 years in the competition there is no Real Madrid player in it. The Spanish Football Federation later confirmed the omission of defender Dean Huijsen, ending a run that had stretched across generations of Spanish teams.
Lamine Yamal is in the squad despite the hamstring injury that is expected to keep him out of Spain's opening match and could also rule him out of the second group game. Gavi returns after seven months out with a knee injury, while Mikel Merino is also included after coming back in the final game of the season following four months out with a foot injury. Nico Williams makes the list after missing Athletic Club's final three matches with a left hamstring injury.
The weight of the selection sits in what was left out as much as what was named. Spain have competed at the World Cup for 92 years and this will be their 17th appearance, yet the squad features no players from the country's most decorated club. Aymeric Laporte, Pau Cubarsi, Eric Garcia and Marc Pubill were chosen ahead of Huijsen at centre-back, and Robin Le Normand also misses out.
That absence is sharper because Spain went to Euro 2024 with three Real Madrid representatives — Dani Carvajal, Nacho and Joselu — and won the tournament. Carvajal did not make the provisional World Cup squad after two injury-hit seasons, while Nacho and Joselu have since left Madrid. Spain also did not take any Madrid players to the 2020 European Championship, so the gap is not entirely new, even if the World Cup stage makes it more striking.
The tension now lies in how a squad built without Real Madrid players handles the competition itself. Spain have been drawn with Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia and Uruguay, and the group will test whether de la Fuente's selections can absorb the absence of Huijsen and still carry the form and control that carried them through qualifying into the 2026 World Cup.
