Spain have named a World Cup squad built around Lamine Yamal, Nico Williams and a midfield with enough control to make them one of the big favourites in North America this summer. Luis de la Fuente has also done something Spain have never done before in a World Cup selection: leave out every Real Madrid player.
That is why the World Cup predictor searches are turning to Spain now. The tournament kicks off on 11 June, and the defending European champions arrive with a squad that looks capable of winning again after their 2024 title run. De la Fuente was blunt about the scale of the challenge, saying: “Do we think we’re favourites? Yes. Can we win the World Cup? Yes. But that doesn’t guarantee anything.”
The selection is built on familiar strengths. Spain scored 21 goals in six qualifiers, winning five and drawing one, and de la Fuente has kept the core that carried them to their third European title in 2024. Unai Simón remains the regular No 1 goalkeeper, but David Raya and Joan García are pressing hard for the shirt. Eric García has been recalled, while Pedri, Gavi and Martín Zubimendi sit alongside Rodri and Fabián Ruiz in a midfield group that gives Spain both control and depth. In attack, Mikel Oyarzabal, Ferran Torres and Borja Iglesias add options around the two wingers who helped define Spain at Euro 2024.
Yamal and Williams were revelations at that tournament, but both arrive carrying problems of their own. Williams has been troubled by a hamstring injury, and Yamal has been battling one too, leaving open the possibility that both miss Spain’s opening game against Cape Verde on 15 June in Atlanta and their second against Saudi Arabia on 21 June, also in Atlanta. Spain then play Uruguay on 26 June in Guadalajara, and that fixture could become the first point at which their most dangerous wide players are fully available again.
That is the one complication inside an otherwise polished picture. Spain are trying to blend youth, experience, technical midfielders and direct attacking talent into a side that still wants the ball, but can hurt opponents faster when space appears. It is a flexible formula, and one that has made them dangerous again. The question now is not whether Spain belong among the favourites. It is whether they can get Yamal and Williams fit in time to look like one before the group stage runs away from them.
