Cerveceros de España has used artificial intelligence to pick an ideal World Cup XI for drinking beer, and Marcos Llorente is in it. The midfielder was chosen as one of the defenders in a list built around public image, not match stats, turning a publicity exercise into a very specific football ranking.
The selection was built from thousands of data points, but the traits behind it were strikingly subjective: carisma, sentido del humor and the potential to enjoy beer. That is why the AI also placed Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams among the Spanish names, alongside Emiliano 'Dibu' Martínez, Ronald Araújo, Alphonso Davies, Jude Bellingham, Luka Modric, James Rodríguez, Neymar, Julián Álvarez and Javier Aguirre as the coach to have a beer with.
For Cerveceros de España, the point was not to judge football ability but to frame the World Cup through a more social lens. It also ran a separate look at España and selected a top five it said stood out for frescura y autenticidad: Nico Williams, Borja Iglesias, Marc Cucurella, Gavi and Lamine Yamal. In that list, the organization leaned on phrases such as “una alegría y un carisma que están de moda” and a profile “sinónimo de diversión y risas garantizadas,” language that sounds more like a bar conversation than an algorithmic ranking.
That is the friction in the exercise. It is presented as data-driven, yet its inputs depend on perception, off-field interaction and a subjective reading of personality. The AI may have searched thousands of data points, but the final verdict still rests on traits no spreadsheet can measure cleanly: who seems natural, who seems funny and who feels like a good fit for a beer. Marcos Llorente’s inclusion says as much about image as it does about any supposed model.
The campaign also lands because it plugs into the economics of match day. Jacobo Olalla said hospitality can expect up to 30% more activity on match days and that beer accounts for around a quarter of bar income. He added that, win or lose, the reunion at the bar is guaranteed, which is the real reason a list like this travels: it treats football as entertainment, and beer as part of the ritual that follows it.
