BERLIN — First, the Spanish players had to go through their ritual celebrations. They mingled with their fans, draped themselves in the flags of their countries and regions, and mourned their grieving English opponents. Then they gathered near a hastily erected podium on the field of Berlin's Olympic Stadium.
Most of the players took the moment to gather themselves, hug each other and take in the magnitude of their accomplishments over the past month. At the start of Euro 2024, Spain was ranked second among the continental powers, and now, after a perfect tournament and a 2-1 victory over England in the final Sunday, they are back on top.
But Ramin Yamal couldn't contain his excitement. He was dancing, jumping and just couldn't stop moving. Though he hadn't experienced it firsthand, he knew every player had a chance to lift the trophy, so he practiced his technique by lifting an imaginary cup three times.
When the Spanish players were finally called to collect their awards, Yamal was a little too early: The assembled dignitaries had not yet taken their seats when he ran up to the stage. He had to be called back by his teammates, but rather than reproach he was greeted with an affectionate, somewhat fatherly ruffling of his hair.
Over the past few weeks, it's been easy to forget just how young Yamal is. He was only 16 during the competition, but German law requires special permission to train late into the night. He's so young he was always accompanied by a designated guardian. Standing by the podium, he was young enough that he might have even tasted the cake that was given to celebrate his 17th birthday on Saturday.
Still, Yamal deserves much of the credit for leading a young and relatively unknown Spain team to unexpected glory. It was his goal that sealed Tuesday's semifinal victory over France, and it was his pass that set up Nico Williams to smash Spain's opening goal in Sunday's final.
Mikel Oyarzabal may have scored Spain's decisive goal and the imposing Rodri may have been named the tournament's best player, but it was Yamal who brought the energy that defined this team, with his youth, vigour and the thrilling unpredictability that only a genius can have.
That energy has proven infectious: 87 percent of Spaniards plan to watch the final, according to a survey conducted by 40bD and published Sunday in the Spanish newspaper El Pais. National airline Iberia has assured anxious customers that it will broadcast the match from high-altitude planes throughout the match.
That's down in part to the fact that this team is better equipped to represent Spain than ever before. Yamal is of Moroccan descent and grew up in a neighborhood in the Catalan town of Mataro that has been demonized by the country's burgeoning far-right populist party, Vox.
Williams' parents are immigrants from Ghana. Oyarzabal, like most of the team, is a proud Basque, which no doubt helped to spread the patriotic fervor generated by the team's success in parts of Spain where separatist sentiment remains strong. Big screens were set up in both the Basque Country and Catalonia, hardly the heartlands of the Spanish national team, so fans could watch the final.
But perhaps more directly, Yamal has helped to reshape Spanish football's self-perception, more than a decade since the country's greatest international team, arguably the greatest in the game's history, last won a major trophy, a second European Championship in 2012.
Since then, Spain has experienced nothing but disappointment. The men's team has not won a World Cup final since triumphing in 2010, they have won only two European Championships in that same period, and Spanish soccer authorities are embroiled in a scandal that threatens to tarnish their only glory of that period, winning the Women's World Cup last year.
But now the Spanish men's team has added another accolade to their women's victory. “It's a great day for Spanish sport,” said Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who was in Berlin watching the match next to Spain's King Felipe VI and his youngest daughter, Princess Sofia. Hours earlier, Carlos Alcaraz had won his second Wimbledon trophy.
Spain's footballing glory was, of course, England's suffering. Gareth Southgate's team, unsure what to make of a month in which they had not lost a single game, had acquired the useful habit of saving themselves from self-inflicted crises, and had reached their first final on foreign soil, arriving in Berlin in the odd mood of having played well for around 45 minutes in total.
And yet England seems resigned to the idea that, coincidentally, Southgate's uncompromising pragmatism may not have been pretty, but it has paid off. The prospect of not having to make an increasingly complicated reckoning about the pain the country has endured for years is closer than ever. Football might return to the country.
And in a way, that's exactly what happened: the address had just changed. The Spanish men's national team may have been dormant for the last decade or so, but the domestic team has not. Since 2001, the Spanish men's team, both national and club, has faced foreign teams in major finals 23 times – and won them all.
Meanwhile, Spanish influence is almost everywhere. Real Madrid has practically made the Champions League their own. The Premier League's best manager is Spanish, as is the second-best. Spanish managers have also won league titles in France and Germany this year. Many of the ideas that inspire the style of play that has come to dominate Europe's top teams have their roots, at least in part, in Spain.
