Spain, 2026 world champions: La Roja reigns over both World Cups

Spain's men's national football team are world champions. La Roja won their second World Cup on Sunday — their first since South Africa 2010 — by beating Argentina 1-0 after extra time in the 2026 World Cup final at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in front of 80,663 spectators. A goal from substitute Ferran Torres, who had just come off the bench, settled the match in the second period of extra time following a header by Nico Williams. Captain Rodri lifted the trophy and Torres was named player of the match.

The match was a duel of goalkeepers and of two solid blocks. Argentina, the 2022 title holders, barely troubled Unai Simón in regulation time and were reduced to ten men when Enzo Fernández was sent off; their goalkeeper, Emiliano Martínez, made eleven saves, the highest figure ever recorded in a World Cup final. Luis de la Fuente's side also completed an impeccable tournament: unbeaten from start to finish, with a defence that conceded only one goal throughout the championship. After topping Group H, Spain knocked out Austria (3-0), Portugal in the round of 16 with a last-gasp Mikel Merino goal, Belgium in the quarter-finals with another Merino strike in the 88th minute and France in the semi-finals (2-0), before overcoming the defending champions, Argentina, in the final.

The victory carries special meaning: it places Spain in the even smaller club of national teams reigning at once in both men's and women's world football. Only three years separate this title from the historic women's World Cup won in Sydney in 2023, when Jorge Vilda's players, with Aitana Bonmatí as the standout of that tournament and Olga Carmona's goal in the final, lifted Spain's first ever women's World Cup against England (1-0, an Olga Carmona goal in the 29th minute).

That night of 20 August 2023 blazed the trail. The women's team showed that the academy model and the possession-and-touch style could conquer the world. The men's side, blending the Euro 2024 champions with talents such as Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, has now completed the same journey to the summit.

Two World Cups in three years, with a common hallmark: touch, high pressing and trust in youth. Two national teams, one country at the pinnacle of world football. Spanish football is living its golden age, and from Montserrat — where the ball is also part of village culture — La Roja's feat is followed with pride.

Photo: Biso, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 licence. Photograph taken on 4 September 2025.

Sources: FIFA and Associated Press.