Rarely has the squad for a World Cup been more consistent with the personality of the coach, the state of our football, the particularities of each club and the uncertainties that weigh on the team. Since the 2006 World Cup, with Luis Aragonés at the helm of the team –eliminated in the round of 16 by France–, Spain has only had two coaches: Vicente del Bosque and Luis Enrique.
In 2018, Julen Lopetegui was in charge of the squad, but was fired on the eve of the start of the competition. That monumental scandal could only end in a fiasco. And so it happened. It is therefore appropriate to place an asterisk on Russia 2018, the point of implosion of a team that had won the World Cup in 2010 and announced its decline in the 2014 World Cup, the end point for the best generation of Spanish football.
Del Bosque collected in 2010 the core of players who had won Euro 2008 and added two or three fundamental touches to the final success. The inclusion of Piqué and Busquets was decisive. The veteran coach stood out as the perfect manager of a team of great players. That selection was that of abundance, a rare case of excess talent, graphically concentrated in two teams.
Six players from Barça and three from Real Madrid were in the starting line-up that played in the final. Villa (Valencia) and Capdevila (Villarreal) completed the team. Spain goes to Qatar in a radically different situation, in a tough re-adaptation process entrusted to Luis Enrique, a magnificent coach tailored to the numerous difficulties that the Spanish team and football have gone through.
The list sends out a meridian message: it is the selection of Luis Enrique, maximum leader, without interference. Most of his players have broken into the international arena under his command, in some cases with remarkable audacity (Pedri, Gavi, Dani Olmo...). Luis Enrique has chosen a group of players who stand out for their versatility. There are few pure specialists and many who move through different positions effectively.
It is a selection with personality and good players, but without world figures. None aspires to the Ballon d'Or, nor is it expected for now. Barça players abound, the most represented team on the list: Busquets, Jordi Alba, Eric Garcia, Gavi, Pedri, Ferran and Ansu Fati. Although one could think of the Barcelona re-edition of the 2010 World Cup, the reality indicates the opposite.
That Barça was at the top of world football at that time. This Barça is the product of a crisis that does not stop. The brilliant appearance of Pedri, Ansu Fati and Gavi was due more to the club's state of need than to any other reason. If something explains Luis Enrique's list, it is Barça's blindness to anticipate the problems that ruined him on and off the field. Between Busquets (34 years old) and Ansu, Pedri and Gavi there is a generation gap between 14 and 16 years old. This gap corresponds exactly to the disdain of the previous directives for the youth team. For almost a decade, 2011-2019, there was hardly any trace of the quarry in the first team, a deficit that was transferred to Luis Enrique's selection.
Outside of Barça, the list indicates the spread of the teams represented. Real Madrid represents the most notable case. League champion, four times winner of the European Cup in the last six years, only two madridistas are among those called up: Carvajal –the only Spanish starter in Ancelottti's team– and Asensio, a regular substitute in the last three years. The effect of Real Madrid – supplier of several of the best teams in the world – on the international scene is as indisputable as its scarce relevance in the Spanish team, a deficit that seriously complicates Luis Enrique's room for manoeuvre.
