Spain won the Under-20 Women's World Cup on Sunday, on penalties against Korea, and it barely registered as news anywhere outside Spain. That is the most telling thing about it. The trophy was their seventeenth world or European title, across every level from under-17 to senior, in five years.
Seventeen. In five years. Counting them out loud is the only way the number lands properly.
What the seventeen actually are
Most of them belong to the women's game between 2022 and 2026. The senior side won the World Cup in 2023 and the Nations League in both 2024 and 2025. The under-20s have won two World Cups, in 2022 and 2026. The under-19s have been European champions five years running, every year from 2022 to 2026. The under-17s won a World Cup in 2022 and a European title in 2024.
The men's haul runs to five. World champions in 2026, European champions in 2024, Nations League winners in 2023, Olympic gold in 2024, and an under-19 European title this year. Spain are now the first nation to hold the men's and women's World Cups at the same time, having beaten England in Sydney in 2023 and Argentina 1-0 in New Jersey this summer.
"It is a dominance," Guillem Balague told BBC Sport. "It's like the perfect storm. Culturally, we do things a certain way. Everybody believes in it. The important thing is that we don't stop."
The appointment nobody liked
Luis de la Fuente got the men's job in December 2022, days after Morocco had knocked Spain out of the World Cup in the last 16 and Luis Enrique had gone. He had never managed a big club. He retired as a player in 1994, spent fifteen years in assistant and youth roles and in the lower Spanish leagues, then worked his way up through Spain's own age groups.
"They went with this guy who understood the style and the system," said Balague. "It was a very risky decision. I don't think anyone thought he would be so successful." Three and a half years later he has the Nations League, the Euros and the World Cup.
Juan Mata's explanation is simpler. "De la Fuente knew most of these players from the academies and they are growing as a team. This is not only a team for the present, but also a team for the future." The 65-year-old himself seems mostly interested in keeping everyone slightly uncomfortable. He recalled players coming to him after the final asking what was left to win, having won everything at every category, and the answer they arrived at was the next match in September.
Where it goes from here
Spain's win over England on Saturday took them to 39 matches unbeaten in all competitions, the longest run any European or South American side has managed. Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsi both collected World Cup winners' medals at 19, and Spain became the first team to start two teenagers in a World Cup final. Yamal is the third-youngest player ever to appear in one, behind Pele in 1958 and Giuseppe Bergomi in 1982.
On the women's side Vicky Lopez has three Champions League titles with Barcelona at the same age, and Salma Paralluelo has more than 50 caps before turning 23. Joe Hart, watching the World Cup final, put it plainly: "Spain have got a way of playing that no-one in the world has proven they can get anywhere near. No-one laid a glove on them at this World Cup." Ten shots on target against them in the whole tournament.
Thierry Henry made the point that should worry everyone else. "Spain never used to win like that. And now they win at every level." The habit is the thing, not the generation.
The tally: 17 world and European titles from under-17 to senior level in the last five years, the most recent being the Under-20 Women's World Cup won on penalties against Korea on Sunday 27 September 2026. Spain are unbeaten in 39 matches in all competitions. At least a quarter of the managers starting the 2026-27 Premier League season are Spanish. Source: BBC Sport.
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