NEW YORK â Spain has the chance to accomplish something no nation has ever achieved.
If it defeats defending champion Argentina in Sundays World Cup final, both its mens and womens national teams will simultaneously hold the sports biggest trophy.
Germany’s men and women have each won two World Cups, but never concurrently. Similar feats have happened in other sports, including UConns mens and womens basketball teams winning national championships in 2004 and 2014, USA Basketball’s men and women taking gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics and the American men’s and women’s hockey teams winning gold at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.
Now Spain â with the womens side winning its first World Cup title in 2023 â has a chance to set a new standard for sustained dominance on soccers biggest stage.
So how did Spain get here? What has allowed it to separate itself from the rest of the world? What is it doing better than everyone else?Â
“This is the only country that starts a philosophy and an identity at a young age, and theyre all doing the same things from 9 years old and up, both the mens and womens side,” U.S. womens national team legend Carli Lloyd told me. Now a FOX Sports analyst, Lloyd played against Spain during her career and has watched firsthand how the program evolved into a powerhouse.
“They focus on technical excellence first and their positional play, short passing, patience, development â all those different things. And I think for a number of years, they werent incredibly successful but have figured out ways of going about that with the way they play.”
The World Cup is only part of the story. Spain’s superiority has extended across nearly every major competition. The women’s national team won the 2025 Euros, while Barcelona â the club that is essentially the backbone of the squad â has captured three of the last four Women’s Champions League titles.
The men’s team enters Sunday’s final as the reigning European champion and Olympic gold medalist. Twenty of the 26 players on Spain’s World Cup roster were part of one or both of those triumphs, evidence that this success has been building for years.
For many of these players, the foundation was laid years ago at La Masia, Barcelonas famed academy that has long been considered one of the world’s best at developing young talent. It’s where Lionel Messi arrived as a 13-year-old before becoming arguably the greatest player in history.Â
The academys legacy extends beyond Messi, though. Nine alumni will be on the field for Sunday’s World Cup final: Messi for Argentina and Lamine Yamal, Gavi, Pau CubarsÃ, Dani Olmo, Alejandro Grimaldo, Marc Cucurella and VÃctor Muñoz for Spain. The viral photo of Messi bathing baby Yamal has become a symbol of the passing of the torch, but a deeper connection is that both were shaped by the same developmental system.
The academy opened its doors to women residents in 2021, and its pipeline has already produced many of Spain’s biggest stars, including three-time Ballon d’Or winner Aitana BonmatÃ, two-time winner Alexia Putellas, Clà udia Pina, Ona Batlle and mo
