Of the past 10 major international tournaments, they have won five. Going into Saturday's Nations League meeting with England at Wembley ( ), they are on an international record 38-match unbeaten run. They have not lost since a 1-0 defeat by Colombia in a 2024 friendly.
And the success does not stop with the senior men's team. During that time, Spain have also won: At club level, Spanish teams have won half of all available Champions League and Europa League titles since 2009. Spain football expert Guillem Balague told BBC Radio 5 Live there are "three pillars" that explain Spain's coaching culture and its unprecedented success.
"The first one was university, and in particular something called the National Institute of Physical Education," he said. "University entered physical education in Spain a long time ago, in the 1990s, and they created physical coaches and football coaches with a deep understanding of learning and training processes. "Some of those fitness coaches became really big managers, like Rafa Benitez or Marcelino Garcia Toral.
They came from learning and studying what football was about ahead of anybody else. "The second pillar is the Basque culture. The Basque Country represents historically a special reference within Spanish football because they relate to work ethic, massive work ethic, daily effort.
"And the third pillar is what everybody knows: the Barcelona influence, Johan Cruyff and the tactical revolution that followed through him." Eight players from Barcelona's La Masia academy were in the Spain squad who won the 2010 World Cup under Vicente del Bosque, and another eight were in Luis de la Fuente's group as they lifted the trophy again this summer. Barcelona won their first European Cup in 1992 under Cruyff playing total football - a style pioneered by the Netherlands team of the 1970s in which he played, and later mirrored at the Nou Camp under Pep Guardiola's management between 2008 and 2012. That was a period where Barcelona won three consecutive La Liga titles, while Spain won back-to-back European Championships in 2008 and 2012 either side of their 2010 World Cup triumph.
Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets were brought through in a system where players learn the art of ball possession and positional play in its purest form. Jordi Gratacos, Barcelona's international director of academies from 2009 to 2011, and then from 2016 to 2020, told BBC Radio 5 Live: "The number one thing is to understand the tactical meaning of the technical action. What I mean is to create intelligent players [who are] very good in technical aspects.
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