Spain just brought home the FIFA World Cup Winner’s Trophy, beating Argentina in East Rutherford, New Jersey, but here is the wild part for Real Madrid fans: their club’s only real connection to the newly crowned champions is Marc Cucurella. He was the tournament’s best left-back and signed for Los Blancos from Chelsea just as the World Cup began. Here is the kicker though: Cucurella appeared in the media throughout the tournament as a Real Madrid player, yet he still hasn’t set foot in Valdebebas or played a single minute for the club.
A Fading Dynasty of National Pride
There was a time when Real Madrid had constant, undeniable representation in the Spanish national team. We’re talking club legends like Fernando Hierro, Raul Gonzalez, Iker Casillas, and Sergio Ramos, all serving as long-standing captains of La Roja. But since Euro 2020, that relationship has clearly cooled. Some of the snubs might have looked like outright bias against Madrid players back then, but the squad selections for this World Cup, frankly, seemed entirely justified. The truth is simple: Real Madrid just don’t have many players right now operating at the level required for the national team. Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, on the other hand, have a seriously strong presence in the champions’ squad.
The Future Looks Just As Distant
So, the big question hanging in the air is whether Cucurella remains the club’s only link to the World Champions in the months and years ahead. It’s a tired cliché, but totally apt here: don’t fix what isn’t broken. This Spanish side looks close to unbreakable, and that makes it hard to picture players like Dean Huijsen or Gonzalo Garcia getting a look from the national team set-up any time soon. Thiago Pitarch has caught the eye at youth level, sure, but he has a long way to go before Luis de la Fuente would even consider him. Chema Andres, formerly of Castilla, doesn’t have an obvious route in either. Even in the transfer market, Real Madrid have largely looked beyond Spain’s borders, with three of their four signings this season being non-Spanish. It’s a curious position for the club that actually represented Spain at the very founding of FIFA. Madrid’s status as a global institution means its success no longer hinges only on Spanish talent, but for the country’s biggest club, the distance from its own national team is, at the very least, interesting.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
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