A look at the country’s demographics, football history and its squad status prior to the Qatar World Cup 2022.
Number of inhabitants: approx. 47 million.
Continent: Europe
Confederation: UEFA
National Football Association: RFEF
Number of members: approx. 1 million (2.1% of total population)
International trophies won: 1x World Cup, 3x European Championship
Best World Cup result: Champions in 2010.
Key Players
In the past: Xavi, Iniesta, Hierro, David Silva, David Villa, Butragueno.
Key current players: Laporte, Rodri, Garcia, Soler, Morata.
Coach, formation and possible lineup
Coach: Luis Enrique. (since 2019)
Typical formation: 4-3-3
Possible lineup:
- GK: Unai Simon (Athletic Bilbao) 25
- LB: Marcos Alonso (Barcelona) 31
- RB: Daniel Carvajal (Real Madrid) 30
- LCB: Aymeric Laporte (Man City) 28
- RCB: Eric Garcia (Barcelona) 21
- DM: Rodri (Man City) 26
- CM: Carlos Soler (PSG) 25
- CM: Koke (Atletico Madrid) 30
- RW: Marco Asensio (Real Madrid) 26
- LW: Ferran Torres (Barcelona) 22
- ST: Alvaro Morata (Atletico Madrid) 29
Age Report
Players aged 25 or under in the current lineup: 4
Players aged 32 or over in the current lineup: 0
There are no players in this lineup that will (most likely) be playing their last World Cup this year.
There are 4 players in this lineup that can play at least two more: Simon, Garcia, Soler, Torres.
The remaining 7 players could play in one (or two) more World Cups.
Youngest player: Eric Garcia, born 9 January 2001 (21)
Oldest player: Marcos Alonso, born 28 December 1990 (31)
Average squad age: 26.6
World Cup Qatar – Group E
Fixtures:
Wednesday 23 November Spain vs Costa Rica
Sunday 27 November Spain vs Germany
Thursday 1 December Japan vs Spain
Our view:
Spain has a lot of quality players. But making a quality team out of them is not an easy job, so it seems. The best players don’t necessarily make the best team, after all. That being said, Spain has a lot of exciting young talent that are just about ready to take over. Just not for this World Cup yet perhaps. In any case, with all the talent at their disposal Spain should be able to make it out of the group stage in Qatar. Beyond that, probably not.
