Going into the 2010 World Cup, the first edition of the historic tournament to be staged in Africa, no country had held the European Championship and World Cup trophies concurrently since Germany in 1974. After ending a 44-year international drought at Euro 2008, Spain were looking to change that.
La Roja had never won the World Cup before and until two years earlier were known as one of international football’s biggest chokers since being crowned European champions in 1964.
Prior to 2010, Spain’s best World Cup performances were quarterfinal exits in 2002, 1994 and 1986, since finishing fourth in 1950 when, unlike today, there was a four-team round-robin for the final stage, rather than a conventional knockout bracket.
After yet more disappointment followed a strong start at the World Cup in 2006 and partway through a near disastrous Euro 2008 qualifying campaign almost cost them a place at that tournament, everything changed. A shift in style from manager Luis Aragonés, who passed away in 2014, favouring more technically-minded ball-playing talents over physicality, and a greater cohesiveness after decades of alleged regional rifts within the team, finally gave Spain their platform.
After sweeping to victory at Euro 2008, Spain, by now under the guidance of two-time Champions League winner and Real Madrid legend Vicente del Bosque, actually opened the 2010 World Cup with a shock defeat to Switzerland—until Argentina followed suit in 2022, they were the only team to lose their first match and still go on to win a World Cup.
That was quickly rectified with 2–0 and 2–1 group stage wins over Honduras and Chile respectively, setting up a last 16 encounter with Iberian neighbours Portugal. The 1–0 score-line, decided by David Villa in the second half, was then replicated again and again all the way to the end.
Paraguay fell 1–0 to a late goal in the next round, followed by another single-goal victory against Germany, also decided towards the end, in the semifinals. An infamously aggressive approach from the Netherlands in the final in Johannesburg still didn’t upset Spain’s rhythm, although it required extra-time to secure the vital goal, scored by Andrés Iniesta, to seal fourth straight 1–0.
Spain became the first new winner of a World Cup tournament on foreign soil since Brazil triumphed in Sweden in 1958, and only the eighth different victor overall.
Del Bosque selected 23 history-makers in 2010, but—at the time of writing—where are they now?
