Spain can claim global football dominance with unprecedented men’s and women’s World Cup double

As the gleeful mayhem of Spain’s 1-0 victory over Argentina in the men’s World Cup final settled around MetLife Stadium, three-time Ballon d’Or winner and reigning women’s World Cup champion Aitana Bonmatí approached Spain captain Rodri. Bonmatí had taken in this edition of the World Cup as a pundit and approached the midfielder with compliments in mind and a microphone in hand.

“You’re a fundamental pillar of the national football team. I think you’ve grown a lot in the tournament, and your last two matches especially have been spectacular,” Bonmatí told Rodri, who won the Ballon d’Or in 2024 and received the Golden Ball at this World Cup, an honor given to the best player in the tournament.

“For me, it’s admiration to Aitana for what she’s achieving,” he replied to Bonmatí, stadium bystanders and the DAZN audience watching along. “Trying to replicate, see if I can get to her level.”

The 30-year-old captain called the road to accomplishing what Bonmatí has — three consecutive Ballon d’Ors, four Champions League titles, and a glut of domestic trophies with Barcelona — difficult but impressive.

This moment between Aitana Bonmati and Rodri 🇪🇸#WorldCup pic.twitter.com/DvJIQmuJKQ

— DAZN Football (@DAZNFootball) July 20, 2026

Spain is the only country in the world in which that exchange could happen. For the first time in the history of the World Cup, the reigning champions of the men’s and women’s teams represent the same country. The men’s team doubled its World Cup victories Sunday, following up on its 2010 World Cup title won in South Africa. The women’s side received its first star at the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, defeating England 1-0.

Bonmatí’s and Rodri’s having won the Ballon d’Or, an honor given to the player voted best in the world, adds another layer of sheen to Spain’s flex. Both national teams have also reached their European championships in their last campaigns, albeit with different results. (The men’s side won, and the women’s side lost. Both played England.) The men’s and women’s national teams have had different experiences within their federation, but their emerging epoch is not coincidental. It is the fruit borne from years of dedication to development and a persistent application of a clearly defined playing style that cuts across the ages and genders of Spain’s program.

Brazil, Germany, Argentina, France and Uruguay have all won more men’s World Cups than Spain. The United States and Germany have won more women’s World Cups than Spain. (In the early 2000s, Germany nearly accomplished the double, but the men’s team placed second in its 2002 World Cup final against Argentina, and the women’s team claimed its first world championship against Sweden in 2003.) True dynasties might have been extinguished by the rapid evolution of modern football, particularly on the women’s side, but a new bar emerges from Spain’s most recent achievement. A footballing nation should be judged by the development and success of its men’s and women’s teams.

Spain women’s victories have at times come despite a lack of support from the Royal Spanish Football Federation, and nowhere was this struggle clearer than La Roja’s 2023 World Cup campaign. It began with 15 players protesting the federation and refusing to be called up to the national team until their demands for structural change were met — namely that the federation dismiss former Spanish national team manager Jorge Vilda.

At that World Cup, the women’s team’s triumph was immediately overshadowed when then-federation president Luis Rubiales forcefully kissed forward Jenni Hermoso on stage during the medal ceremony that followed the match, igniting a global protest against Rubiales and a women’s rights movement. Spanish striker Borja Iglesias also joined the protest in support of Hermoso, refusing to report to the men’s national team while Rubiales was still employed as the federation’s president.

Rubiales resigned as president three weeks after the incident and was later found guilty of sexual assault. Similar to the U.S. women’s national team leveraging its 2019 World Cup victory toward their fight for equal pay, so, too, did Spain to secure change and sustainability within their program. They reached the final of the women’s Euros last summer and have already qualified for the 2027 World Cup.

Next year’s tournament in Brazil could be Spain’s first time competing on the global stage with fewer systemic hurdles. They are ranked No. 1 in the world, arguably the team to beat, and the U.S. women’s national team will have a chance to prove themselves worthy opponents in October when they play two friendlies against the reigning World Cup champions.

On the field, Spain have proved their training methods, philosophy and culture can be applied to anyone and yield results. Part of that philosophy relies on a devotion to repetition; the more experience a player has doing a specific action, the more comfortable they are doing it, including in high-pressure scenarios. The Spanish women have appeared in six U-17 World Cups out of eight total, winning in 2018 and 2022. Players such as Salma Paralluelo, Cata Coll, Claudia Pina and Vicky Lopez, all regular features on Spain’s current senior team, have been on those title-bearing rosters. (Spain’s men have competed in six out of 20 U-17 World Cups from that age group but are yet to win one.)

Paralluelo is the only Spanish female footballer to have won a U-17, U-20 and a senior women’s World Cup. This says nothing of youth European championships and the domestic hardware she’s earned with her club, Barcelona, whose renowned La Masia youth academy bolsters not only the club’s developmental pipeline but one for the country, too.

Paralluelo’s rise also illustrates another more recent element of Spain’s approach, employed increasingly across Europe, that has proved successful: recognizing the talent of immigrants, an intentional exploration of which the federation has not historically done.

Paralluelo’s father is from Spain, and her mother is from Guinea-Bissau in West Africa. Lopez’s father is Spanish; her mother, Nigerian. Lamine Yamal’s father is from Morocco; his mother is from Equatorial Guinea, both of which once existed under Spanish rule. Forward Nico Williams, who provided the game-winning assist in Spain’s World Cup victory Sunday, was born to two Ghanaian parents who migrated across Ghana and through the Sahara Desert before settling in Spain. Williams’ older brother, Iñaki, represented Ghana at this World Cup.

However polite Rodri’s response to Bonmatí’s compliment might have been, it was a powerful moment illustrating Spain’s collective — and growing — influence as a global footballing superpower. The women’s side have lit the path in Spain’s modern quest for dominance, from club to country to individual awards. Until another country can challenge them in this arena, it will be extremely difficult to slow them down.