A stir was caused back in May when Luis de la Fuente named his World Cup roster for Spain without a single Real Madrid player included.
There was no room for Dani Carvajal—technically no longer a Real Madrid player anyway after his contract expired—nor Dean Huijsen, with Madrid players out of favor after a shaky season.
Amazingly, it was the first time in history that Spain had sent a team to a World Cup without a single participant from its most successful club.
In the end, Madrid did have a representative on the winner’s podium for Spain’s triumph on July 19, with Marc Cucurella signed from Chelsea for around €60 million ($68 million) on the eve of the tournament.
Real Madrid Missing From the Party
🇪🇸 ¡Buenos días! 🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/UxH1Pu5bZ1
— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadrid) July 20, 2026
Still, even as Real Madrid’s social team were happy to bask in Cucurella’s success, it didn’t feel much like a win for Los Blancos.
By contrast, Barcelona had eight squad members, including three who started the final, plus Ferran Torres—the super-sub who scored the tournament-winning goal in extra time against Argentina.
Even Atlético Madrid could boast three players, as could Athletic Club.
Frustratingly for Madrid, Barcelona’s imprint on the World Cup felt particularly strong. Added to the displays of the likes of Pau Cubarsí, Lamine Yamal and Torres, De la Fuente’s passing and pressing philosophy has it ties in the Catalan giants’ approach, while Alex Grimaldo and Cucurella are two more who passed through La Masia before heading elsewhere.
In terms of Los Blancos ‘DNA’, only Marcos Llorente and Víctor Muñoz spent time in Madrid’s youth system. While the latter’s recent transfer to Liverpool earned Madrid a neat profit, he did not play a minute at the World Cup.
So, is Spain’s lack of Madrid representation a worry?
Real Madrid’s Spanish Problem
Looking at this summer alone, it’s hardly worth raising an eyebrow over the fact that Real Madrid had no players in the Spain roster. Huijsen might feel unlucky to have missed out, but who else—realistically—was in with a shout?
Looking back further, the trend is a little more worrying. Madrid had just two representatives at the 2024 European Championship (Joselu and Dani Carvajal), two at the 2022 World Cup (Carvajal and Marco Asensio) and none at Euro 2020.
The last player contracted to Real Madrid to score for Spain at a World Cup was Nacho Fernández back in 2018.
Madrid has always been an international club, filled with some of the globe’s biggest superstars, but a lack of Spanish core in recent years represents a shift.
At the 2010 World Cup—Spain’s first-ever win—Real Madrid have five representatives and the same number again two years later as La Roja lifted the European Championship.
It feels odd that Spain’s biggest and most successful club—one of the nation’s biggest overseas exports in a cultural and sporting sense—has largely been absent when the national team plays on the global stage in recent years.
As well as from an image perspective, Madrid’s lack of Spanish core has potentially contributed to issues surrounding leadership over the last couple of trouble seasons, as the exits of senior figures from Sergio Ramos to Lucas Vásquez, Fernández and Carvajal have left a vacuum in the locker room.
Who Could Break Into Spain Team?
One area where Real Madrid is currently excelling is at academy level, with several youngsters coming out of Valdebebas tipped for big futures both at club and international level.
Defenders Diego Aguado and Mario Rivas, midfielder Thiago Pitarch and winger Daniel Yáñez were among the stars of Spain’s Under-19 European Championships win this summer.
Aguado is particularly highly rated, with one profile in MARCA claiming: “If it were Diego Aguadinho, he’d cost €100 million; the English version, Diego Watery, would be €80 million; and Diego Di Aguado another €70 million.”
De la Fuente has shown that the pathway from the youth team to the senior roster is there for Spanish talent. In addition to climbing the ladder for Spain, all four youngsters will also be hopeful of catching the eye of new first-team manager José Mourinho in preseason.
Madrid goalkeeping duo Fran González and Javier Navarro, too, could have big futures ahead, with 19-year-old Navarro the star of Real Madrid’s U-19 UEFA Youth League triumph on penalties back in April.
Slightly further along the pipeline, Madrid have a vested interest in a litany of Spain starlets across Europe, including 21-year-old midfielder Chema Andres (Stuttgart) and 21-year-old Jacobo Ramón (Como), who could yet find their way back to the Bernabéu as a result of buyback clauses.
There is also the possibility that Real Madrid being Real Madrid could simply buy proven Spanish talent. Florentino Pérez’s presidential challenger Enrique Riquelme made a campaign pledge to sign a national team star if elected, eventually naming Rodri as his target. Pedro Porro is another player who has been linked, albeit loosely, since the World Cup triumph.
The likelihood, though, is that Madrid will never go Spanish for the sake of it, and any homegrown player that makes it in the first team will need to do so because they are exceptionally talented—just as 2010 World Cup winners Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso once did.
