The explosion came at 22.45 in Berlin, a new beginning. A dozen men and one kid, all of them wearing yellow bibs, were suddenly sprinting along the home straight where Jesse Owens once ran. They set off from the bench and screeched towards the corner to meet Mikel Oyarzabal, the substitute who, with four minutes left in this final, had scored the goal that made Spain European champions, another generation to go with the golden one. In front of a sea of red, they lost their heads, and why wouldn’t they?
Soon they returned to their bench, or the white box painted in front of it, a short but anxious wait to confirm that they would lift that trophy again. Álvaro Morata was in tears already. The man who said he would cut his arm off to win this, the captain they couldn’t love more, raised it to the sky, sharing this with them like he shares everything. Justice was done, history too. For Spain, it is a record four times: 1964, 2008, 2012 and now 2024. For Jesús Navas, the last man standing from the team that won the World Cup, aged 38, it was a second. For the rest, it was a first, which made it so special.
